PEODUCTIONS OF THE SOIL. 129 



some and useful plant, both for man and beast, and 

 deserving of cultivation. But when we further 

 recollect that it enables the agriculturist to re- 

 claim and cultivate land which, without its aid, 

 would remain in a hopeless state of natural barren- 

 ness ; that it leaves the land clean and in fine con- 

 dition, and also insures a good crop of barley and of 

 clover; and that clover is found a most excellent 

 preparation for wheat ; it will appear that the sub- 

 sequent advantages derived from a crop of turnips 

 must infinitely exceed its estimated value as fodder 

 for cattle. For general crops, it will be better to 

 have the ground manured with compost containing 

 a considerable proportion of coal, wood, peat, or 

 soaper's ashes. Ground that has been well manured, 

 for preceding crops, and also ground fresh broken 

 up, will do well for turnips. To have turnips in 

 perfection, they should be hoed in about a month 

 after they are sown, or by the time the plants have 

 spread to a circle of about four inches, and again 

 about a month from the first hoeing, leaving them 

 from six to nine inches apart. They will yield the 

 cultivator more profit when treated in this way than 

 when left to nature, as is too frequently done. 



Three crops of turnips may be obtained in one 

 year, by sowing seed for the first crop early in 



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