IV.] 



CULTIVATION IN GENERAL. 



57 



The end A 2 feet, the end B 12 feet, the length of the piece 20 

 yards ; the figures in the middle of it are 20 turnips, sown early, 

 and well hoed. The manner of this hoeing must be, at first, near 

 the plants, with a spade, and each time afterwards, a foot dis- 

 tance, till the earth be once well dug ; and, if weeds appear where 

 it has been so dug, hoe them out shallow with the hand-hoe. 

 But, dig all the piece next the out-lines deep every time, that it 

 may be the finer for the roots to enter, when they are permitted 

 to come thither. If the turnips be all bigger, as they stand 

 nearer to the end B, it is a proof that they all extend to the 

 outside of the piece, and the Turnip 20 will appear to draw 

 nourishment from six foot distance from its centre. But if the 

 Turnips l6, 17, 18, 19? 20, acquire no greater bulk than the 

 Turnip 15, it will be clear that their roots extend no farther than 

 those of the Turnip 15 does ; which is about four foot. By this 

 method the distance of the extent of the roots of any plant may 

 be discovered. — There is also another way to find the length of 

 roots, by making a long narrow trench, at the distance you ex- 

 pect they will extend to, and fill it with salt ; if the plant be 

 killed by the salt, it is certain that some of the roots enter it. 



113. What put me upon trying this method was an observa- 

 tion of two lands, or ridges, (see Plate II. Fig. 2.) drilled with 

 Turnips in rows, a foot asunder, and very even in them ; the 

 ground, at both ends and one side, was hard and unploughed. 

 The Turnips f not being hoed, were very poor, small and yellow, 

 except the three outside rows b c (i, which stood next to the land 

 (or ridge) E, which land, being ploughed and harrowed, at the 

 time the land A ought to have been hoed, gave a dark flourishing 

 colour to these three rows ; and the Turnips in the row d, which 

 stood farthest off from the new ploughed land E, received so 

 much benelit from it as to grow twice as big as any of the more 

 distant rows. The row c, being a foot nearer to the new ploughed 

 land, became twice as large as those in but the row Z>, which 

 was next to the land grew much larger yet. is a peice of 

 hard whole ground, of about two perch in length, and about two 

 or three foot broad, lying betwixt those two lands which had not 

 been ploughed that year; it was remarkable that, during the 

 length of this interjacent hard ground, the rows bed were as 

 small and yellow as any in the land. The Turnips in the row 

 d, about three foot distant from the land E, receiving a double 



