43 



rows.'' Mr. Powel, in raising a previous crop, had placed 

 the rows 30 inches apart, and left the plants 6 inches apart 

 in the rows. He says, " I this 3/ear desired smaller roots, 

 Vv^hich might grow so closely, as, by their leaves, to protect 

 the soil as much as possible from the rays of the sun. My 

 cultivator, by its peculiar form, enabled me to cut off the 

 weeds when the plants were so young, that, if I had applied 

 the plough, their crowns must have been covered in many 

 instances, by earth occasionally falling from its land side. 

 The failure which attends the cultivation of most root crops 

 in drills, proceeds from the neglect of weeds in their early 

 stages. Four or five days of delay frequently make the 

 difference of fifteen days in the labour of making clean an 

 acre of ground. The same w^eeds v/hicli a boy with a sharp 

 shingle could remove at the commencement of one v/eek, 

 may, before the end of the next, require the application of 

 an implement drav^^n by a horse. 



" I ascribe my success, in great measure, to the use of 

 JVood^s extraordinary plcyiigh^ w^hich enters the soil more 

 deeply, and pulverizes it more perfectly, than any other I 

 have ever seen, with equal force, in any country ; to the use 

 of cultivators, wdiich complete the production of fine tilth ; 

 to the destruction of the weeds on their first appearance — 

 leaving the smallest space upon v/hich a horse can walk 

 between the rov^s; and, above all, io planting the seeds of a 

 proper kind upon a surface which is kept perfectly fiat. 



General remarks. — Agriculturists have not agreed whether 

 it is most expedient to plant the seeds of this root on ridges 

 or on a level. Col. Powel condemns planting on ridges in 

 this country, as a practice not adapted to our soil and cli- 

 mate, in v/hich vegetables are very liable to suffer by drought. 

 He says, "Among the various practices, into which we have 

 been seduced by the plausible theories of the advocates of 

 European husbandry, there is none wdiich appears to me 

 more absurd than that which has led us to drill or dibble 

 our crops on ridges. The English farmer wisely contends 

 wdth the evils produced by too much rain ; the American 

 husbandman should as anxiously guard against his most for- 

 midable enemv, drought. I am inclined to think that there 

 is no crop cultivated in this state, (Pennsylvania,) which 

 ought not to be put on a flat surface." The climate of 

 New England, especially its northern part, is not so warm 



