Neio Method of Hoeing Turnips, 



203 



Good farmers, however, have now generally given up sowing 

 their turnips broad-cast, and in southern England usually drill 

 them four rows at once, covering a width of six feet. When this 

 is done, Garrett's horse-hoe, passing between the four rows, cleans 

 the intermediate space with the utmost rapidity. Still, admirable 

 as is the process, it has been as yet incomplete. For the young 

 plants shooting up vigorously in the rows under the influence 

 of artificial manure, soon grow together, requiring immediate 

 attendance. If then they cannot be thinned out quickly enough 

 by hand, although, in desperation as it were, the harrow is some- 

 times dragged across them, they become interlaced, are drawn up 

 prematurely, and the spindling plants, when at last singled out, 

 resemble trees of a plantation that has been neglected in the same 

 manner. Their robustness is gone. 



Having fifty acres of turnips exposed to this risk, and no 

 workmen to save them, it occurred to me that Garrett's horse-hoe 

 might be used across as well as along the rows. The indiscri- 

 minate slaughter of thriving plants was at first rather alarming ; 

 but when the fallen had withered beneath a scorching sun, it was 

 evident that a good and regular crop remained safe. The whole, 

 therefore, was subjected to the process, and I shall use no other 

 in future. It may be useful then, I hope, to describe the method 

 precisely, because the success of all operations lies mainly in 

 minute particulars, though in this case there are none which any 

 practical farmer might not find out for himself. 



In the common use of the horse-hoe the knives pass down four 

 rows at once, and they may safely be set with their backs only 

 3 inches apart, though they thus approach within 1^ inch of the 

 young plants on each side. As the rows are 19 inches asunder, a 

 width of 16 inches is cleared, and about one-sixth of the surface 

 remains untouched. 



Straight-lioed Turnips. 



