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New Method of Hoeing Turnips. 



In the new process, however, of afterwards crossing the rows, the 

 hoe must be set differently, as it would be wrong to leave so few 

 turnips as an interval of 19 inches along the rows would spare. 

 It might also be hazardous to set the backs of the knives at 3 

 inches only apart, because even in a regular crop blanks might 

 occur at that interval. As yet, therefore, we have left a space of 

 5 inches. In crossing, consequently, ten hoes instead of eight 

 must be used, and five spaces instead of four must be hoed, so 

 that the turnips will stand 15 inches apart along the length of 

 each row. 



Turnips Straight-hoed and Cross-hoed. 



The next step is to reduce to single plants the small bunches 

 of turnips left by the cross-hoeing ; and this is best done by young 

 children — the younger the better — as the smaller they are the 

 nearer they are to their task, and pliancy of fingers, not strength, 

 is the quality wanted. It is easy to borrow, for the purpose, the 

 younger classes of a school for a few days : it is, in fact, a holiday 

 for them in fine weather, and their parents are glad that they 

 should earn 4zd. a day. About thirty of these little workpeople, 

 each singling a separate row of turnips, under one steady ma- 

 nager, do the work well and rapidly. It is not uncommon to 

 employ children thus, the turnips having been previously hunched 

 out, as it is termed, with the handhoe. The plants which are thus 

 finally left stand in lines, from whatever point they are viewed. 



