344 
Retention of Moisture in the Soil of 
cheaper and more efficient system of cultivation. However im- 
portant a root-crop may be, it is not more so, than that the land 
should be thoroughly cleaned, well stirred, and completely culti- 
vated, during the growth of the crop which is to be the foundation, 
and, by good cultivation, the very ground-work of three or four 
crops afterwards. When roots are grown on the flat, no deep 
cultivation can take place. A mere surface-scratching is about 
all that can be done, or at least all that is generally done. Where 
the flat system of growing roots is adopted, the land is seldom 
kept so clean, through a rotation of crops, as where ridging pre- 
vails. Many people contend that heavier crops may be grown on 
the flat than on ridges, still it is well known that heavier crops 
have generally been grown on ridges when the system has been 
properly carried out. 
When artificial manures alone are used for turnips, there is 
less chance of losing moisture than when dung is applied. Even 
by ridging there is a very short exposure of the soil to the weather. 
No damage is done by the cart-wheels compressing the ground 
either, in the hollows just where the plants are to grow. When 
the land is exactly in the right state for working, a large extent of 
ground may soon be sown. Artificial manure may be applied 
on the level surface, and the soil then ridged up, when it contains 
much more moisture than would be suitable for dunging and 
poaching about with carts. One man, with a change of horses, 
can ridge six acres a day, and so on in proportion, according to 
the extent of the farm or the breadth to be sown. To accomplish 
six acres a day of dunged land, about fifteen horses and nearly 
thirty people would be required. On rather heavy soils it is very 
difficult to catch the right time for dunging, without injuring 
the ground, so it has turned out that a good many farmers use 
more artificials than formerly for the root-crops, and apply the 
dung elsewhere. Dunging in autumn or even in early spring 
would prevent the necessity of dunging when turnips are sown ; 
but few people, by some bad luck or other, are able to do every 
thing at the right time. Indeed there is rarely sufficient dung on 
a farm in autumn to manure much of the land intended for green 
crops the following summer. Dung may be applied as late as 
the beginning of March and ploughed in for root-crops, such as 
swedes and turnips, sown in the end of May or any time in June. 
For mangolds or potatoes the dung should either be applied in 
autumn, or when the crop is planted in spring. Long-straw dung 
has not time to rot in the land, so that it may mix well, if only 
ploughed in a few weeks before the ground requires moving 
again. 
It is certainly a contradiction of terms to say that those soils 
which are classed as light are really the heaviest, bulk for bulk. 
