SOWING INDIAN CORN FOR SOILING. 
141 
scarcely subject to disease or decay., if fed be- 
fore the approach of warm weather. Their 
leaves furnish a considerable amount of manure, 
which is estimated by an intelligent English 
farmer, at six dollars per acre, when the crop 
reaches 20 tons of roots. The leaves also pro- 
vide an ample shade for the soil (where the 
growth is large, as it always should be) and 
this facilitates the absorption of nutritive gases 
by the soil, and prepares it most effectually for 
successive crops. The addition to the manure 
heap from the consumption of so large a quan- 
tity of roots, is an additional item of great 
consequence to the calculating farmer. In 
feeding these watery roots, cattle and sheep 
have their appetites whetted for dry forage, how- 
ever rough or coarse it may be ; and the straw of 
wheat, oats, and buckwheat, the haulm of beans 
and peas, and even the potato and artichoke 
tops are greedily devoured and yield no small 
amount of nutriment. These are important ad- 
vantages and should not be slightly considered 
by reflecting farmers. 
The soil for the ruta baga should be highly 
manured and thoroughly plowed and subsoiled. 
In addition to barnyard and compost manures, 
bonedust should be plentifully drilled in with 
the seed. If not previously applied to the field, 
the farmer may be under no apprehension of 
using it too plentifully ; for it cannot, like an 
over dose of lime, by any possibility, injure the 
soil. If finely-ground bones or sa wings are used, 
8 or 10 bushels per acre will suffice ; if coarse, 
from 30 to 40 bushels may be safely applied ; 
and whatever is left in the ground, after the tur- 
nip is taken off, as most of it will be, will yield 
in subsequent years, all the turnips' food by 
slow decay in the soil. Bonedust is a pecu- 
liarly appropriate food for the turnip, from the 
great proportion of phosphoric acid which both 
contain. 
Of the merchantable manures, guano, perhaps, 
is more valuable for turnips, as in addition to 
the large per centage of phosphoric acid, which 
is readily given up to the crop, it furnishes with 
equal promptness, almost every element required 
by the turnip, excepting water ; and this even in 
seasons of the greatest drouth, will be supplied 
from the atmospheric vapor, if the plow and 
subsoiler has been first thoroughly applied, and 
the horse cultivator afterwards. 
Next to guano and bones, plaster may be 
reckoned the best application. This } r ields lime 
and sulphuric acid, both of which the turnip 
greedily devours.; and it helps it to large quan- 
tities of its watery aliment, by condensing the 
dews and vapor on its leaves and roots. Salt 
yields it soda, and like plaster, helps it to atmos- 
pheric vapor. From five to eight bushels of! 
salt per acre will suffice. Both soot and char- 
coal attract moisture, and draw large stores of 
nutritious gases from the air. The farmer can 
hardly go amiss in manuring for the turnip, 
provided he but apply it abundantly. 
After mellowing the ground sufficiently with 
the plow and harrow, if at all inclined to wet, 
(as heavy clay and some peaty soils often are, 
when not underdrained,) the earth should be 
thrown into slight beds, or ridges, of the required 
distance between the rows. In all other cases, • 
plant on a flat surface, at the rate of two or 
three to five or six pounds per acre, according 
to the nature of the soil and the apprehension of 
loss from the fly, beetle, and other enemies. A 
few ounces of seed would suffice for an acre if 
each matured a bulb ; but as many seeds do not 
germinate in stiff or too dry soils, or are des- 
troyed or perish soon after germination, it is 
always safer to plant abundantly and thin out 
with the hoe when cultivating. 
Turnip cultivation, in Great Britain, has resus- 
citated more land, and been the means of yield- 
ing her more wealth during the present century, 
than any other crop she has grown, with the ex- 
ception, perhaps, of their forage plants. It is 
not simply the amount of value yielded by the 
turnip alone, but it is the increase in the manure 
heaps, and the high condition in which the land 
is left for subsequent crops, that has made the 
cultivation of the ruta baga so valuable to that 
country. Her moister climate and milder win- 
ters, allowing the feeding this bulky crop on the 
field, without injury to the roots from frost or 
suffering to the sheep or cattle from inclemency 
of weather, render this root much better adapted 
to her agriculture than our own. Yet the reali- 
sation of such vast advantages by her, may well 
incite American farmers to test the merits of 
this system for some of their own fields. 
May we ask, in conclusion, that some of our 
observing farmers will favor us and their fellow 
readers with the results of some of their experi- 
ments in raising this valuable root ? 
SOWING- INDIAN CORN FOR SOILING. 
We cannot too often remind our readers of the 
great advantage of sowing corn for green fodder, 
where it is valuable, which is always the case 
in the vicinity of cities and the larger class of 
towns. By commencing the sowing the latter 
part of this month, and continuing the operation 
each successive week or ten days till August, a 
constant supply of choice food will be secured 
during the remainder of the season, when it will 
be most wanted. The natural grasses of the 
pastures, when closely fed, begin to give out in 
July; and if the season prove dry, they fre- 
quently continue short for several months. A 
comparatively small quantity of land, richly 
supplied with manure, finely prepared and cul- 
tivated, will yield an immense quantity of sweet, 
nutritious fodder during this time of drouth. 
From the experience of our best dairymen, an 
acre of corn, thus cultivated, will supply ample 
food for four cows during three months. It may 
be fed from racks or mangers in the yard, or in 
the stables, if they are not too warm ; or, it may 
be scattered from a cart upon the ground, after 
which the cattle may be admitted, where they 
will devour the whole — stalks as well as the 
blades. 
If the fodder be wilted a few hours in the sun, 
previous to giving it to the animals, it is be- 
lieved to be more wholesome and less likely to 
produce hoven, or wind in the bowels, than 
when given to them green. 
