Some Minor Farm Crops. 
153 
seed is cut with the hook, and tied up in bundles with string. 
Many of the flower seeds are also treated in the same way, bat 
where the plants are too small to be cut, as with larkspurs, they 
are pulled by hand and laid in small heaps. Some plants, such 
as pansies and candytuft, have to be treated with minute care. 
The heads of seed do not all ripen at one period, and they have 
to be pulled off separately. When female labour was plentiful 
'it was customary to take the “ king heads ” or “ crowns ” from 
the parsnip plants by hand. But this is rarely done now 
except by small holders, the whole of the plant being left till all 
the heads are ripe. 
The harvest period covers the months of July, August, 
September and October, yellow turnips and mangolds being 
respectively among the earlier and later crops. The yields 
vary immensely with the season and the seed-producing 
qualities of the varieties of plants grown. With cabbage, for 
instance, as the quality of the variety from the gardener’s 
point of view increases, so also does the seed yield diminish. 
The better the quality of the head the less the percentage of 
plants which will run to seed. In this case the loss is not 
complete, because the cabbages which will not “ run ” are cut 
and sent to market if there is a good demand, otherwise they 
are generally fed to the dairy cows. An average yield of 
mangold seed would be from 10 to 12 cwt. per acre, though it 
sometimes happens that the actual yield falls to 5 or rises to 
25 cwt. Swedes yield about 16 bushels on an average, and 
turnips run from 15 to 20 bushels per acre. Market cabbages 
yield from 5 cwt. per acre upwards according to quality. 
Drumheads yield from 7 cwt. to 1 ton. Parsnips yield 10 
or 12 cwt. of seed per acre, and parsley yields up to 18 bushels. 
One of the most uncertain crops is celery, which may yield any- 
thing between 4 and 12 cwt. per acre. It is practically impossible 
to estimate the yield of flower seeds, and an estimate of the yield 
of peas and beans would be extremely misleading as there is a 
great variation in the yield of different varieties. Great care 
has to be taken with the separation of the seeds. Some varieties 
are thrashed by machinery. Others are thrashed with the 
flail, or trodden out on the rick-cloth or barn floor by horses. 
Others, again, are picked by hand. 
The seeds are said to be grown “ on contract ” for wholesale 
merchants, many of whom have offices in the neighbourhood, 
but in practice no particular forms are used. The stocks of 
seed are issued by the merchants to the growers at wholesale 
prices. Sufficient seed is issued for planting a rood or fifty 
acres as the case may be, and the merchant promises to 
take either the whole or the bulk of the yield at a fixed 
price. Thus the merchant is assured of the supply of 
