1878.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
215 
Disk Harrows. 
I am interested in investigating these just now, 
but I can not pronounce definitely upon their merits. 
I have found that when an implement actually fails 
to do any particular kind of work well, though ex¬ 
cellent for other things, that very fact will suggest 
its name. Now the disk harrows turn a number of 
little furrows beautifully, each tooth working like 
a small plow. They crowd into the mellow earth 
the strawy manure, sticks, chips, and such things 
not too large, and cover them nicely. They cover 
seed well, cut an old hide-bound sod, and by a 
peculiar action when drawn repeatedly over it, 
leave it in condition to renew itself to its manifest 
advantage. These things, I am sure, they do quite 
well, but they are called “pulverizing harrows,”— 
and that is the very thing I am in doubt about. Do 
the disks pulverize as well as square steel, or iron 
teeth, drawn through the soil ? Perhaps they do 
in some soils, and not in others ; perhaps they do 
in all soils, but I doubt it. There is one argument 
in favor of their doing good work in this way, 
which can hardly be gainsayed—that is, they draw 
very hard—that is, most of them do. I am glad to 
know that there is one now made which, like the 
well known Geddes’ harrow, and some others, by 
means of a flexible joint in the center, accommo¬ 
dates itself to inequalities of the soil. 
— -—■<——— a -*—--- 
Talks on Farm Crops—No. 16. 
By the Author of “ Walks and Tallis on tin Farm," 
“ Harris on the Pig," etc. 
“I don’t see,” said the Doctor,” why you do not 
60 W more Swede turnips.” 
“ Because,” said I, “ Mangel-wurzcls suit me 
better. Mangels are more nutritious than Ruta¬ 
bagas ; can be made to yield a heavier crop ; will 
keep later in the spring; do not impart any un¬ 
pleasant flavor to the milk • can be sown earlier in 
the spring, and on a greater range of soils ; are al¬ 
most entirely free from attacks of insects antFmil¬ 
dew, and, when once up, and fairly growing, will 
stand our hot dry weather.fa. oetter than turnips.” 
“ That is all true,” said the Doctor, “ but still the 
Ruta-baga or Swede-turnip has many qualities 
which ought to make it a favorite crop with you. 
Sometime ago, you made the remark that if you 
grew more cabbages than you could find a profitable 
market for, you had plenty of hungry customers at 
home that would consume all you had to spare. 
Your idea was to sell cabbages as long as the price 
would suit, and as soon as they were so cheap that 
it did not pay to market them, feed them out at 
home to your 6tock. That cabbages could be either 
sold or fed out was an argument in their favor. 
A.nd, if so, then the same remarks will apply to 
Ruta-bagas. They often bring good prices in mar¬ 
ket. I have frequently paid 50 cents a bushei 
for them. And the books tell us that 1,000 bushels 
can be raised on an acre, and I have seen 
reports of crops of over 1,500 bushels per acre. 
Why, then, do you not raise them ? Sell what you 
•an find a market for, and feed out all you can not 
iieU. Your mangels, of which you raise so many, 
can not be- sold. There is no demand for them. 
They are good only for stock. They are not, like 
turnips, cabbages, carrots, parsnips, beets, etc., a 
table vegetable. If you raise Mangels you have 
only one string to your bow ; with Rutabagas you 
have two ; viz., sell when you get a fair price, and 
feed them when the market is glutted.” 
“ I believe,” said the Squire, “ I will put in five 
or six acres of Ruta-bagas. They will pay far bet¬ 
ter than potatoes.” 
“That is so,” said I, “provided .you can get a 
good crop and sell them at a good price feut the 
probabilities are that you will not get a good crop.” 
“I would like to know why,” exclaimed the 
Squire. “I have seen great crops of Swede turnips in 
Canada; our 6oil and climate are as good as theirs.” 
“ True; and we can raise just as good turnips, 
but to do it we mu6t adopt a better system of farm¬ 
ing than is common in this neighborhood Turnips 
require garden culture. The land must be dry, 
clean, rich, and mellow. Turnips require finer 
tilth than beets. The seed is small, and will not 
grow unless deposited in nice, fine, moist, mellow 
soil. And at this season of the year, in our dry 
climate, such a seed-bed does not come by chance. 
We must make proper preparation for it. Instead 
of this, we sow turnips on land that we happen to 
have unoccupied. If too wet for oats, corn, or po¬ 
tatoes, we sow turnips, and hope for a good crop.” 
“ Yes,” said the Squire, “ and I have raised a 
good crop of white turnips in this way that cost 
nothing but the seed and the pulling.” 
“ 1 know it; and that is why I said you would 
probably not get a good crop of Swede turnips. A 
chance good crop is demoralizing. You hope to 
do the same thing again. It is a species of agri¬ 
cultural gambling. To raise a good crop of Swede 
turnips, you must give them a chance. If the 
season is so favorable that you can grow a crop 
with no preparation and little labor, there will be 
so many turnips in the country that they will bring 
little in market. It is a good crop in an unfavor¬ 
able season that brings large profits.” 
“ Let us hear how you would go to work to raise 
a big crop of Ruta-bagas ?” said the Deacon. 
“Select the best laud on the farm—that in 
potatoes or corn last year, and plowed in the fall, 
would be good.” 
“Hold on a moment,” said the Squire, “ I have 
a piece of land that was in wheat, and seeded with 
clover, which failed. How would that answer?” 
“ If the clover failed because the land was wet, it 
would not answer at all.” 
“It is a bit of good land,” said the Squire, 
“rather sandy and somewhat poor.” 
“Well, plow it up at once, and cultivate and 
harrow and work it until you get the sod, if there 
is any, all on top and torn all to pieces. The more 
you work it the better. Then draw on 15 loads of 
good, rotten manure per acre. Spread it, and har¬ 
row it thoroughly.” 
“ But the harrow will pull it into heaps.” 
“ If it does, spread them again, and keep on har¬ 
rowing and spreading until the manure is broken 
up fine and mixed with the soil. It would be well 
to use a cultivator to more completely mix the ma¬ 
nure with the soil and to break up all lumps. Har¬ 
row once more after the cultivator.” 
“And I suppose,” said the Squire, with rather a 
sarcastic 6mile, “you would use the roller also ? ” 
“ Certainly, if there are any lumps, I would roll 
and harrow and cultivate uutil the land was as fine 
and mellow as a garden. Then plow once more, 
harrow and roll. Then mark out the land in rows 
from 2 feet to 2s feet apart.” 
“ Can not you be a little more definite,” said the 
Squire. “If 2 feet is as good as 21, whynotsay 60 ? ” 
“It depends somewhat on the land, and still 
more on the kind of cultivator you use. If you 
have nothing better than a common corn cultivator, 
you had better make the rows 2k or 3 feet apart, as 
the cultivator will be apt to smother the plants. 
But if you have a proper cultivator that will run 
within an inch of the young plants without throw¬ 
ing earth on to them, two feet is wide enough for 
the rows. But unless the soil is very rich, it is per¬ 
haps best to make the rows 2k feet apart. It is 
less work to cultivate and hoe ; and you will get 
larger bulbs than if sown thicker.” 
“'What is the use of a marker,” asked the Squire. 
“A good drill makes its own mark for the next row.” 
“ It is not much work to mark out a few acres of 
land with a good one-horse marker, such as we use 
for marking out corn. If the land is as mellow as 
it should be, the teeth will make a good deep mark, 
two inches wide. And now I want to tell you 
something that is worth knowing—something which 
is of the first importance to the turnip grower— 
something which will often double the crop. In 
fact, I have repeatedly known it to make all the 
difference between success and failure. It is very 
important in England, but it is still more important 
here, owing to our dry weather and our increased 
liability to having the young turnip plants destroyed 
by the little black beetle.” 
“ What is it ? ” said the Deacon. “ If it will keep 
off the beetles 1 would like to know it.” 
“ It will not keep off the beetles, but it will so 
stimulate the growth of the young plants that they 
soon get out of danger. As soon as the plants get 
into ‘ rough leaf ’ the beetles do little damage. Mr. 
Lawes told me, thirty years ago, that if I would sov)- 
this article in the rows with the seed, he would in¬ 
sure me against damage from the beetle. Its effect 
on the growth of the young plants is marvellous. 
“ Its application here is comparatively new. Un¬ 
til within a year or two it was so high and so poor—or 
at least so uncertain, that a farmer could hardly af¬ 
ford to use it. But now wc can buy it at reasonable 
rates, and no farmer who reads the American Agri¬ 
culturist need be cheated. He can get a good arti¬ 
cle of guaranteed composition. I have used it for 
many years, and should have used it still more ex¬ 
tensively if I had raised more turnips, and could, 
have got a good article at anything like present 
prices. What we now want is a good drill that 
will sow this manure in the drill with the turnip 
seed. We have good drills that will sow it with 
wheat, and barley, and corn, but I do not know of 
a drill that will sow manure and turnip or onion 
seed at one operation. They have such drills in 
Canada, and possibly there may be such manufac¬ 
tured here, but I do not know of any.” 
“ A.nd until we have such a drill,” said Charley, 
“it is necessary to use the marker.” 
“ At any rate, we have not yet hit on any better 
plan on this farm. Mark out the rows 2k feet apart, 
taking pains to have the rows not only straight, but 
deep and wide, and then go along the rows and 
carefully sow a little superphosphate in the mark. It 
is some work, and should be done by a careful 
man. It is a shame that we have no machine which 
will do it. But until we have, it will pay, on a 
small scale, to do it by hand. The superphosphate 
should be previously run through a sieve, and all 
lumps broken fine. If damp, mix a bushel of plaster 
with three bushels of superphosphate, or if plaster 
is not cheap enough, use silted coal ashes. Sow 
200 lbs. to 300 lbs. of superphosphate per acre; 
then drill in the seed, running the drill along the 
mark where the superphosphate is sowu. We use a 
hand garden drill, and sow 2 lbs of seed per acre.” 
“ One pound is enough,” said the Deacon. 
“ Yes, and more than enough. A quarter of a 
pound per acre, will give all the plants needed, if 
they come up just where you want them, and the 
beetles let them alone. But all experience shows 
that it is well to sow turnips thick enough to in¬ 
sure a continuous 6tring of young plants.” 
“ If very thick,” said Charley, “it will not do to 
let them grow much before hoeing, or they will all 
mat together, and be weak and spindling, and it is 
a good deal of work to single them out.” 
“You have just hit the nail right on the head. As 
soon as the rows can be distinguished, run a culti¬ 
vator through them, and follow with the hand-hoe. 
It is quite a knack to hoe turnips properly and ex¬ 
peditiously. Our common hoes, while admirable 
for most pun-poses, are too broad, and slant too 
much towards you for singling out turnip plants. 
You want a hoe that you can push as well as pull. 
By heating the shank of the hoe, you can bend it 
out until it is nearly at right angles with the handle, 
or until it will push out the plants. The cultivator 
runs within 1 or li inches of the plants, leaves very 
little work for the hoe, except to single them out. 
Strike the hoe through boldly, and this will proba¬ 
bly leave a plant that will fall over towards the 
hoed space ; if so, place the hoe between it and the 
other plants, and push out all the plants the entire 
width of the hoe, and cut the soil deeper and a lit¬ 
tle wider in bringing back the hoe towards you. 
This ought to leave another plant ready for singling 
out as before. A turnip plant has more roots than 
a beet or mangel-wurzel, and you can cut closer 
and deeper in hoeing turnips, than in hoeing beets 
or mangels. In hoeing beets, more or less of the 
singling out has to be done with the fingers, but 
turnips can be singled out with the hoe. It re¬ 
quires some patience and skill, and possibly some 
patience and faith. Hoeing turnips is like swimming 
—a boy who once learns the art never forgets it. ” 
“ In regard to the distance apart,” said the Doc¬ 
tor, “ I found, when I was in England, there was a 
tendency to thin out to a less distance apart than 
formerly. Those who prided themselves on grow¬ 
ing very large roots, made the rows 2k feet apart, 
