320 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
that we have seen for the purpose. If the 
blade is sharpened, a blow will take off the 
tops, then reversing the instrument, the root 
is easily pulled. Throw them into rows far 
enough apart to admit driving a cart or wag¬ 
on between them, leaving the roots on the 
ground till they are dry, before gathering. 
In this way, one man can gather nearly a 
hundred bushels a day. 
They may be put into a house cellar, but 
not in two large quantities, as they would 
be apt to heat. A barn cellar is better, be¬ 
cause generally cooler. Those who have 
not either of these conveniences, should se¬ 
lect a spot of naturally dry ground, and put 
them up in heaps for the winter. Pile the 
roots on the surface, or at most but a few 
inches below—making the heap about four 
feet broad at the bottom, and extending up 
as high as they can be made to lie readily, 
till they terminate in a ridge. These heaps 
can be made of any length—the longer the 
better—as it saves work in covering. Then 
with straw next the roots, cover with a depth 
of earth, according to the latitude. But 
they must not be covered too warm. 
A good plan would be to draw up from the 
covering of straw, a large wisp, so that it 
will stand higher than the rest, and not cover 
this, till the heating or sweating process— 
which all products thus buried undergo—is 
over. If the heap is along one,several such 
wisps might be drawn up to advantage 
throughout its length. These wisps serve 
as openings to the heap, through which the 
heated, impure air may escape, and yet shut 
out the frost effectually. These wisps should 
be pointed so as to shed oft' water, 
Store cattle, or stock of any kind, can have 
the roots given them cut, and do well upon 
them, and for fattening animals, the less ex¬ 
ertion they make to get the food they require 
the better. To prepare the roots for feed¬ 
ing, they should be cut or sliced small enough 
so that there can be no danger from choking. 
Feeders can suit themselves as to the kind 
of instrument preferable for this purpose. 
We would advise cutting them up finely in 
all cases. The Engl sh farmers extensively 
practice feeding sheep upon them in the fields 
without pulling. Their mild winters admit 
this practice better than ours, especially in 
colder sections, where they would be frozen 
for several months.—[E d. 
L • 
Combativeness a Characteristic of the 
Insect World. —It is a singular fact that the 
smallest variety of insects seem to be actu¬ 
ated by feelings similar to those possessed 
by the larger animals—they all have propen¬ 
sities to rob and despoil, to defend their 
homes—are jealous, revengeful and disputa- 
tive—and war in armies. Bees, if pressed 
hard for food, will attack with great force 
the inhabitants of a neighboring hive, with 
intent to rob them of their provision. The 
white ants have a portion of their communi¬ 
ty set apart for the duties of war, and they 
exhibit in their operations a most per¬ 
fect knowledge of insect tactics. Some of 
these ant battles have been described by na¬ 
turalists, and appear to have been conducted 
with a valor and skill, which would have 
done honor to the chosen troops of a Napo¬ 
leon, or the volunteers of a Taylor. 
TURNIPS! TURNIPS! ! RAISED TOR AL¬ 
MOST NOTHING. 
Elsewhere we have written at length in 
regard to Ruta Bagas. Many of the remarks 
there made apply to other varieties of Tur¬ 
nips. The common field turnip is usually 
sowed two to four weeks later than the ruta¬ 
baga. We have seen a good crop from seed 
sown on the 12th of -August. The old rule 
is a good one, however : 
“ On the 20th of July, 
Sow your turnips, wet or dry.” 
For family use, the Yellow-stone and Red- 
top are perhaps as good varieties as any. 
The White Norfolk, White Flat or Globe, 
Yellow Aberdeen, &c., are good varieties for 
feeding. The Yellow Aberdeen is the best 
both for the table and for feeding, though not 
as large a yielder as the others, owing to its 
smaller size. This, and the Yellow Stone, 
are of very solid texture. 
W T e design now to call attention only to 
an item in regard to where to grow turnips. 
The short answer is, put them wherever 
nothing else is growing, or likely to grow 
this season. Take a dish of seed and a hoe, 
and go from one end of the farm to the other, 
not passing by the garden. Wherever you 
find a bare spot among other crops, if it be 
no more than a foot square, drop a few tur¬ 
nip seeds, dig them in slightly and take no 
more trouble about them, until it is time to 
gather the crop for winter, unless to go 
around bye and bye and thin them out where 
necessary. If a hill of corn is missing, put 
in some turnip seed. If in the meadow a 
grass plot has been killed out by winter, or 
by the burning of a stump or brush heap, 
scatter some turnip seeds there, (and a little 
grass seed also.) If in the potatoe patch a 
sickly hill of potatoes is found, leave a few 
turnip seeds to nurse it. Thus go over every 
field. This may seem small business, but 
the turnips will help keep down noxious 
weeds, and when winter comes on you have 
only to drive round a wagon and gather up 
load after load of nice bulbs, that have cost 
the nearest possible to nothing. This plan 
requires very little outlay for seed or labor. 
“ Take care of the pence and the pounds will 
take care of themselves”—rather you will 
have them to take care of.— [Ed. 
MATCHES POISONOUS—A WARNING. 
Matches have become so common and 
cheap, that everybody has plenty of them, 
and those who study economy will buy a 
quarter or half gross of boxes or papers, as 
in that way they can generally save half the 
cost. However, they are apt to be scattered 
too freely about the house if bought in large 
quantities. There is danger not only of their 
being trod on or gnawed by mice, or being 
accidentally rubbed so as to produce fire, 
but they are often very poisonous. We were 
at a friend's house not long since, when we 
saw a child get hold of a box and commence 
sucking the ends. The injury that may 
sometimes result can be learned from an ac¬ 
count recently published in a French jour¬ 
nal, the Courrier de Pas de Calais ; 
“ Two men lately entered a hotel in Cam- 
brai, ordered coffee, and died shortly after 
swallowing a cup each. The landlady sum¬ 
moned the police, who declared that the men 
had been poisoned. ‘ Impossible,’ cried the 
landlady, ‘ they have only drank a cup of 
coffee a piece, and that can do no harm.’ 
She at once drank a cup to prove its inno¬ 
cence. The same result, however, ensued 
in her case, as she was seized with terrible 
pains and also died. On examining the pot 
a box of lucifer or locofoco matches was 
found lying in it.” 
GUANO IN THE HILL AND NO PAPER. 
We recently met a man, driving fast, with 
a very long face. He was in pursuit of the 
Editor, and reining up his steed, he opened 
his complaint. 
“ I heerd tell great stories about the 
dewings of that foreign manure in your pa¬ 
per. Deacon Smith, tried it and I seed the 
account of it in Tim Bunker’s papers. So 
I sent down to York, this Spring, and got. a 
half a ton of Guano, and put it on to my 
corn. I was detarmined to give it a fair 
trial, and slap’d a hull handful into every 
hill. I planted it more than three weeks 
ago, and it aint up yet; and I am plaguey 
’fraid that aint the worst of it. Now I want 
to know, what is the matter and what I shall 
dew.’’ 
“ My dear Sir, I see you do not take the 
papers, but only borrow Tim Bunker’s paper, 
occasionally and do not half read that.” 
“ True as Gospel, Mr. Editor, but how did 
you know that ?” 
“ Know it! Why your story convicts you 
of not taking the papers. You can not find 
in the country, an agricultural paper so 
poorly Edited, that it would not tell you 
better than to put Guano into the hill, es¬ 
pecially a whole handful. That is enough 
to rot a whole handful of corn.” 
“ Dew tell!” 
“Your corn will never see the light, 
neighbor, and you must plant it over again.” 
“ You dont say so !” 
“You should have sowed your Guano, 
broadcast; and plowed it in immediately; 
then it would have been diffused equally 
through the soil, and would have given you a 
good crop.” 
“ I never thought of that.” 
“ You ought to have taken the papers. In 
this operation you see you have lost five 
day’s work, worth at least five dollars, and 
it is now so late, that your corn will not be 
near as good as it would have been planted 
earlier, you will lose at least, five dollars, 
on every acre of corn you plant, for want of 
this information about the proper method of 
using Guano. Five dollars in loss of labor 
and fifteen in loss of time, making twenty 
dollars, which would furnish you with at 
least a dozen of the best agricultural jour¬ 
nals in the country, and pay the postage on 
them.” 
“ I should not wonder if that was so.” • 
We left our unfortunate friend, scratch¬ 
ing his head, now radiant with a new idea. 
What the result will be, of course we can 
not tell. But we expect better things in fu- 
