AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
1203 
broad cast is now abandoned by all good culti¬ 
vators. The drill system, in its various forms, is 
very generally adopted. Where stable manure is 
used, the drill may be prepared by the plow. In 
the first furrow, drop the manure in a continuous 
row. Then cover with a double furrow, leaving 
the drill a little elevated. This is adapted to 
coarse manures, and to sea-weed. Rock-weed 
and kelp gathered from the shore is found to be 
an excellent fertilizer for this crop, and the seed 
is sown upon ridges prepared with the plow. 
The ridge system is a good deal used in Scot¬ 
land, and is well adapted to thin soils in this coun¬ 
try. In good rich soils, furnished with fine com¬ 
post, the ground should always be left flat. There 
are various drills for putting in the seed, either 
with or without special manures. There are ma¬ 
chines for dropping the seed in hills in the drill, 
at the proper distances, and this is decidedly the 
best plan, as it ecconomizes ground, and dimin¬ 
ishes the labor of weeding. 
Bone-dust, or dissolved unburned bones, put in 
with the seed, are always useful. The time of 
greatest peril to the turnip is in the first stages of 
its growth, and nothing resists the attacks of the 
flea-beetle so surely as vigor in the plant. The 
manures we have mentioned, in close proximity 
to the seed, make the plants push along through 
the seed-leaf with great rapidity. 
In field-culture, the drills should be far enough 
apart to admit of cultivation with the horse-hoe 
or cultivator—thirty inches will be none too far 
apart for the larger varieties of turnips. The 
ground will be nearly covered with the leaves be¬ 
fore the plants attain their full growth. 
AFTER-CULTURE. 
Fifteen or twenty days after the plants are up, 
they should be hoed and thinned out. By this 
time, the ravages of the beetle are past, and it 
will be safe to take out all but the plants you de¬ 
sire to occupy the ground. The weeding imme¬ 
diately about the plants must be done with the 
hand-hoe, and the rest may be performed by 
horse-power. The first weeding should be fol¬ 
lowed up with frequent stirring of the soil until 
the leaves are too broad to be disturbed by the 
operation. No crop is more benefited by fre¬ 
quent scarifying of the ground. 
STORING. 
Having secured a good crop upon the field, the 
next thing is to preserve them for Winter use. 
Our climate is so much more severe than that of 
Britain, that most of the methods resorted to 
there will be of no service with us, at least in the 
Northern States. Farmers who depend upon 
roots for Winter feeding, almost without excep¬ 
tion depend upon a cellar for storing, and this is 
unquestionably the best method, even where 
others are admissible. Stock ought always to be 
fed in the barn at this season, and where a barn 
has been placed upon a side hill for the purpose 
of affording a cellar for manure, it is easy to en¬ 
large a little, by digging farther into the bank, 
and there prepare bins for storing the roots. Care 
should be had in constructing bins, to have them 
narrow, not more than three or four feet in width, 
and to secure a free circulation of air beneath 
them. It is better to have the sides made of slat 
work, like the sides of a corn crib. 
In putting up the roots, they should be divested 
of all leaves and stalks. This green material soon 
decays and generates heat, which will affect the 
bulbs. These cellars for storage need not be 
made perfect proof against frost, though this is 
desirable. It injures a turnip very little to be 
frosted, if the frost comes out of it slowly, as it 
would do in a bin in a cellar. 
The next best method, and perhaps the best 
for the milder parts of our country, is storing in 
long narrow heaps, and covering with straw and 
earth. The technical name of this method is 
clamping. A dry spot is selected, and the bulbs 
are packed with the crowns outward, in a long 
heap about six feet across at the base, and taper¬ 
ing to an edge. Then on each side of the heap 
or clamp, cut a trench two feet wide and one 
deep, throwing the mold from the heap. 
Thatch the turnips carefully with straw, com¬ 
mencing at the bottom of the trenches, so that all 
rain may run off into them. If the weather is 
mild, they may be left in this state for a few days, 
until the heat is passed off. As hard frosts ap¬ 
proach, cover the straw with earth twelve or 
more inches thick, terminating in a sharp edge. 
There should be a hole left for ventilation in the 
top, and at each end. These may be stopped in 
the severest weather. The cut represents a ver¬ 
tical section of a turnip clamp, with the covering 
and side trenches. Roots kept in this way pre¬ 
serve their freshness much better than when air 
and light have free access to them. 
We are by no means disheartened at the slow 
progress the turnip crop makes among us. The 
skinning method of husbandry has not yet closed, 
and any crop that looks to the improvement of 
the soil has hitherto found but little favor. But 
in the older States, the skinning era has had its 
day, and is drawing to its close. We look with 
confidence to a better system, already introduced 
in many parts of the land, in which the growing 
of root crops, and the making and saving of large 
quantities of manure shall have a conspicuous 
place. The good time coming for turnips, we 
are persuaded is not far ahead. 
For the American Agriculturist . 
FARMER WILLIAMS’ TOOL HOUSE. 
A FARMER’S RAMBLES AMONG HIS NEIGHBORS-NO. IV. 
One day, early this season, I strolled over to 
Neighbor Williams’, for, as you already know, I 
like to be friendly to all, and we are a pretty so¬ 
cial class over here. I did not wait for a “ rainy 
day ” this time, as I had a few important topics 
about Summer crops, &c., to talk with friend W. 
about. But I found him too much occupied to 
chat any. He was in a great hurry to begin 
his plowing, for the ground was in nice order. 
The horses and oxen were waiting to be har¬ 
nessed, or yoked, and such a hurrying, scolding 
time I have seldom seen. 
“ Jim, I say, where is the bolts and clevis 1 ” 
“ I don’t know, sure, boss. Not a bit of one could 
I see at all.” “ Well, go and look all around, 
and under the place where the harrow was, and 
see.” The boss was tired of waiting, and went 
too. In the meantime Tom came up, with— 
“Masther, and there is three teeth out of that 
same harrow.” “Well, Tom, go and get the ax 
and I will dress out some at the wood pile.” Af¬ 
ter a long hunt, Jim and the boss had found two 
devices under the rubbish, but not a bolt. Now 
what must they do. “ Jim, go over to Neighbor 
Thomas’ and borrow a couple of bolts ; he has 
plenty, for I saw a number in his tool box.” By 
this time Tom returned, with—“ Masther, and it 
was yerself that left the ax up in the woods last, 
week, for I couldn’t find it all.” Here was a di¬ 
lemma for my easy, careless friend; but as the 
harrow had stood against the fence, exposed to 
weather at all time, and in poor condition ; the 
teams must wait for Tom to go half a mile for the 
ax the boss had forgotten to bring home. Jim soon 
came back with the borrowed articles and began 
to harness his team; but lo ! one of the traces 
had ripped, and Jim had to take his shoe string to 
tie it up with, and the whiffle-trees were out of or 
der. Here commenced a hunt for the hammer to 
mend it, but, as was the case almost invariably, 
the one that used it lastyast laid it down in some 
out of the way place, and a search had to be 
made every time it was wanted. But it will be 
too tedious to relate all the mishaps of that busy 
day,—how the pin (wooden of course) of the ox- 
how was lost, and the chain was found where they 
drew the last logs out of the woods, &c., &c. 
After two hours waiting, the teams finally moved 
off to their allotted work, but the plows were so 
rusty from exposure that they would scarcely 
turn the soil, and the harness was constantly giv¬ 
ing out. I could not see that there was a place 
for any tool on the farm,—for hoes, shovels, 
forks, rakes, harness and everything, was lying 
about in the corners, or on the ground, as the 
case might be. The truth is, Neighbor Williams’ 
Tool House is as large as “ all out of doors.” 
The teams being out of the way, until some¬ 
thing should break, which I predicted soon would 
be the case, Neighbor showed me a whole lot of 
curious seeds he had recently purchased. He 
said he meant to try everything this year that 
was new, for he missed it last year in not buying 
a good stock of Chinese sugar-cane. And sure 
enough he had a lot of them. There were differ¬ 
ent kinds of corn, several of oats, some nuts re¬ 
sembling the grass nuts that grow in Carolina, 
which he called earth almonds, the Japan pea. 
&c. He was very confident some of them would 
be a speculation, even if he did not require the 
stump puller to extract his Dioscoreas, or Chi¬ 
nese yams, last Fall. But I fear he will be un¬ 
successful, for he is such a man for new things, 
and loves so well to attend at the doings, espe¬ 
cially agricultural Fairs in the country, he will pay 
but little attention to them after they are planted. 
He loves to take prizes at the fairs, and many a 
one has he got, too, as I found by the books and 
cups he exhibited to the view of every one that 
entered his house. He always took a nice colt, 
calf, pig, or even a hill of corn, and gave it all the 
attention and labor he could to push it ahead, and 
neglected all the rest. Yet he was a far more 
noted man in the county than his thrifty, pains¬ 
taking neighbor, Thomas. 
A few days after this I met Thomas, and I 
asked him if he was not disposed to go largely 
into the raising of some of these new seeds, es¬ 
pecially the Sorghum, for sale, and his character¬ 
istic reply I shall not soon forget. It was this: 
“ A wise man will never go to catch clams at 
high water.” Ah, I thought, how many do this 
very thing. As soon as the water gets high, how 
many rush blindly into speculation, while the 
clams have previously been caught and sold. 
North Hempstead. S. 
Swift held the doctrine that there were three 
places where a man should be allowed to speak, 
without contradiction, viz.:—“the bench,the pul¬ 
pit and the gallows. 
Men are frequently like tea—the real strength 
and goodness are not properly drawn out until 
they have been a short time in hot water. 
In the worst of times there is still more cause 
to complain of an evil heart, than of an evil and 
corrupt world. 
Sophistry is like a window curtain—it pleases 
as an ornament, but keeps out the light. 
