THE CULTIVATOR. 
203 
Root Culture. 
Persuaded that root culture is ultimately to effect 
a great improvement in our husbandry, we propose to 
make it the subject of some remarks in this and sub¬ 
sequent numbers. The advantages which root crops 
offer to the farmer, are the following, viz.—they fur¬ 
nish the most food for animals, and the most food for 
vegetables in the form of dung; they are least ex¬ 
hausting to the soil, which they serve to divide and 
pulverize; they are excellent to alternate with grass 
and grain in convertible husbandry; and for these 
reasons they are the most profitable to the cultivator, 
on all farms which will admit of their culture. We 
intend to direct the attention of the reader to the dif¬ 
ferent roofs which are adapted to our field culture, to 
the best modes of managing the crops, the manner 
of preserving and feeding them properly, the expense 
of culture, the average product, and, so far as our 
data will justify, state their relative value as cattle 
food. 
The roots we intend to notice are, the Potato, the 
Turnip, the Beet, the Carrot and the Parsnip. But 
before we proceed to consider them individually, we 
will offer some 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
Five things are essential in the culture of the roots 
we have named : 1st. A dry soil; 2d. A rich soil; 
3d. A deep worked soil.; 4th. A well pulverized soil; 
and 5th. Good after culture. The crop will be abun¬ 
dant in proportion as these several requisites are pre¬ 
sent, and defective in proportion as they fail. 
By a dry soil, we mean a soil that is not wet .— 
Moisture is beneficial to all crops, but water is detri¬ 
mental to all root crops, though it repose upon the 
subsoil, or but occasionally saturate the surface.— 
Hence where roots are grown upon soils that are te¬ 
nacious and flat, or upon those which repose upon an 
impervious subsoil, the land should be thrown into 
ridges, and the furrows kept open for the free passage 
of the water in heavy rains. 
A rich soil is as essential to good crops as rich and 
abundant food is to the fattening of farm stock. We 
all know that short pasture and coarse fodder will 
keep cattle, though it will not fatten them. So with 
roots—they will live and grow upon a poor soil, but 
their product and profit will be great only on a rich 
one. The advantage to the crop, as well as the ani¬ 
mal, will be in proportion to the quantity of dead or¬ 
ganic matter which it converts into living organic 
matter—into vegetables and into meat. Ordinarily 
speaking, a good dressing of manure will double the 
products of a root crop. "To illustrate this fact more 
fully, we abstract the following tabular statement 
from Arthur Young’s experiments in planting potatoes. 
The preparation and culture were alike in all. The 
numbers to which the asterisk (*) is affixed were 
manured crops. 
No. 
Preceding 
crops. 
Expense. 
£ s. d. 
Product, 
bushels. 
Profit. 
£ s. d. 
Loss 
s. d. 
1 
Fallow, . .. 
3 
19 
1 
104 
at Is 
.6d 
2 
18 
5 
0 
0 
2 
Barley, ... 
4 
5 
9 
128 
2 
0 
3 
11 
10 
0 
0 
3 
Wheat, ... 
6 
13 
6 
46 
0 
20 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
4* 
Do. 
7 
16 
10 
101 
0 
20 
2 
5 
6 
0 
0 
5 
Do. 
6 
2 
6 
39 
0 
20 
0 
7 
6 
0 
0 
6 
Do. 
7 
19 
4 
63 
0 
20 
o 
16 
11 
0 
0 
7* 
Do. 
4 
14 
5 
170 
0 
20 
9 
2 
0 
0 
0 
8 
Do .. 
8 
9 
3 
30 
0 
20 
0 
0 
0 
15 
6 
9* 
Do. 
4 
12 
1 
201 
0 
20 
11 
2 
9 
0 
0 
The three manured crops, it will be seen, gave an 
aggregate product of 472 bushels, and an aggregate 
nett profit of £22.10.3, ($99.90, say $100;) the 
three adjoining plats, treated like the others in all re¬ 
spects but manuring, gave an aggregate nett product 
of but 132 bushels, and an aggregate nett profit of 
but 8s. lid. ($1.96, say $2;) thus showing that the 
manure, in these cases, caused an absolute gain of 
$98, and that where it was not used, there was in 
fact only a nominal profit of two dollars! These facts 
wall serve to show the reader, first, the great value 
of manure in farming operations, and to stimulate him 
to save and economise it; and, secondly, to show him 
the propriety of always manuring his potato crop, for 
which it is universally admitted the unfermented dung 
and litter of his cattle yard is best fitted. 
A deep worked soil is. necessary, that the tap roots 
of the beet, carrot and parsnip may not only penetrate 
freely, and enlarge their length and volume, but that 
their radicles, which are principally upon their lower 
extremities, may there find food for the plant. The 
fibrous roots of the potato and the turnip are equally 
benefitted by a deep tilth, from which they can draw 
nourishment, and find shelter from drought. 
The pulverization of the soil is essential to the ger¬ 
mination of the seed, to the easy extension of the 
roots, and to the free circulation of air and moisture, 
and the admission of solar heat, all necessary to pre¬ 
pare and transmit the food to the growing plants. 
Thinning the plants and keeping them free from 
weeds, and the surface of the soil open to atmos¬ 
pheric influence, is of great importance. If the soil is 
dry, and rich, and deep, and well pulverized, the la¬ 
bors of the husbandman will yet not avail much, in 
root crops, if he suffers his plants to be injudiciously 
crowded, or to be choked and robbed of their food by 
rank growing weeds. And as prevention is better 
than cure, the thinning and cleaning processes should 
be commenced early, and rigidly persevered in, not 
only that the weeds may not exhaust the fertility of 
the soil, but that the latter growth may not mature 
their seeds, and thus perpetuate the evil. 
In our next number, we shall treat of the culture, 
&c. of the root crops named in the commencement 
of this article. 
Beet Sugar. 
We notice by a letter from the Hon. H. Ellsworth 
to the editor of the New-York Observer, that impor¬ 
tant improvements have been recently made in France, 
and the neighboring countries, in the process of mak¬ 
ing sugar from the beet root. “ The difficult and te¬ 
dious process of ordinary evaporation, with all the 
concomitants of blood, animal carbon, &c. &c. are 
to be dispensed with, and instead of three, four and 
five per cent, nine per cent is surely to be obtained, 
in less time, and with half the expense : in addition 
to this, the common sugar is refined without any new 
solution, or even changing the moulds.” “Experi¬ 
ments made before the French academy, show that 
there are in 100 lbs.of beet, 85 lbs. of water, 10 5-10ths 
pounds of sugar, 5-10ths of mucilage, and 4!bs. of fi¬ 
brous matter. This was extracted by M. Becaud in 
eight minutes, by the aid of heat and pressure.”— 
The beets are now sliced, dried, reduced to powder, 
and packed, and in this case will keep a long time. 
When used, a little water is put to the powder, which 
abstracts the saccharine matter, the liquid is evapo¬ 
rated, and crystilization formed. The sugar is now 
said to be made at an expense of five cents the pound, 
including the cost of the beets, and excellent refined 
sugar costs about seven cents. With such results, 
the production of this article among us, on a large 
scale, is rendered almost certain. 
The Farmers’ Garden. 
ORNAMENTAL DEPARTMENT. 
Start not at the caption, brother farm rs. You all 
have your hobbies, which administer to your pleasure, 
without adding substantially to your purse, or your 
enjoyments. Flowers are the hobbies of the ladies, 
and of men, too, of refined taste. Flowers are the 
handy-work of the Creator, intended to gratify, not 
the animal appetite, which we possess in common 
with the brute, but the more refined sensations 
which belong exclusively to man. Their inimitable 
and diversified pencilings—their unsurpassed fragrance 
and beauty—are calculated to excite our admiration 
and to awaken our best feelings. “ Behold the lilies 
of the valley ; they toil not, neither do they spin ; and 
yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one 
of them.” We seldom if ever saw in the master or 
mistress of a choice flower garden, a person of bad 
passions or of bad habits. Accustom youth, there¬ 
fore, to cultivate and to admire the flower garden, as>- 
a rational means of making them agreeable to others 
and happy in themselves. 
The ornamental department of a garden consists 
of dwarf trees, shrubs, including woody creepers, pe¬ 
rennials, biennials and annuals. These may be cul¬ 
tivated exclusively in a flower garden, they may be 
interspersed in a fruit or kitchen garden, and the 
trees, shrubs and perennials are peculiarly appropri¬ 
ate for court-yards and grounds about the dwelling. 
Our notice of them will necessarily be brief. We 
shall class them under the appellations of trees, 
shrubs, perennials, biennials and annuals 
DWARF TREES, 
Suitable for a court-yard, or for planting about 
dwellings, are the mountain ash, European and Ame¬ 
rican, the magnolias, the glauca and acuminata be¬ 
ing hardy, and the macrophylla and tripetela being 
considerably so—the Siberian crab, of which there 
are several varieties—the double flowering cherry 
and peach, the double white and scarlet flowering 
hawthorn, &e. Evergreens may be intermixed, about 
the dwelling, more or less, according to the extent 
of the grounds, as may also fruit and forest trees. 
Of the former, the white pine, fir, arbor vitas, spruce, 
Swedish juniper and red cedar, are all ornamental, 
and add to the diversity and beauty of rural scenery. 
SHRUBS. 
1. Althaea Fruitex. —This is a handsome shrub, 
which flowers in August and September, rather ten¬ 
der for this latitude, but sufficiently hardy as far 
north as 42°. There are several sorts, having dif¬ 
ferent coloured flowers, double and single; the sin¬ 
gle flowering are the hardiest. It may be propagat¬ 
ed by seeds or suckers. Gather the seeds in autumn, 
and sow the spring following. 
2. Almond, double flowering— Amygdalis riana — 
of dwarf growth, and one of the earliest and most 
beautiful flowering shrubs. It produces wreaths of 
flowers resembling small roses. Propagates rapidly 
from suckers. 
3. Azalea, wild honeysuckle. —There are several 
indigenous kinds in our woods, all ornamental, and 
the white peculiarly fragrant. 
4. Box, buxus —though not a flowering plant, is 
highly ornamental for edgings. It is a dwarf ever¬ 
green, propagated by cuttings and by dividing the 
roots. Requires some protection in northern winters. 
5. Brier, sweet, rosa rubiginosa. —Though abound¬ 
ing in our fields, this is a pretty plant in the shrub¬ 
bery, both on account of its fragrance and of its foli¬ 
age and flowers. It is too common, like many other 
native plants, to be duly appreciated. 
6. Bignonia radicans —Trumpet flower—a splen¬ 
did climbing shrub. One variety, the jlammea, has 
yellow flowers; another, coccinea, bright scarlet 
flowers. Propagated by suckers. Rather tender 
here, but requires no protection fifty miles south. 
7. Cassia Marylandica. —Has pretty foliage, and 
produces many small yellow flowers. Propagated by 
seeds. Though the top is sometimes injured by the 
winter, it springs again from the root, and flowers 
the same season. 
8. Clethera alnifolia. —A very common shrub, 
which produces fragrant flowers in clusters in au¬ 
tumn. 
9. Cranberry, high— Viburnum oxycoccus —a shrub 
abounding in swamps and wet grounds. It wants 
nothing but a foreign origin to make it a desirable 
plant for the shrubbery. 
10. Corchorus Japonica —Japan globe flower— 
will stand the winter in a protected situation, though 
it will not flower so well as when placed in a green¬ 
house. Flowers of a golden yellow, double, and much 
admired. Stem and fuliage handsome. Propagated 
by suckers. 
11. Fringe Tree — Chionanthus Virginica. —A 
beautiful American shrub, covered with white flowers 
in June. Hardy. Propagated by layers. 
12. Fringe Tree, Venetian Sumac— Rhus cotimis 
—a singular shrub, loaded during summer with tufts 
of russet coloured down. Propagated by layers ai d 
suckers. 
13. Glycine, frutescens —a perennial climber, with 
variegated flowers, much admired. A Chinese spe¬ 
cies G. ( sinensis ,) is less hardy, though not less beau¬ 
tiful. 
14. Honeysuckle, Caprifolium. —This is a family 
of beautiful climbing shrubs. The scarlet and yel¬ 
low monthly, the oak-leaved and the woodbine are har¬ 
dy. Other species are less so. They are beautiful 
for arbors and walls. 
15. Kalmia latifolia, commonly called Laurel, a 
beautiful evergreen flowering shrub of our mountains 
and forests, south of Catskill and Northampton. Like 
all other evergreens, it should be transplanted in the 
season of its growth—May, June and September be¬ 
ing the best months to remove them, taking care 
to counteract evaporation, by spreading coarse litter 
over the roots when transplanted. 
16. Lilac, Syringa. —Handsome flowering shrubs, 
of which we have the white, purple, Siberian, Per¬ 
sian and Chinese, the latter too tender for northern 
winters. They all readily propagate by suckers. 
17. Lonicera. —A family of upright shrubby plants 
related to the honeysuckle, and perfectly hardy. The 
Tartarian and Siberian (or rather Iberian,) are beau¬ 
tiful flowering shrubs, easily increased by layers or 
cuttings. 
18. Mezereum, Daphne mezereum. —A dwarf shrub 
and hardy, which is covered with pink flowers in 
March or April, before the leaves expand. Two feet 
high. Propagated by seeds. 
19. Pjeonia, moulan, or Chinese tree p atony. A 
diminutive shrub, but affording the most brilliant 
flowers. There are three varieties, the common, 
poppy-flowered and the rose coloured. They are of 
recent introduction, and have been generally culti¬ 
vated in the green-house, but are found to be per¬ 
fectly hardy in the open ground. Propagated by off¬ 
sets. 
20. Pyrus Japonica —Japan quince.—A thorny 
hardy shrub, covered with brilliant scarlet flowers in 
the spring, and also often flowering in autumn.— 
There is also a variety producing white flowers. 
This plant would make a strong and an ornamental 
hedge. Propagated, like horse-radish, by cuttings of 
the root. 
21. Pyracantha, or evergreen thorn, is a pretty 
ornament in the shrubbery. Rather tender. 
22. Rhododendron, maximum —rose bay.—A na¬ 
tive evergreen of our state, of rich foliage, and clus¬ 
ters of beautiful flowers. 
23. Rose acacia, Robina hispida —a hardy shrub 
that propagates rapidly, and produces handsome flow¬ 
ers 
24. Rose, Rosa. —Of this favorite plant, botanists 
