1858 . 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
81 
Premium Crop of Ruta Bagas. 
The sample of ruta baga turnips, which I enter in 
competition for the best acre, are a sample of our crop, 
which I grew the past season, on a slaty light loam, 
on which we grew in 1856, potatoes and cabbage, to 
which crops we gave bam-yard manure. 
This spring we gave it no manure, except a little 
superphosphate of lime in the drills to start the seed. 
The following is my treatment and the expense of cul¬ 
ture. The yield was 1,117 bushels, of 62 pounds to the 
bushel. Weight of the above, thirty-four tons, twelve 
hundred and fifty-four pounds. For what I have sold, 
we got three shillings a bushel. 
June 12—Plowed for turnips—13. Harrowed and 
rolled—15. Drills opened by hoe (the ground level,) 
at 30 inches apart, as follows: Make one straight line ; 
from this let your men commence at 30 inches, laying 
the corner of the hoe on the ground; they then walk 
on as fast as they can, leaving a light mark (angular); 
then returning as going down. Let another man 
follow with the superphosphate of lime, and sow on 
these drills as thick as you sow plaster on clover. I 
applied to this acre 200 lbs. of superphosphate, 200 lbs. 
of plaster, 12 wheelbarrowfuls of muck, saved in ashed 
during winter and broken fine as ashes, mixing these 
three well together before applying. This is to get the 
seeds as quick as possible over ground. 
I then sow as follows; Take five or six seeds (or as 
near as you can without counting,) between your finger 
and thumb. Drop three of these in one place at a foot 
apart; keep your finger and thumb in quick motion, 
and move along as quick as you can. This requires no 
science, as the men who sowed ours this spring were 
laboring men, who had never seen a turnip seed to know 
it. 
When your seed is dropped, place yourself at the 
head of your drill (like a soldier standing at ease;) 
move your heels into the hollow of each foot, placing 
your hands behind your back to move steadily along, 
and move on quickly; this draws a sufficiency of earth 
to cover your seed, as when covered too heavily they 
do not come up quickly, and a number will not germi¬ 
nate. I used on this acre three ounces of seed. When 
all is sown and covered, pass the roller over it. This 
must be done in dry weather. 
My plants came up from one to four in each place, 
at a distance of a foot apart all through. The economy 
in this system is that it does not take one-twentieth the 
time to thin that it does when they are sown by drill, 
and your plants are a great deal stronger when they 
come up thin than when they are thick, and in hoeing, 
(using no hand work to thin them,) by passing your 
hoe between the plants, you take out the extra ones, 
(leaving but one plant,) and cut out all weeds between 
them. I never hand-hoe the rows, passing a horse-hoe 
between them before I commence to thin them ; imme¬ 
diately after thinning, passing the horse-hoe again 
through them, and repeating the horse-hoeing as the 
weeds appear. If you once let the weeds get ahead of 
you, you will be obliged to hand-hoe them, which will 
cost you as much as your crop will be worth, for then 
you will not have more than a half crop. When ypur 
leaves nearly meet in the center, you can discontinue 
working them. 
Every farmer should grow his own turnip seed. He 
is then sure of having a good start. I have never lost 
a crop of turnips by fly but one, and that I attributed 
to bought seed, (of seed dealers,) which will be old and 
new mixed. 
The best thing to prevent fly is to use new seed, sow 
as near to the surface as possible, sowing first on drills 
wood ashes, guano or superphosphate of lime. To grow 
fine turnips and keep your ground in good heart, you 
should apply from 30 to 50 bushels of bone dust per 
acre. This is the best manure for a turnip crop. 
June 30th—Horse-hoeing turnips—July 2. Hand- 
hoeing—4. Horse hoeing—17. Horse-hoeing—Aug. 3. 
Horse-hoeing. 
Nov. 14 and 16—Pulling turnips. 
Nov. 17—Plowed turnip-tops in as a manure. 
Total expense of cultivating, special manure and 
seed, for the above acre of turnips, $21 50. 
Value of the above at three shillings per bushel, 
$413,37A Gerald Howatt. Newton, N. J. 
—-o—o—o- 
Shoemaker’s Scraps for Manure. 
Messrs. Editors —A. R., Red Bank, N. J., inquires 
whether leather cuttings of shoemakers are of any va¬ 
lue as a manure. Some fifteen years ago I found in 
our village a pile of shoemaker’s cuttings, which had 
been accumulating for some twenty years from a con-, 
siderable manufactory. Having seen in the Genesee 
Farmer, that a small portion had been used and pro¬ 
duced an extraordinary effect upon a poor piece of land, 
I got permission to remove about fifteen cords, as they 
were considerd a nuisance. I found all that the Gen¬ 
esee Farmer’s correspondent said to be true. I put it 
on as we usually put on barn-yard manure ; but found 
that I should have extended it over at least double that 
quantity of ground, for the first crops of wheat and 
oats grew much too strong —much of it lodged. The 
third year corn was planted. A dry season coming, I 
had no com of any consequence only where the leather 
cuttings were put. It had the effect of keeping the 
ground so wet, that it was plowed too wet. Much of 
the leather is seen yet in plowing. 
The shavings from the tannery, of leather before 
oiling, I have tried since, but they do not produce the 
effect that the shoemaker’s cuttings do. I would ad¬ 
vise A. R. to collect all he can, and I think it will pay. 
W. H. W. Newville, Pa. 
Measuring Corn in the Crib, &c. 
Eds. Co Gent.— A correspondent in your paper of 
Dec. 17, 1857, gives an excellent and perfectly correct 
rule for determining the number of bushels in a crib 
or bin, but the operation may be materially simplified, 
viz., by multiplying the cubic contents in feet by the 
decimal eight-tenths—thus, 1600 cubic feet by.8, gives 
1280.0 bushels; and for the heaped or coal bushel of 
2688 inches, multiply by sixty-four hundredths, or, 
for greater accuracy, by six hundred and forty-two 
thousandths, thus : 1000x.642=642 0 bushels. I would 
buy or sell corn or coal by the above measure in large 
quantities in preference to measuring by a sealed bush¬ 
el, as I am convinced that the result will vary less from 
the truth, which may be proved by weighing. 
An easy rule to calculate the number of barrels in a 
cistern,is to divide the cubic contents in feet by four and 
twenty-one hundredths. Example : a cistern, contain¬ 
ing by measurement 500 cubic feet, divided by 4.21, 
gives 118 8 barrels, or a barrel to every inch in 
depth for 50| square feet of horizontal section. P. A. 
Wav. S'ewickly , Pa. 
