i56 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
should be deeply turned down, the surface finely 
harrowed, and left to produce another crop, 
which the frost will destroy in its infancy. The 
Fig. X. —LAND IN RIDGES. 
laud should be ridged before the winter sets in, 
and left in this state until spring. Fig. 1 shows 
the shape in which these ridges may be made. 
There is a large surface of soil brought under 
the mellowing influence of the weather, and 
this is precisely wiiat this crop needs. In the 
Fig. 2.—RIDGES MANURED AND SOWN. 
spring these may be leveled with a heavy har¬ 
row, and again opened in their proper places 
at distances of twenty-eight to thirty inches 
apart. If there has not been sufficient manure 
to spread twenty loads per acre broadcast in 
the fall to be plowed under, eight loads at least 
of well-rotted manure should be spread in the 
drills in spring. Fresh manure is not suited 
to roots, as it causes an unshapely and im¬ 
perfect growth. With a light plow the drills 
may be then closed and the manure covered. 
The soil is then to be harrowed, and rolled if 
possible with a grooved roller, to suit the shape 
of the flat ridges, which when completed ready 
for sowing should be shaped like fig. 2. Before 
the last harrowing a dressing of fine bone-dust, 
of two hundred pounds up to a thousand pounds 
per acre, should be given, the quantity depeud- 
Fig. 3.— ridges after first plowing. 
Fig. 4. —AFTER HAND-nOEING AND SINGLING. 
ing on the amount and quality of the barn-yard 
manure or other considerations. 
The seeding should not be delayed many 
days after the ground is fully prepared, and 
should not be later than early 
in May for mangels, and late 
in June for* rula-bagas. A 
hand-drill is a very convenient 
machine for sowing the seed, 
and, costing but little, will be 
found worth the expense in 
the saving of time and seed. 
Two pounds of ruta-bagas 
and five of mangels, of 
which the Yellow Globe is probably the best, 
is sufficient for an acre. As soon as the seed 
has started and the rows can be seen, a 
light furrow with a one-horse plow r should be 
thrown from the plants on each side, bringing 
the ridges into the shape shown iu fig. 3. This 
destroys all the weeds excepting just in the 
row, which will be cut out in the first liand- 
hoeing. This process is performed by striking 
out with the hoe all the plants excepting two or 
three in spaces a foot or eighteen inches apart. 
The shorter distance will tend to give more and 
smaller roots, scarcely lessening the crop in 
weight, but increasing it in value, a well-grown, 
moderate-sized root being better feed than a 
coarse overgrown one. 
After the hoeing the 
plants are singled, 
leaving but one at a 
place. During all 
these processes most 
of the accidents which 
affect the crop have 
been safely passed 
over, and there is little 
danger in leaving a 
single plant to grow. If needed, some of those 
removed may be replanted in vacant spaces by 
cutting back the root and top slightly when 
transplanting. When these processes are com¬ 
pleted the ridges have the appearance shown in 
fig. 4, and the crop thereafter needs nothing but 
proper cultivation. But this is absolutely need¬ 
ed; neglect is fatal. Better cultivate one acre 
well than ten badly. One acre of mangels has 
yielded over two thousand bushels, but ten acres 
them as in fig. 5. A harrow run across tlia 
rows in the right direction easily draws them 
from the soil and leaves them on the surface, 
Fig. 7. —HORSE-HOE FOR ROOTS. 
neglected would not do as well as that. There¬ 
fore the hoe must be kept going. Any efficient 
horse-hoe which will scrape the surface, and can 
be brought close to the row, will answer. One 
of the best we have used is Shares’ liorse-hoe, 
fig. 6, with which the weeds may be cut out 
within an inch of the crop. Another very use¬ 
ful and easily made implement is shown at fig. 7. 
The blades are simply narrow plates of steel 
bent to a right angle, which cut an inch or so 
beneath the surface, and will work very close. 
The share at front stirs up the surface iu the 
center of the drill, and helps to guide the machine. 
Both of these implements may be spread or 
contracted as the covering of the ground by the 
crop makes it necessary. But whatever tools are 
used, the utmost thoroughness must be ad¬ 
hered to until the ground is shaded. When 
mature, the crop is prepared for gathering by 
removing the tops with a sharp hoe, as shown 
in fig. 5. At a single blow, struck where the 
line is drawn in the figure, the top is severed, 
and the leaves if gathered furnish a large amount 
Fig. 5.— PLOWING OUT THE ROOTS. 
of useful fodder. After this has been done, a 
plow is run along one side of each row, and a 
furrow thrown away from the roots, leaving 
6.—shares’ horse-hoe. 
where with the root-scoop (fig. 8) they may be 
rapidly gathered into carts or wagons. Sugar- 
beets, being very tender and easily damaged, 
should not be harrowed like mangels, but be 
carefully gathered by hand or with the scoop. 
- ■«>» >—- - 
Curing Clover. —A New England corre¬ 
spondent writes: Now that the manure made 
from a ton of clover hay is proved to be w’orth 
about seventeen dollars, we ought to give clover 
a larger breadth upon the farm, and use the best 
methods of curing. Cut in the blossom, as it 
should be, it is full of 
juice, and requires several 
days’ sun to make good 
hay of it, and much of 
its value as fodder is lost 
by breaking off the leaves. 
It saves much labor, and 
makes a better fodder, to 
put the clover into cocks 
after two or three hours’ 
of exposure to the sun. 
Turn the cocks bottom side 
up the following day. The 
third day it may be stored 
in the barn, in alternate 
layers, with old hay, or 
straw, or salt hay. There 
should be at least as much 
as one fourth of the bulk 
of the old material. This 
will absorb all the moisture 
of the clover, and preserve 
it in the best condition in the mow. Cattle will 
eat clover-hay cured in this manner in prefer¬ 
ence to all other. Of all methods I have tried, 
this gives the best satisfaction. 
Fig. 8.—ROOT-FORK. 
The Turnip-Fly. 
The small fica-bectle known as the Turnip-fly 
or Cabbage-fly is exceeding^ destructive to all 
kinds of turnips when the plant is iu its earliest 
and tenderest state. 
Very often the crop 
is totally destroyed, 
and resyiving is 
made necessary 
when the provr 
means of destroying the beetles are neglect¬ 
ed. As they arc really troublesome only 
during a short period, and until the plants 
have put forth the rough leaves, one of the best 
preventives consists in having the soil rich and 
Fig. 1.—LIME-DUSTER. 
