•VC'. ■' ^'^MJiZL&Z^STij 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
49 
time, and if necessary, the skim-hoe, when the crop is generally 
left till harvest; the great aim is to extirpate the weeds, to do this 
while they are small, and to pulverize the soil. 
Harvesting is postponed as long as the season will permit. The 
roots are then pulled up, and laid on the ground, the tops of two 
rows towards each other. The pullers are followed by a man or 
boy with a bill-hook, who, with a light blow, cuts the tops ns fast 
as three or four can pull. Three men will in this way harvest, 
of a good crop, 800 bushels in a day. Another, and we think a 
better mode, is, for the puller, with a bill-hook or heavy knife, in 
his right hand, to grasp and draw the turnip with his left, to strike 
oft’ the tap-root as soon as it is raised a little above the ground, 
and then with another quick stroke at the crown, sever the top 
from the root. This is done with great expedition, by an expert 
hand. The tap-root is acrid, and loaded with earth, and not 
worth preserving. The tops arc gathered into heaps and taken to 
the yard in carts, daily, for the stock, until they are consumed. 
An acre will give from five to ten loads of tops. The roots are 
buried in the field, if dry—the pits, two or two and a half feet 
broad, covered with straw and earth, and as cold weather ap¬ 
proaches', with manure, to prevent frost. N. B.—With a crow-bar, 
make one or more holes on the crown of the pit, into which a w isp 
of straw may be inserted, so as to let off the ratified air, and pre¬ 
vent the roots from heating. By neglecting this precaution, a 
neighbor, last winter, lost some hundreds of bushels 1 We have 
seldom lost one per cent in the pits. 
Use .—The tops serve for autumn. As soon as the mild weather 
of spring will justify, we break through the frost, and take the 
contents of a pit to our barn, and cover the roots with straw or 
hay. From thence they are fed to our stock, being first chopped 
up with a snick, (Dutch meat-chopper,) or spade. They are ex¬ 
cellent for sheep., especially for ewes that have young, and hogs 
and horses eat them freely. Steamed, they are used in the north 
of England for horses as a substitute for grain. We have fattened 
sheep and bullocks upon them with profit. They constitute parti¬ 
cularly from February to June, an excellent culinary vegetable 
for the table. A bullock will thrive fast upon two bushels a day, 
and will consume hardly any hay, and requires no drink. 
Produce and cost .—Our average crop has been 600 bushels per 
acre, though others have raised much heavier products. The 
cost, in manure and labor, when they are secured for winter, has 
been from two to three cents per bushel. 
N. B.—Cattle or sheep, fattened upon this root, should be kept 
from eating them for eight or ten days before they are slaughter¬ 
ed ; otherwise the meat w ill have an unpleasant flavor. 
The Implements used in the Turnip culture, which are figured 
below, are useful for various other purposes on the farm or in the 
garden. They are, (fig- 1,) 
Tiie Drill-Barrow, which is made in different forms, and 
is used in sowing various small seeds, as onions, radishes, lucern, 
beans, peas, &c. The machine is propelled like a wheel-barrow, 
and sows and covers the seed at the same operation. The cut re¬ 
presents the one we have in use. They are manufactured by Mr. 
Craig, of Galway, and sold at $8. A barrow somewhat different- j 
ly modelled, has been invented in Lewis county, which has been 1 
Vol. II. 7 
highly commended for its value in planting corn. Price fifteen 
dollars. 
The Cultivator, {Jig- 2,) is the most useful implement we 
know of for dressing Indian corn, as well as ruta baga. By being 
passed frequently between the rows, the ground is kept free from 
weeds, and in a fine state of pulverization, while the manure and 
vegetable matter is left under cover, where it is most beneficial, 
and the roots of the plants preserved from injury. It should be 
passed twice at a dressing, and if the soil is stiff or grassy, it may 
be passed oftener, or repeated at short intervals. The teeth are 
of various forms, according to the purposes for which they are 
used. Some of these are figured in the cut. It is most conveni¬ 
ent to have sets of different kinds, and the cost is trifling, that 
they may be shifted at pleasure. Our late excellent neighbor, 
Joseph Bullock, used effectually to extirpate the quack grass in 
his corn ground, by the frequent use of the cultivator, the teeth of 
which he had modelled for this purpose. They are manufactured 
by Mr. Craig, and, together with the drill-barrows spoken of, 
kept for sale by our enterprising friend, C. N. Benient, who is 
making some improvements on both these implements. The cul¬ 
tivator is often denominated horse-hoe, scuffler, scarifier, &c. It 
has sometimes a wheel attached forward, to regulate the depth. 
The Turnip Hoe, (fig. 3.) is a very simple, but useful im¬ 
plement, particularly in the garden, where it greatly faciliates the 
weeding process. We have them of various lengths, from four to 
ten inches. They should be of cast-steel, and may be made of 
an old file or rasp : the blade should be thin, and not more than 
one and ahalfortwo inches broad. They may be drawn the arm’s 
length without being raised, and there is little danger of cutting 
the plants among which they are used. 
WHEAT WORM. 
During the current month, this enemy may be expected to ap¬ 
pear again in our wheat-fields ; and it may be expected to extend 
its ravages south and west into Columbia and Oneida. It is ex¬ 
tremely desirable to collect information in regard to the habits of 
this insect, and the means, it any should be discovered, of avert¬ 
ing the evils which it is likely to inflict upon the land. We would 
therefore respectfully request men of science as well as farmers, to 
note down the observations they may make, and to transmit to us 
the result for publication, particularly such as may tend to solve 
the following queries :— 
1. When does the maggot make its first appearance, and what is 
the term of its continuance in that state ? 
2. What are the transformations, if any, which the insect un¬ 
dergoes, and at what intervals do these transformations take place ? 
3. Has steeping the seed in lime water or brine, according to 
the recommendation of Bauer, been found to be efficacious in les¬ 
sening or averting the evil ? 
4. Has the sowing of quick lime upon the crop, when in blos¬ 
som, or subsequently, or other topical application, been found to be 
beneficial? And, 
5. What per cent injury has the wheat crop sustained in conse- 
qence of these insects ? 
After writing the above, we saw and conversed with Mr. Ed¬ 
ward Haswell, a very intelligent and observing farmer of Bethlehem. 
He says that early sown wheat, and that growing on dry ground, 
was least, and some of it very little affected by the grain worm 
last year ; that the worm made its appearance in great numbers at 
once, and not by degrees ; that he sought for them almost daily, 
and that the first day he saw them, he found six to ten on a single 
grain; and that he saw no fly from which they could probably 
have proceeded. Mr. Haswell thinks lime has no efficacy in de¬ 
stroying them. He sowed it many successive mornings, when the 
wheat was in blossom ; he covered the heads of grain with it and 
immersed them in lime water, and still found the worm in the 
heads thus experimented upon, wholly unaffected by it. The lime, 
however, had been some time on hand, and had become, undoubt¬ 
edly, mild or effete. Mr. H. tried spirits of turpentine with as 
little effect. Mr. Haswell’s observations rather favor the opinions 
of Bauer, as published in the first volume of the Cultivator, that 
the insect is propagated, like smut, through the circulation of the 
sap. He detailed several cases where seed from an unaffected 
crop, sown by the ride of seed from an affected crop, had remained 
uninjured, or nearly so, while the crop from affected seed was nearly 
destroyed. He has found the worm in abundance, this spring, in 
