24 AGRICULTURAL SURVEY

CULTIVATION AND EMPLOYMENT OF LAND.

The turnip husbandry prevails universally in such inclo- sures.* Sometimes, especially where the land lies in four”

* The roota baga, or Swedish turnip, is now cultivated by a few farmers in this distriét. It appears to be superior to the common turnip in many respects, particularly in hardiness, as it stood the last severe winter without the least injury. It is eat with greediness by all animals, from the horse to the swine. Sheep prefer it to all others; but the material advantage that has been made of it is, the substituting it for corn in the food of draught horses; in which it has been found to answer the wish of every person who has yet tried it.‘The turnips are put into a tub or barrel, and cut small with an instrument like an hoe, with the blade put perpendicularly into the shaft: a man will cut in one hour, as much as fix horses can eat intwenty-four. The tops and bottoms are previously cut off, and given to the pigs. Horses, that are hard worked, look full as well when fed with this turnip and very little hay, as they formerly did when very high fed with corn. The Swedish turnip should be sowed early, from the 15th of May to the roth of June. R. LOWE.

The following information on the culture of the roota baga, has been given me by J. DAIKIN, Esq. of Nottingham:

¢¢ Mr. Daikin, about the§ 10th of May, 1794, sowed about four acres with the seed of roota baga, about 2lbs. per acre, on good sand land, worth twenty shillings an acre, manured as for turnips, and having been ploughed four or five times; the rest of the field, to the amount of nine acres in all, with common turnip and turnip-rooted cabbage, all broadcast. They were not transplanted, but hoed out nine inches asunder, at three hoeings, at seven shillings and six pence an acre: no other culture. In November began to use them for horses, giving at first clover and rye grass—hay, oats, and beans; but finding that the horses did well upon them, left off all corn, and continued them on hay, and the roots only: fifteen were thus fed for about two months, were constantly hard worked, and preserved themselves in very good condition. Mr. Daikin is so well convinced that in this application they were worth thirty pounds an acre, that he would, in future, if he could not get them otherwise, rather give that sum per acre for one or two acres, than not have them for this use.‘They lost their leaves entirely when the frost set in; but the roots were not the least affeéted, though the common turnips in the same field were totally destroyed. Passengers passing through the field cut holes in them, which did not let the frost injure them, nor were those

hurt which were damaged by cattle biting them. Some came to the weight of

§ Mr. Daikin thinks that in general the roota baga should be sown about a month sooner than other turnips.