9th. A committee on irrigation and draining.—To ascertain the most profitable times of irrigation, with its uses. Also, the best and most effectual methods of constructing drains.
10th. A committee on Horticulture.—To ascertain the best and most approved methods of managing kitchen gardens, attend to the introduction of useful vegetables, modes of culture, &c.; and also to promote good taste in the planning and arrangement of gardens generally.
We further propose that the society recommend to each of its practical members, regularly to enter in writing, the preparation and state of the ground, at the time of sowing or planting each crop, the quantity and kind of manure and seed per acre, particulars relative to the weather, the process of culture, the times of sowing and gathering, and the amount of produce per acre, with such other particulars as may be thought worthy of notice, each part of which to be annually laid before them, in order that such facts as are deemed worthy of preservation, may be laid before the society.
Resolved, That the members of the society generally, and such others as are friendly to the objects of the association, be requested to furnish the several committees above named with such information relative to the subjects for which they are appointed as may be in their possession.
WM. DARLINGTON, V. Prest.
Isaac Sharpless, Sec'y.
ON THE CULTURE OF TURNIPS.
Turnips for fall and winter use are generally sown in the last of July. I have been long apprehensive that this sowing was too early. The weather at this season of the year is generally very hot and very dry; and drought has a direct tendency to dwarf and spoil a field of young turnips; the black fly, also, a natural enemy of the turnip, is at this period very voracious, and the crop is too often destroyed, or rendered unprofitable from one or the other of these causes.
With a view to remedy these evils, I sowed my turnips two seasons ago, very late in August. My neighbours laughed at me, and said I would not have a single mess. I had, however, more and better turnips than any of them. Encouraged by the success, I sowed the last year, on the 25th of August, a small piece of ground, eight rods only, with turnips. They came up well, and not a fly touched them. When they had four or five leaves I directed one of my men to weed and thin them, so as to have them stand eight or ten inches apart. The ground afterwards was slightly stirred with a garden hoe. The leaves grew rapidly, covered the ground, and prevented the further growth of weeds. On the 11th of November, I pulled the turnips, trimmed and measured them, and had on the eight rods of ground, (the twentieth part of one acre only,) forty-five bushels of as large and well formed turnips as I ever saw. This produce is at the rate of nine hundred bushels to the acre. The soil is a sandy loam, in good heart, but by no means in high tilth.