Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 June 1874 — Harvesting Root Crops. [ARTICLE]

Harvesting Root Crops.

The one thing that makes labor in the root field so unpalatable to Americans is the constant stooping that it nearly always involves. I obviate this almost entirely in harvesting by using the hoe, ground sharp. With this in your hands, begin at the outside row, and as you follow it down cut the top clean from each turnip with the blade, striking right or left as is most convenient. The impetus given to the top will carry it about half way to the adjoining row. Returning in this, you strike in the same direction and so proceed. After a few minutes’ practice, two or three tops may be cut with one blow, and almost anyone can “ top” as fast as he ordinarily walks. After the field has been thus “topped,” it will present this appearance: Two rows of turnips will alternate with each row of tops. In pulling the roots, strike the blade of the hoe back of the turnip, and with a quick jerk pull it toward the adjoining row, pulled or unpulled. The blade of the hoe cuts many of the lateral roots, thus rendering the task of pulling comparatively easy. After topping and pulling, a row of turnips will alternate with a row of tops; and in hauling, the wagon should be driven between these rows of turnips. If the turnips are left out in the field after pulling a few days, the rains and frosts common to the fail of the year, with the tumbling in and out of a wagon, will leave the turnips as clean as need be. I have myself topped and pulled by this method 400 and 500 bushels in ten hours. .—A. Y. Tribune.