PARSNIP. Pastinaca sativa. A hardy bien nial plant standing out during our coldest win ters, and with advantage in flavor to the fusi form root, the edible portion of the plant. If allowed to stand, the second year the flower stalk is thrown up to the height of five or six feet, the seed ripening in July and August. The prepa ration of the soil a,nd cultivation of all esculent fusiform roots is alike. The land requires deep plowing, heavy manuring, with compost, or if not with manure the year previous to planting, since recent green manure causes the roots to fork and become uncouth in shape. The rows should be two feet apart for case in horse culti vation. About three pounds of seed is required per acre, and the plants are to be thinned to about three or four inches in the row, when of suffi cient size to admit of it. The cultivation should be thorough enough to keep the rows friable and mellow, and the rows must be kept entirely free of weeds. In the autumn just before the ground freezes a sufficient quantity should be dug out for winter consumption, and packed in a bin with air-dry sand or road dust about them, the remain der of the crop may be left until spring and taken out as soon as the frost leaves the ground. For
garden cultivation the rows may be eighteen inches apart, and the plants thinned to six inches. The best varieties of parsnips for garden cultiva tion, is the Guernsey and the Student. For field cultivation the hollow crowned is generally sown. Upon rich, deep, mellow soil, props as high as fifty tons per acre have been taken. They are a, most valuable winter food for cows and swine, and in some countries they are largely raised for this purpose. The only drawback is the expense of digging. This, however, may be much sim plified by the use of two heavy curved coulters, of a peculiar shape, attached to a gang plow, and which is capable of loosening two rows at once, going over five acres a day so they may be easily drawn by hand.