244 
purpose of augmenting and enriching the manure into which the 
straw of corn is converted. 
Climate. The climate most desirable for the Turnip is cool 
and temperate. Turnips in the south of Europe never grow 
large, and a rapid climate is disadvantageous to the Turnip, and 
they are accordingly found of no size in Russia, Sweden, and 
many parts of North America. E , 
Preparing the soil. ‘ The first ploughing is given with a 
deep furrow, soon after harvest, usually in the direction of the 
former ridges, though if the soil be dry it is of little consequence 
in what direction. As soon as the spring seed-time is over, a 
second ploughing is given across the former, and the harrows, 
andif necessary the rollers are set to work in order to clean and 
pulverise the soil, and the weed-roots are carefully burnt or 
carried off the field to form a compost, usually with lime. The 
land then generally undergoes a third ploughing, and weed-roots 
carried off as before, again harrowed well, sometimes also rolled. 
It is next laid up in ridgelets from 27 to 30 inches wide, either 
with the common swing plough, or one with two mould-boards 
which forms two sides of a ridgelet at once. Well rotted dung 
at the rate of 12 or 15 tons per acre, this is spread equally over 
the ground. The plough immediately follows, and reversing the 
ridgelets forms new ones over the dung, and the drill-barrow, 
commonly one that sows two drills at once, drawn by one horse, 
deposits the seeds as fast as the new drills are formed. This 
machine has usually two rollers, one that goes before the sowing 
apparatus and levels the pointed tops of the ridgelets, and 
another that follows, for the purpose of compressing the soil and 
covering the seed. Ground cannot be made too rich for the 
Turnip, for in fact the weight of the crop depends upon its con- 
dition in this respect.” 
Time of sowing. “ The several varieties are somewhat differ- 
ent; the Swedish should be put in earliest, and then the yellow, 
both of them in the month of May. But as these kinds are 
much less extensively cultivated than the globe, the month of 
June is the principal seed-time. In the southern counties, Tur- 
nips are frequently sown in August after peas, wheat, or tares. 
The crop, however, is always light, and only fit to be eaten down 
by sheep in spring, or to send their tops to market as greens. 
After a crop of hotspur peas, sold green for the London market, 
the land is well cleansed with the horse-hoe, and upon once 
ploughing Turnips are sown, and when the plants first appear, the 
field receives a light top dressing of soot, ashes, &c.: this has 
a good effect in preserving the plants from the depredation of 
the fly.” 
Mode of soning, in all the best cultivated districts is on 
raised drills, for sowing broad-cast, or even sowing in rows on a 
flat surface, is never found to answer. 
After culture. The turnip farmer, as soon as the Turnip has 
put forth the rough leaf, runs a horse-hoe between the ridgelets, 
and cuts up the weeds on each side almost close to the ridgelets, 
clearing out the bottom of the interval at the same time. The 
hand-hoers are always set to work as soon as possible after, and 
the plants are left about 9 inches apart or more. A few days 
after this a small swing plough enters the intervals between the 
rows, and taking a furrow slice off each side, forms a smaller 
ridgelet in the middle. If the weeds still arise in great abund- 
ance, the horse-hoe may be employed again; otherwise, the next 
operation is to go over them a second time with the hand-hoe, 
when the intermediate ridge is levelled. When no more manual 
labour is necessary, a small plough with two mould-boards is 
employed to lay up the earth to the sides of the plants, leaving 
the ridgelet the same form as when sown, which finishes the 
process. 
Use of Turnips. They are either eaten by sheep on the spot, 
lotted off by means of hurdles or nets that they may be regularly 
CRUCIFERAE. LXXXIII. Brassica. 
consumed in grass fields or fold-yards ; when the weather is wet or 
the fields are moist, when the sheep ought not to be allowed to lie 
on the field. Eating Turnips on the spot is of great advantage 
both in manuring and consolidating the ground. Turnips are 
also used for feeding cattle and sometimes milch cows, but the 
far greater part, wherever they are extensively cultivated, by 
sheep. The Swedish and yellow Turnip are eaten greedily by 
horses, and affords a very nutritive and salutary food along with 
hay or straw for working stock. During severe frost Turnips 
become so hard that no animal can eat them ; in this case lay them 
in running water, which effectually thaws them: or placed in close 
feeding-houses, the Turnips intended for next day’s use may be 
stored up over night in one end of the building, and the warmth 
of the animals will thaw them sufficiently by morning. But in those 
months when frosts are severe, it is always advisable to have a 
few days’ consumption in the turnip barn. It is necessary to 
slice with a spade or chopping-knife, or crush them by means of 
a heavy wooden mallet, for sheep and young cattle in their first 
year towards spring, when the loosening and shedding of their 
teeth render them unable to break the large roots. A wine is 
said to be made from the Turnip by the London manufacturers of 
imitations of foreign wine. A kind of bread is also said to be 
made of the Turnip. 
Sir Humphrey Davy has proved that Turnips contain 42 parts 
in 1000 of nutritive matter, of which 7 were mucilage, 34 sugar, 
and 1 gluten. Swedish Turnips afforded 64 parts of nutritive 
matter in 1000, of which 9 were starch, 51 sugar, 2 gluten, and 
2 extract. 
“To raise plants for seed the usual mode is to select the 
most approved specimens at the season when they are full grown, 
and either remove all others from the field, and leave them 
to shoot into flower-stems next year, or transplant them to a 
place by themselves, where they will be secure from the farina 
of others of their genus. In either case, they must be protected 
by earthing up from winter’s frost.” 
The diseases and injuries to which Twurnips are liable are 
various. At their first appearance the leaves are liable to the 
attacks of the fly (Aphis and Chrysomela, Lin.) of the cater- 
pillar (Papilio noctua, &c. Lin.) of the slug (Limax, Lin.) and of 
mildew. Their roots are attacked by worms of various kinds ; 
by a singular tendency to monstrosity, known provincially by 
the names of fingers and toes ; by the ambury ; by canker, and 
by wasting or gangrene from water or frost. Of all or most of 
these injuries or diseases, it may be observed that they neither 
admit of prevention or cure by art, but under favorable circum- 
stances of soil, climate, culture, and weather they seldom occur, 
and therefore all that the cultivator can do is to prepare and 
manure his land properly; and in the sowing season supply water 
when the weather is dry or the soil deficient in humidity. | 
4 B. wa‘pus (Lin. spec. 931.) leaves smooth, of a greyish- 
glaucous-hue, radical ones lyrate, stem ones pinnatifid and cre- 
nated, uppermost ones cordate-lanceolate, clasping the stem; 
siliques divaricate-spreading. &. H. Native country not 
known. Cultivated in fields. It is to be found almost natu- 
ralized in waste ground and on ditch banks in Britain. Smith, 
engl. bot. t. 2146. Schrank. fl, mon. 3. t. 218. Sinàpis Napus: 
Brot. fl. lus. 1. p. 586. 
* A. oleifera (D. C. syst. 2. p- 592.) root slender $+ H., B. 
oleifera, Mcench. meth. 253. B. Napus, Nestl.—Navette hwer 
Narette, Rabette (Fr.) Rüben, Reps, Winter Reps, (Germ.) Ropy 
Rae oleseed, Winter Navette (Eng.)—Lob. icon. t. 200. f. 2. 
ape. Navette, (Fr.) Rubsamen, (Germ.) Naba Sylvestre, 
(Ital.) This is the British Rape, or Colsat. It is distinguishé 
from the Colsat or Colsai of the continent, by the smoothness © 
rs leaves, the other being hispid. It would be desirable, De 
Candolle observes, if all cultivators would examine whether 
