HARDWICKE'S S CIE NCE - GOSSIP. 



219 



farmers to attempt the cultivation of tliis valuable 

 crop. 



Sir John Sinclair, in his "Husbandry of Scotland," 

 says, " I am informed that the s\A-ede turnip was first 

 introduced into this country in 17S1-2, on the 

 recommendation of Mr. Knox, a native of East 

 Lothian, who settled at Gottenburgc, whence he 

 sent some seeds to Dr. Hamilton." Other authors 

 date its introduction from the same place, but at 

 a somewhat earlier period. Some kinds of turnips 

 are much more easily injured by the frost than 

 others, but the swede is the hardiest of all, and 

 therefore it is sometimes introduced into gardens in 

 cold localities for winter and spring use, on account 

 of the excellent green tops it produces when other 

 greens are scarce. They also, when blanched and 

 forced, make a good substitute for seakale. 



The turnip, in some of its varieties, is of very 

 universal culture throughout Europe. In Sweden 

 it is a very favourite vegetable. We also learn from 

 the interesting Journal of Linnajus that even so far 

 north as Lapland, the colonists sow annually a 

 considerable quantity of turnip-seed, which fre- 

 quently succeeds very well, and produces a plentiful 

 crop. The native Laplanders are so fond of tiiis 

 root that they are often induced to part with a whole 

 cheese in exchange for one single turnip. Dr. Clarke, 

 in his " Travels in Russia," published in ISIO, says 

 turnips were used as fruit, and eaten with avidity by 

 all classes. In the houses of the nobility the raw 

 turnip cut in slices is handed about on a silver 

 salver with brandy, as a provocative to a more 

 substantial meal. The first nobleman of the empire, 

 when dismissed by his sovereign from attendance 

 upon his person, may be found throughout the day 

 with his neck bare, his beard lengthened, his body 

 wrapped in a sheep's skin, eating raw turnips and 

 drinking quass. 



It is averred that the Roman method of culti- 

 vation of the turnip must have been superior to that 

 of the moderns, since Pliny relates that some single 

 roots weighed as much as 40 lb., a weight far 

 surpassing any which has been obtained by the most 

 skilful modern agriculturists. Turnips, if carefully 

 cultivated, sometimes attain a great size in this 

 country, though appearing insignificant when com- 

 pared with the gigantic roots of the Roman natu- 

 ralist, which must be an exaggerated statement, 



TuU, in his "Horse-hoeing Husbandry," speaks of 

 some turnips weighing as much as nineteen pounds, 

 and of often meeting with otbei's of sixteen pounds. 

 In Surrey, a Swedish turnip, the seed of which had 

 been sown in July, was dug up in October, 182S, 

 which weighed twenty-one pounds, and was one 

 yard in circumference. (Vide Ganleneis Magazine?} 

 But these are far surpassed by one mentioned by 

 Campbell in his "Political Survey," which was pulled 

 up in 1758 at Tudenhara, in Norfolk, and weighed 

 twenty-nine pounds. In the present day we see 



and hear of some very large turnips being grown 

 and exhibited at our agricultural shows, and that 

 some roots of Carter's Purple-top Mammoth weighed 

 over a stone each. (See Gardener's Chronicle, July 4, 

 1871.) In No. oOO of the Philosophical Transac- 

 tions, we find a curious calculation made by Dr* 

 Desagulier, on the rapid increase of a turnip root. 

 One ounce of turnip-seed was found by him to 

 contain between fourteen and fifteen thousand 

 single seeds ; therefore one seed would weigh one- 

 fourteen or one-fifteen thousandth part of an ounce; 

 and assuming its growth to be always uniform, a 

 turnip-seed may increase fifteen times its own 

 weight in a minute. By an actual experiment 

 made on moss or peat ground, turnips have been 

 found to increase by growth 15,990 times the 

 weight of their seeds each day they stood upon it- 

 It is not, however, the size and weight of the root 

 which render this crop so productive ; the number 

 contained in a given space, with reference to their 

 size, is very great, and it is generally thought a 

 good crop to obtain a turnip from each square foot 

 of ground ; but the produce varies greatly ; the rich 

 lands of the north of England have occasionally 

 reached sixty tons to the acre, but seldom readied 

 higher than thirty to forty tons on the best land in 

 the south. The turnip contains but little nutritive 

 matter in proportion to its weight. Dr. Lyou 

 Playfair made the following analysis of the ingre- 

 dients in one hundred parts : — water, eighty nine ; 

 uuazotised matter, sugar and starch, nine ; albumen, 

 one ; inorganic matter, one. According to Von 

 Thuer, one hundred tons of turnips equal only 

 twenty-four tons of meadow hay in point of nutritive 

 value. 



The uses of the turnip as a culinary vegetable 

 are too familiarly known to require that they should 

 be here enumerated. Though in very extensive 

 favour among the moderns, the different modes of 

 preparing it appear poor and insipid compared 

 with those efforts of gastronomic skill by which 

 the ancients made it assume so many inviting forms. 

 In the " Curiosities of Literature," it is related that 

 the king of Bithynia, in some expedition against the 

 Scythians, in winter, and at a great distance from 

 the sea, had a violent longing for a small fish called 

 apliy, a pilchard or herring, or an anchovy. His 

 cook cut a turnip to the perfect imitation of its 

 shape, then fried it in oil, salted, and well powdered 

 with the grains of a dozen black poppies ; his 

 majesty's taste was so exquisitely deceived, that he 

 praised the root to his guests as an excellent fish. 

 This transmutation of vegetables into meat or fish 

 is a province of the culinary art which we sppear 

 to have lost; still, perhaps, it may be revived iu 

 these days, when we are likely to have professors 

 in cookery. 



It is recorded in the Philosophical Transactions 

 that in the years 1G29 and 1G30, there being a scarcity 



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