COUNTIES OF EOSS AND CROMARTY. 181 



There can be no doubt that swedes are the most valuable variety 

 of turnips grown at the present day, but to begin cattle in the 

 autumn a few acres of yellows and globes are quite essential. 

 On the very thinnest of land, yellows suit equally as well as 

 sv^edes, as the latter variety requires more substantial nourish- 

 ment than the former to secure a really good crop. Turnips 

 usually follow oats, and in some cases wheat, and as soon as the 

 land can be cleaned of the grain the plough is started. The land 

 is turned over (sometimes by steam as already indicated) to a 

 depth of from 10 to 12 inches, and allowed to lie exposed to the 

 frosts till spring, when it is cross ploughed once or twice, or 

 grubbed two or three times and thoroughly harrowed, and the 

 weeds, if there are any, cleared away. In the earlier parts of the 

 county sowing sw^edes commences about the first of the second 

 week of May, and from then till the end of June the sole work 

 of the farm is sowing turnips. The land is drilled at a width of 

 from 26 to 29 inches ; manured with from 20 to 30 loads of 

 farm-yard manure, and from 4 to 8 cwts. of artificial manure per 

 acre, chiefly bone manure with a little phosphates, and in some 

 cases 1 cwt. or 1| cwt. nitrate of soda; and sown, if swedes, with 

 about 3 lbs., and if yellows, or whites, 2 J lbs. of seed per acre. 

 The earlier sown portions are generally ready for thinning before 

 the end of June, and for well-nigh a whole month this work goes 

 on incessantly. When very rank the plants are sometimes 

 thinned bv the hand, but the hoe is used as a rule. Swedes are 

 left at from 9 to 12 inches apart, and yellows at from 8 to 10 

 inches. The thinning of turnips is now a very expensive process, 

 and is almost the only brand i of farm work that modern genius 

 has done nothing to economise by the adoption of machinery. 

 Several attempts have been made during the past few years to 

 devise turnip-thinning machines, but not one of these has yet 

 reached that state of perfection which is necessary to insure its 

 being extensively employed. During the hoeing process the 

 drills are cleaned two or three times by the driU harrow or 

 " skim plough ; " and with this the work of the turnip crop falls 

 out of the farmers' calendar till the arrival of the storiuGf season, 

 which usually commences about the middle of November. The 

 advantages of preserving turnips from the winter's frosts are now 

 fully recognised, and almost the whole crop, except what is to be 

 eaten oil the land by sheep, is stored either in pits on the fields, or 

 in heaps around the farm steadings. AVhen wheat follows turnips, 

 which is very often the case, the roots are always driven to the 

 steadings immediately on being pulled, in order to relieve the 

 land for winter sowing. A very large breadth of the turnip 

 break is now eaten oil" by sheup, — partly off the turnip fields 

 and partly out of boxes on the land. On a good many farms one- 

 half of the yeUows and one-third of the swedes are eaten off by 



