42 



The Country Gentleman'' s Magazine 



phrase, '• turnip sick," just as we say a soil is 

 " clover sick ; " it is recommended to break 

 the succession of turnip crops, by growing 

 either mangolds or carrots— mangolds being 

 the best of these two crops. This, of course, 

 precludes a stolen crop of summer turnips; 

 and, by the way, stolen crops of all kinds are 

 forbidden, as they tend to encourage the 

 insect and other enemies of the crop. Se- 

 condly, to give up as much as possible 



spring, and to adopt autumn preparation of 

 the soil \ and the working of the soil is to 

 be done rather with the grubber than the 

 plough, if spring working cannot be avoided. 

 Third, to chalk or lime soils deficient in cal- 

 careous matter ; to which we are inclined to 

 add as a fourth remedy, to apply salt in all 

 cases to the soil or the manure, to which, if 

 ashes are added, the results will likely be more 

 beneficial. 



MALFORMATION OR ''SPORT'' IN SWEDE TURNIPS. 



TOWARDS the close of last year a case 

 of malformation in the swede turnip 

 was described in the columns of The Fanner 

 by Mr John Chisholm, Cairnsmore, Newton- 

 Stewart, in Scotland; and as this is a subject 

 of considerable importance, we shall briefly 

 recapitulate the leading points as described 

 by Mr Chisholm. 



A field, consisting of about 12 imperial 

 acres, on the farm of Cairnsmore, under Mr 

 Chisholm's management, was sown with three 

 different varieties of the swede turnip — 

 namely, Bangholm, Sutton's Champion, and 

 Skirving's. The field sloped to the 

 south, and the drills or ridges ran from 

 north to south. At about 80 yards from the 

 lower end of the field there was a continuous 

 strip, of about 10 yards in breadth, all across 

 the field, which appeared as if sown with 

 rape, while there was not a single plant pre- 

 senring a similar appearance to be seen in 

 any other part of the field. The whole field 

 had been equally manured with a mixture 

 of Peruvian guano and rough ground 

 bones; and he further mentioned that 

 the "sport" ran across all the drills, as 

 far as the above-named varieties of swedes 

 were sown, stopping at a flat of common 

 yellow turnips, which shewed no sign of mal- 

 formation, nor the appearance of any other 

 plant growing among them. Rape had never 

 been sown in that field, which, with the 

 fact that the growth of plants having an 



appearance like rape ceased where the swedes 

 ended, while that growth was confined to one 

 distinct part of the field, precluded any solu- 

 tion of the question on the assumption that 

 the seed of rape had been lying dormant in 

 the soil. If such had been the case, the rape 

 plants must also have appeared across the 

 drills of yellow turnip, as well as across 

 those where swedes had been sown. That 

 the sport or rape-like plants could not have 

 arisen from any intermixture of spurious or 

 defective seed was also evident, first, from 

 the fact that there were three different varie- 

 ties of swedes sown in the field, all of which 

 were alike affected at one particular section 

 of the field across which the drills ran, 

 and it was not likely that each of the 

 three kinds of seed had been grown 

 from defective or degenerate plants, or had 

 been otherwise mixed with impure .seed; 

 and next, from the still more significant fact 

 that the "sport" was entirely confined to "a 

 continuous strip of about 10 yards in breadth,, 

 all across the field," while there was not, as 

 ]\Ir Chisholm stated, " a degenerate ;phxnt in all 

 the rest of the field, or on another adjoining, 

 sown 7uith a part of the same seed." Supposing 

 that the seed of each of the three varieties 

 had been defective, it is evident that instead 

 of being confined to " a continuous strip of 

 about 10 yards in breadth all across the field," 

 the "sport," or the degenerate plants, must 

 have appeared all over the field, because it 



