Farming of Bedfordshire. 11 



drilling is generally superior to that of any other part of 

 England I know. 



All parties very properly adopt the flat system for their late 

 turnips for spring feed. The hoeing of turnips is generally done, 

 first by a judicious horse-hoeing, then set them out a foot apart, 

 as near as may be ; if on the ridge, rather closer ; and as soon 

 as the dead plants are properly withered another horse-hoeing. 

 Then comes on the flat hoeing, taking out any double plants which 

 may have escaped. 



The last horse-hoeing will generally be effected close upon the 

 edge of harvest, and occasionally after the harvest has commenced. 

 Our cleanest farmers also send a man over them once more after 

 harvest, to extract any fibres of couchgrass that may still be alive 

 — an excellent jjractice. 



Failure of Turnips. — It would be improper not to notice 

 here a fact which is notorious : that within the last few years 

 there has been a great failure of tmnips in the county, more 

 especially 1855 ; and most of all on what has heretofore been 

 regarded as the best turnip soil. For on the chalk-bottom lands 

 the disease, where it prevailed at all, was by no means virulent. 

 The failure has not arisen from the ravages of the common turnip- 

 fly or beetle, but rather from a complication of disorders. The 

 principal disorder is what, in the eastern part of the kingdom, 

 is termed " Anberry," in others " Graping," because the turnips 

 so affected throw out certain protuberances yesembling grapes, in 

 which a small maggot is generated, ultimately becoming a flying 

 insect. Other parties term it " the finger and toe disease," on 

 account, it may be, that there are often a number of these grapes, 

 or perhaps more properly warts, at the lower part of the turnip, 

 growing out of each other, resembling toes or teats, to which is 

 attached a small root ; but from the diseased state of the turnip 

 it cannot take up nourishment from the soil, so that you may 

 easily kick up the turnips. In fact, they are worthless, for should 

 they attain any size before they are attacked, they decay before 

 they can be eaten.* 



In addition to the above, the mildew of the last season upon all 

 the early-sown turnips was singularly severe, superinducing, it is 

 believed, other diseases. Thousands of acres were this year 

 attacked, while the mildew was upon them, with swarms of lice 

 or flies of a light-green hue. In the first instance they appeared 

 only in small patches, but soon extended over a considerable 



* I trust it -will not be improper here to say, that, in the opinion of many prac- 

 tical farmers, as well as in my own judgment, Professor Buckman, in his late 

 treatise, appears to have mistaken the disease in question, for in all the specimens 

 he has given I do not see one representing the disease of which we are treating, 

 but simply roots which are the production of degenerate seed. 



