OCRUCIFERA. 187 
to have been introduced into Greece and Italy from Gaul. It was well known to the 
Greeks, and called by them yoyyvAn, from yoyyvAoc, “round,” and is mentioned by 
Theophrastus. By them it was chiefly used in medicine for cataplasms and as an 
external application. It was eaten, but does not seem to have found much favour as 
an article of diet. By the Romans it was much esteemed, and we read of Manlius 
Curius cooking Turnips by the embers of his watch-fire when the Samnite envoys came 
to offer him the bribe he so contemptuously rejected as worthless in comparison to his 
broiling roots. Throughout France and Germany the Turnip was undoubtedly culti- 
vated during the Middle Ages, and was most likely brought by the monks and grown 
in the gardens of England before the Conquest. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth we 
read of Turnips as a favourite dish ; and Gerarde, at a somewhat later date, says: “ The 
smaller Turnip groweth in fields by Hackney in a sandy ground, and is brought to the 
cross in Cheapside by the women of that village to be sold, and are the best I ever 
tasted.” At this period it would appear that Turnips were grown in large crops, and 
not confined to garden cultivation as formerly, but it was not until about the year 
1730 that they became common objects of field husbandry. Lord Townshend, struck 
with their extensive cultivation in Germany and Flanders, covered some acres of his 
own estate in Norfolk with them, and the introduction about the same time of the 
system of drill husbandry soon caused his example to spread, and it became generally 
adopted. The chief value of the Turnip as an agricultural plant seems to be the ease 
with which the crop is secured, and its excellence as a winter fodder for sheep. The 
Turnips can either be consumed on the ground without removal, which is advantageous, 
as the animals fatten and manure the land at the same time, or they may be stored 
in barns for future use. The produce varies greatly : in rich lands in the North of 
England sixty tons per acre have occasionally been raised ; but the amount of crop 
seldom reaches higher on the best soils of the South than thirty or forty tons per acre. 
Though forming a valuable food for cattle, and a pleasant vegetable for man’s consump- 
tion, the Turnip contains but little nutritive matter in proportion to its weight. An 
analysis of a pound of Turnips is as follows: Water, 14 oz. 213 grs. ; albumen and 
casein, 77 grs. ; sugar, 280 grs.; gum, 107 grs.; woody fibre, 168 grs.; mineral matter, 
35 grs. Although generally eaten cooked and mashed, Turnips are perfectly wholesome 
in their raw state, and in that condition were formerly much consumed in Russia by 
the upper classes. Turnips were part of the farmer’s food in Gay’s time, for he says,— 
“Leek to the Welsh, to Dutchmen butter ’s dear, 
Of Irish swains potato is the cheer ; 
Oats for their feasts the Scottish shepherds grind, 
Sweet turnips are the food of Blonzalind : 
While she loves Zurnips, butter I despise, 
Nor leeks, nor oatmeal, nor potato prize.” 
Our own true English poet Shakespeare must have been well acquainted with the 
housing of some such winter stores; for we find “sweet Anne Page,” while resisting 
Master Slender’s suit, appealing to her mother thus: “ Good mother, do not marry me 
to yond’ fool. Alas! I had rather be set quick i the earth and bowl’d to death with 
Turnips.” The tops and green leaves of the Turnip form a wholesome and pleasant 
vegetable at a time of year when but little variety of green food is to be found. In 
times of scarcity very respectable bread has been made from the Turnip when boiled, 
pressed dry, and mixed with a portion of wheaten flour. From the quantity of sugar 
the root contains it is readily made into wine, and a liquor so manufactured is said to 
T 
