AND FARMING PRODUCE. 325 



frost. Storing them in heaps is as absurd as so 

 storing potatoes. In root houses, they ought to 

 be kept cool and dry. Care also should be taken 

 in gathering them, not to cut off the tap root too 

 near to the bulb, and to leave a portion of the 

 collet, in which is seated their vital energy above, 

 lest the agents of decomposition be let in, and the 

 bulbs rot during the winter. Loads of turnips 

 are lost to the cultivator, every year by the 

 carelessness of servants, &c. in gathering them 

 in this way. In open and mild autumns, some 

 varieties of the turnip, especially of the Swede 

 turnip, if sown early in May, have a tendency to 

 throw up stems for flowering and seed. Whenever 

 this tendency is observed, the crop ought to be 

 gathered immediately. For not only do the bulbs 

 cease to grow, when this change takes place, but 

 they deteriorate greatly in nutritive properties. 

 The vascular tissues form rapidly at the expense 

 of the fluids in the cellular tissues. And as all 

 vascular tissue is unfit for food, and is thrown 

 out of the animal system unchanged in the 

 excrement; the great loss and injury sustained 

 in such a case, must be very apparent. If the 

 turnips be left in the ground during winter, and 

 gathered for consumption as they are wanted, 

 the tops should be cut off before the frost arrives, 



