40(> On the Ctiliivation of the Parsnip, 



and that it will form a material and valual)le adtlitiou to the 

 system of green crops, when it shall become better known. 



But it is chiefly on account of the power which it possesses, 

 of resisting the injuries of frost, that 1 have ventured to point 

 it out as an object of attention to the Caledonian Horticultural 

 Society. The injury which the green cro)>s, commonly culti- 

 vated in the northern parts of our island, suffer from this enemy, 

 is such as to render it liighly desirable to find one which shall be 

 exempt from the effects of winter. 



It has been hitherto but generally and carelessly said, and as 

 if tlie fact vvas not well ascertained, that this root did not suffer 

 from frost. The unusually severe v/inter of 1S13-14 has en- 

 abled Hie to decide tiiis question most positively; and to name 

 the parsnip as perhaps the only cultivi:ted root v.liich appears 

 to defy all cold. In the garden of my friend Mr. Mathews, at 

 Waltham Abiiey, a crop of parsnips was suffered to continue in 

 the ground throughout the vvinter. That land is well known to 

 be wet meadow land, and vvas frozen in a solid mass, to the 

 depth of a foot or more. The roots remained unhurt; and while 

 I write, in the beginning xjf April 1814, thev are all puttiiig out 

 their new shoots. This hardiness, uhich would render the pars- 

 nip a desirable object of cultivation in the coldest parts of Scot- 

 land, would still more recommend its use to the unfortunate 

 Greenlanders, among whom the esculent vegetables have hitherto 

 been limited to two or three, and where the parsnip has not as 

 yet been introduced. If other circumstances (the method of 

 culture, the deep ploughing required, and the natme of the soil 

 necessary for this root,) do not prevent its introduction into the 

 Mighlanils, it may evcntuallv be found a valualde substitute for 

 tlie potatoe, in many situations where the early frosts often de- 

 stroy that plant long before the tubers have arrived at maturity. 

 It is no small additional merit, that it In nearly exempt from tlie 

 attacks of insects ; and from the diseases incident to all our 

 esculent roots, as well as from the effects of cold. In wet springs 

 only it is remarked, that the plants in Guernsev are sometimes 

 destroyed by slugs, and that extremes of dryness or moisture 

 protracted through the season are injurious to thcni. 



The superior quality aud size of the root in CTuernscv a])pears 

 to be the result of the long- continued care and attention be- 

 stowed on it, since there is nothing in the soil of that island to 

 account for this difference ; and since that soil itself is bv no 

 means of a very superior quality. The greater part of the island 

 consists of a large foliated gneiss, imjiregnated with a consider- 

 able proportion of iron, and subject to decomposition in the mass 

 by a process of rotting or gangrene similar to that which occurs 

 in many varieties of the trap family, and among other places very 



remarkably 



