On the Culture of Turnip9. 1,3/ 



ilrogeii and azote, in tlie proportions necessary to form ammonia ; 

 and probably by an absorption of oxygen from the sulphuric acid. 



3. That gelatine may be converted in this way into a species 

 of sugar, sui generis, which does not appear to exist any where 

 naturally. 



4. That this sugar combines intimately with nitric acid, with- 

 out sensibly decomposing it, even with the assistance of heat, 

 and there results a peculiar crystallised acid, to which I have 

 given the name of nitro-saccliarine. 



5. That wool, and especially fibrine, when treated with sul- 

 phuric acid, yields a peculiar white matter, which I have deno- 

 minated leucine, 



6. That this matter, heated with nitric acid, does not sensibly 

 decompose it, and produces a crystallisable nitro-leucic acid. 



7. Lastly, That other uncrvstaihsable and sapid substances, 

 analogous to certain veg'etaliie principles, are also produced by 

 the action of sulphuric acid on the most insoluble of the animal 

 principles. 



XXII. On the Culture of Turnips. 5y George Webb Hall, 



Esq."^ 



xIaving executed the instructions of the Board of Agriculture, 

 *' to condense the whole of the information contained in the se- 

 veral Reports and Communications to the Board on the Culture 

 of Turnips," into one general view, that the practice of all the 

 counties in England and Scotland, on this most interesting and 

 important branch of agriculture, might be laid fairly before the 

 public in a compressed form, for the benefit of those to whom all 

 the County Reports and Communications might not be accessi- 

 ble ; I am tempted to step a little beyond the line of my instruc- 

 tions, in offering to the consideration of the Honourable Board a 

 few observations of my own on the culture of this invaluable 

 root ; for which the laborious investigation I have now given the 

 subject, added to my own experience, may render me not alto- 

 gether unqualified. 



If, on the completion of this work, I were to be asked by the 

 Honourable Board, Upon a review of the practice of the whole 

 island, which county do you consider to approach nearest to ma- 

 ttrity in the culture of turnips ? I should answer, without hesi- 

 tation, Tiie county of Middlesex stands un(|uestionably pre- 

 eminent to every other in the kingdom in the maimer of culti- 

 vating turnips; inasmuch as the system there pursued is calcu- 

 lated to produce the best crops at the least expense, and at the 



• From the Communications of the Board of Agricultvu'e. 



Vol. 56. No. 268. ^tt^. 1820. S same 



