Singular payiial Failure of Turnips. 187 



Tliere is not a word more that calls for notice; the i-e- 

 ixiainder of these interrogatories being awkwardly apologetic, 

 rather than any thing else. 



I have the honour to be, gentlemen, 

 \ our much obliged and very obedient humble servant, 

 August 2, I82;2. J. Murray. 



XXXII. On the Cause of a singular partial Failure in a Crop 

 ofTurnijis. By Mr. Samuel Taylor, of Bungay. 



To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine andjournal. 



Gentlemen, — As I find you do not exclude from your 

 pages any information, however humble, on subjects con- 

 nected with the study and practice of agriculture, allow me to 

 lay before you a singular instance of partial failure in a field 

 ot turnips, which has recently come under my observation. 

 This field is in the hands of ray friend and neighbour Mr, Stam- 

 ford, of Ditchingham, near this place. It may be necessary 

 here to remark, that it is usual, in working our fallows in- 

 tended for turnips, to cross-plough the land twice, in order to 

 get the field perfectly level previous to stetching or ridging it 

 up for the ensuing crop. Now the ridges or stetches of this 

 field run north and south ; but the failure in the turnip crop 

 above mentioned extends across, not lengthways of the ridges, 

 and consequently in the direction of the isoarting. 



The following sketch may give a clearer idea than mere de- 

 scription can convey of my meaning, and of the present ap- 

 pearance of the field. 



N 



Ploughed beginnuig of 

 May : good liealthy plants. 



I Left unploughed from mid- 

 dle of May to beginning 

 of June : a total failure 



\ of plant. 



N°2 



N°l 



Now wliat has occasioned this failure ? and on what principle 

 can we account for the narrow strii)s of good healthy j)lants 



across 



