1813,] Agriculture in Berwickshire. 189 



offensive ; but after a little use, the disagreeable taste wears off. 

 Those who cannot reconcile themselves to this taste will find an 

 effectual remedy by dissolving a little saltpetre in the milk when 

 taken warm from the cow. 



Difficulty of removing the turnips from the field in 

 winter on a clay soil. — The grand difficulty is how to carry 

 off the turnips from a clay soil without injuring it; for if carts 

 are made to pass over a clay soil while moistened with rain, the 

 surface is converted into a kind of mortar ; and if allowed to 

 remain a given time in this state, it will not produce half a crop 

 of whatever may be sown in it the ensuing season. It is this 

 difficulty which creates the distinction between what is called a 

 turnip soil and a clay 6oil. From what is called a turnip soil 

 the turnips may be removed throughout the winter without doing 

 any injury. 



There is, however, no doubt but that turnips raised on a clay 

 soil are superior in quality and in usefulness to those raised on a 

 gravelly soil; for they are less spungy, possess more specific 

 gravity, and are in general of a larger size than those raised on a 

 light gravel, which, however, is called a turnip soil. Butchers, 

 too, prefer cattle and sheep fed on a clay soil to those fed on a 

 gravelly soil. The only objection to a clay soil for turnips con- 

 sists in the difficulty of removing them from the field without 

 injuring it by the ruts made by cart-wheels, and the holes made 

 by the horses' feet. If the difficulty could be surmounted, a clay 

 soil would be more valuable. Several ingenious methods are 

 employed for this purpose. The first and most obvious remedy 

 is to make the ridges high. Others not only make the ridges 

 high, but make the drills at right angles to the ridges, that the 

 rain may have an open passage into the furrows between the 

 ridges. Others, when the air is free from frost, pull up as many 

 turnips as upon calculation will suffice them for a few weeks, 

 cut off the leaves, lay the turnips in small heaps, and cover 

 them with the leaves to preserve them from the effects of frost 

 and wet till the frost consolidates the ground to cart them off. 

 Turnips may be preserved two months in this way. It is a rule 

 of great consequence to plough the ground as soon as possible 

 after the turnips are removed, if in a proper state, that is, if not 

 too wet. When the ridges are pretty high the ground will bo 

 frequently in this state during the winter. 



