22 TURNIP. 



ground (or what may be called Nature's seed-bed). Where land has 

 to be cleaned in the spring, and large breadths grown, small remedies 

 are unavailing. (C. C.) 



I believe the surest way to prevent fly-attack is to have the land 

 well and continually cultivated to bring it to the finest tilth, to keep it 

 free from weeds as long as possible before sowing, and to use the 

 water-drill with superphosphate, or other manure suitable to the land, 

 having little rakes behind each drill-coulter to rake some dry loose 

 mould over the water to keep in the moisture. Whenever I could 

 adopt this plan I have rarely lost a plant by fly ; but in farming 

 such a condition of things as I have described cannot always be 

 obtained. (W. J. E.) 



I am now more inclined to think that effort ought rather to be 

 directed to prevention than cure by trying to secure the most rapid 

 early growth of the young plant that can be possibly be attained, and 

 I have found, from a number of experiments, that mineral super- 

 phosphate of lime, four hundredweights to the acre, gives the quickest 

 braird as a rule. (J. E.) 



I am not aware that different kinds of manure either increase or 

 diminish the liability to the fly, but undoubtedly soils that are 

 peculiarly adapted for Turnip growing, which have been dressed with 

 farmyard-dung in autumn, then ploughed, and, when sowing-time 

 arrives, are found to be clean, so that the work of preparing for sow- 

 ing does not expose or re-expose the soil to the drought (so that the 

 drills are at once made with slight previous cultivation), a liberal 

 supply of requisite manure, and the seed sown in a fine seed-bed, are 

 the conditions most likely to force on the young seedlings to their 

 rough leaf, and enable them to escape the fly. (F. M.) 



Escrick, York. Our light sand has such capillary power that we 

 seldom lose the plants, although they were very much tried for a few 

 days. Fineness of soil, and securing all the moisture that is possible 

 by drilling up every day, seem the most neeessary points in our case. 

 (J. C). 



I find the best plan for obviating the trouble from Turnip Fly is 

 never to plough in spring ; only cultivate, which keeps the moisture in 

 the land, and the Turnips grow more vigorously. (J. S.) 



(From Limber, Lincolnshire, on the North Wolds, a stretch of 

 chalk hills extending south from Barton-on-the-Humber, the soil at 

 the locality varying from sand to good sandy loam overlying the 

 chalk.) On the Wolds the difficulty the fly makes is this : we can grow 

 splendid crops of Turnips if we do not miss " the season," but this is 

 often of short duration, and, if the fly comes at the critical time, the 

 chance of a good crop is very small. Wold-land is troublesome for 

 weeds, and those who manage it in such a manner as to keep it clean 



