CROPS. 253 



are two great and well-known classes ; the common turnip, of 

 which there are three varieties, the flat, the globe, and the 

 tankard turnip ; and the Swedish turnip, or ruta baga. The 

 common turnip requires a shorter season, more quickly decays, 

 and is a less substantial food, than the Swede turnip. The 

 common turnip is usually white; but there are yellow varieties, 

 which are nearly as solid, and almost as enduring, as the Swedes. 

 Such, for example, is the yellow Aberdeen turnip, which will 

 keep late into the spring, when the common white turnip has 

 become corky and vapid. 



The turnip has been cultivated for centuries in England ; but 

 it is within a comparatively recent date that it became a matter 

 of general field cultivation upon light lands, and may be said to 

 have effected a revolution in husbandry. The great value of it 

 is in feeding stock, especially in the return which it makes to the 

 land when it is fed to sheep folded upon the land ; in the manure, 

 likewise, which it produces when fed to cattle or sheep in stalls 

 or yards ; in the increased number of stock which its production 

 puts it in the power of farmers to keep ; and in its intermixture 

 with dry feed, enabling them to make use of that dry feed to 

 advantage, to which, otherwise, cattle could not be confined but 

 at the expense of health and comfort. Though other articles may 

 be useful and expedient such as grain, and oil cake, and hay, 

 yet many sheep and cattle are now actually fatted upon turnips 

 and straw. It is said that this is done with more difficulty at 

 the- south of England than at the north ; the turnips in Northum 

 berland, and at the north, being accounted richer, or more nu 

 tritious, than in the southern counties ; thus seeming to confirm a 

 strong opinion entertained by some persons that the colder the 

 climate, the more nourishing the esculents grown in it. Another 

 great advantage arising from the cultivation of turnips is in the 

 cleanness of cultivation to which it leads, and which thus forms 

 a suitable preparation for wheat, or the grain crop which usually 

 follows them. 



The land for turnips, if not stiff and hard bound, cannot be 

 too rich for them ; though the application of an excessive quan 

 tity of manure would be prejudicial, in some cases, to the suc 

 ceeding crop of wheat, causing too rank a growth, and occasion 

 ing it to lodge. The common preparation for turnips is by a 

 thorough ploughing in the autumn : then the land is amply 

 VOL. ii. 22 



