540 THE HOME, FARM AND BUSINESS CYCLOPAEDIA. 



altogether different. A turnip or mangel bulb is cellular in its formation, 

 and, under good management, there can scarcely be any limit to its 

 elopment. It may be said, that very large roots are in an abnormal 

 state, and that, in producing them, we are running in the face of natural 

 laws. If this is the principal objection to root culture, then we must either 

 li>regard it, or allow the plant to return, by a gradual course of degener- 

 acy, to its original type, in which it will be altogether useless to the 

 farmer. But the objection does not apply, practically, to either the turnip 

 or any other kind of crop grown by the farmer. All cultivated plants are 

 in an unnatural state, in one respect ; and sometimes the cultivator who 

 throws nature into the shade, is the most successful in his art. 



Apart, however from keeping the land in an open and well cleaned 

 state by repeated horse-hoeings between the rows in dry summer weather, 

 the facilities afforded by the drill system for baring the bulbs a little of 

 the soil around them are not to be overlooked. Every successful grower 

 of the turnip knows, that while the roots which are deeply set in the soil 

 are generally the most palatable, they are far from being the bulkiest or 

 the most valuable in the aggregate. It is often of very great importance 

 that the seed should be kept near to the manure, and yet not so near to any 

 large quantity of it as to have its vitality destroyed. If the rootlets of 

 the young plants can catch the manure just as soon as they appear, the 

 crop comes away at once, and defies insect pests ; but if they are some 

 time before they find it, a very considerable loss may be entailed on the 

 farmer. Very deep drills are, in all cases, objectionable ; but particularly 

 so, when only special fertilisers are to be employed. The better the latter 

 can be mixed with the wrought soil, provided it is kept two inches or so, 

 below the surface, the more satisfactory will the results be. In many 

 -cases, the chemical ingredients we apply to the soil require to be mixed 

 with it, and changed completely in their nature before they can nourish 

 plant life in a satisfactory manner. Hence, if phosphates, or other 

 auxiliary manures are placed in the bottoms of shallow drills, that is 

 without being sown broadcast the turnip plants, in sending down their 

 roots, are likely either to be checked in growth, or to rush into an un- 

 healthy luxuriance. To this evil that of gross manuring perhaps 

 more than any other connected with manures, may be ascribed the 

 prevalence of finger-and-toe in the more highly farmed districts. If the 

 soil is very light, and contains, as it is sure to do in that case, a compara- 

 tively small quantity of the alkaline silicates, it may not effectually cure 

 the evil to mix the manures with it ; but on loamy or strong soils, there 

 is no fear of this being the case. Though the plants are very near to the 



