TURXIPS. 



TURNIPS. 



or, what U better, a nek and pinion. On the face of the alide are 

 A 



Flf. 55. 





. 



o t 



- 



click and screw-plates, and a nose to receive the chuck", as in tlic 



excontric and oval chucks. A, Jij. 28, U the wave of which the patterua 



Fit. 36. 



1 



if 



rtri 

 1 



B, o, T>, T., and r are composed, by notches in the plate. These speci- 

 mens will serve to show the immense number of patterns which may 

 be produced with twenty or thirty rosettes and their combinations. 

 Many curious patterns are produced by using two rosettes, one fixed to 

 the mandril, the other on the cannon. For cutting copper and steel- 

 plates, or wood blocks, the tool is sharpened with two acute angles ; 

 but in turning gold and silver work the quantity of metal taken off is 

 required to be so minute that the two faces of the tool must be rubbed 

 to such an obtuse angle as to appear almost straight. Close to the 

 aide of the tool in the rest is placed a stop, or touche, as it is called, to 

 regulate the depth of the cut. The touche has a very small face, 

 highly polished, which rubs upon the work in advance of the tool. 



The number of adaptations, on account of the various and irregular 

 shapes of the different pieces of work to be engine-turned, is very 

 large, and would take up far too much space to describe. Cutting the 

 rosettes, which every engine-turner ought to do for himself, is an ope- 

 ration <>f considerable nicety, as the waves are mostly very shallow, and 

 the rosettes large, to make them work easily, and the slightest fault in 

 a wave will bo related through the whole work. Two superior ma- 

 chines for engine- turning were invented by Messrs. Perkins and Heath, 

 tome years ago, in which the rosettes are dispensed with, and their 

 place supplied by an excentric wheel, or cam, which produces one wave 

 only ; but by means of toothed wheels, as many of these waves as are 

 requisite are introduced during each revolution of the mandril. This 

 engine produces an immense variety of patterns, with the very great 

 advantage of all the waves being precise counterparts of each other. 

 \Vi.rk of this description is generally cut with a diamond, as a steel tool 

 is liable to break, or get dull, and destroy the uniformity of the effect. 



TL'KNIPS. ilrauica rapa. This well-known plant is cultivated 

 for its bulbous roots both in the garden and the field. As a culinary 

 root it has been prized from the earliest times, and many varieties 

 have been cultivated for the table ; but it is those of a larger kind, 

 cultivated in the field*, which form so important a part of the most 

 improved systems of agriculture on all light soils, that the success of 

 the farmer U, in general, proportioned to the quantity of turnips raised 

 on his farm. They are the great foundation of all the best systems of 

 cropping, by supplying the manure required for the subsequent crop, 

 and, at the same time, clearing the land of all noxious weeds, by the 

 numerous ploughings, stirrings, and hoeings which they require. 



Turnips were first raised upon land which had already borne a crop 

 that was reaped early in summer, and on fallows which had been 

 worked and cleared early, so as to leave a sufficient interval between 

 the last ploughing and the time of sowing winter corn to have a 

 tolerable crop of turnips. These turnips however, which are still 

 cultivated by the name of stubble or eddish turnips, never grow so 

 large as those which had been sown earlier on land well prepared and 

 highly manured. 



The regular cultivation of turnips on a large scale was originally 

 introduced from Flanders into Norfolk two centuries ago, and from 

 Norfolk was carried .into the south of Scotland and the north of 

 Kngland about a century after. It was long confined to one or two 

 individual*, who cultivated turnips very successfully ; but at last it 

 spread, and was greatly improved by introducing the row culture, 

 according to Tull's system, which acquired the name of the Northum- 

 berland mode of cultivation. The usual mode of sowing turnips both 

 in Flanders and in Norfolk was broadcast, and, as the labourers in both 

 countries became very expert in hoeing them out at regular distances, 



this mode was long preferred. All fanners however, who have any 

 pretensions to a good system of cultivation, now adopt tin- Northum- 

 berland plan. The great object on poor light lands, especially those 

 which have lately been brought into cultivation, U to raise a < 

 turnips : for when once this U obtained, and the land has been improved 

 by the folding of sheep upon it, there is no groat difficulty in 

 Uining the fertility thus produced by judicious management and 

 frequent green crops. Great improvement in poor soils has been 

 effected by the introduction of ground bones and superphosphate as a 

 manure. It is however the best plan to unite the regular appi 

 of farm-yard dung with that of the bone-dust. For this puqiose the 

 best farmers prepare their land, where they intend to sow turnips, 

 early after harvest, by giving it as complete a cultivation as they can 

 before winter ; ami they put on it a good coat of manure, and plough 

 it in. In the beginning of summer another ploughing is given, w ith 

 repeated harrowings, to destroy the weeds which have sprung up. If 

 the subsoil is dry, or the land has been thoroughly drained, the seed 

 may be drill"! in rows from - feet to SO inches a]>art, with hones or 

 any equivalent artificial manure on the flat surface. The turnip-seed 

 can scarcely fail to vegetate soon : less danger arises from dry weather 

 than if they were on the top of a ridge, and the intervals can be readily 

 stirred by horse-drawn tools. The manure, which has had time to 

 incorporate with the soil and to impart to it the various products of 

 its decomposition, is in the best state to nourish the young plant, until 

 it con push forth its roots and feed, as it were, on the bone-dust : a 

 more rapid growth is ensured, which is the best preservative against 

 the fly ; and experience has proved that this is a much more certain 

 way to insure a good crop of turnips, especially of swedes, than the old 

 method of putting all the manure immediately under the seed in the 

 rows, where it often remains inert if dry weather comes on soon after 

 the seed is sown. The quantity of manure put on in autumn, or very 

 early in spring, depends on the means of the farm : if ten cubic yards 

 of short dung can be afforded per acre, the crop of turnips will .imply 

 repay it, and twenty bushels of bone-dust or less per acre will !>< 

 sufficient to drill with the seed. Long fresh manure may be safely 

 ploughed in before winter, which would be very improper in a light 

 soil if used in summer. This will be rotten before the turnips are 

 sown, and all the expense of funning dunghills and turning them over 

 U saved. There is no danger of the manure being wasted ; for what- 

 ever weeds may be produced will be ploughed in and returned to tlm 

 soil. All the nutritious parts of the decomposing dung will be 

 absorbed by the earth, and none of them will evaporate. Where farm- 

 yard manure is scarce, half the above quantity may be used, and a fair 

 crop of turnips may still be expected. 



The early vegetation of the seed is essential to a good crop of 

 turnips. In its young and tender state it is liable to a vat - 



its. Its great enemy is the turnip fly (altira ntmorum), which 

 appears always in great quantities, if there is any continuance of dry 

 weather. The more frequently turnips are sown on the same ground 

 the more abundant is the fly, but where the surface has been pared 

 and burned there is seldom any loss from this cause. It is generally 

 found that in moist weather the fly does comparatively little harm, as 

 then the vegetation is rapid, and the plant, when once it has put forth 

 its rough leaves, is considered safe. Whatever therefore accelerates 

 the vegetation, will secure the growth of the turnip. Hence the 

 advantage of dunging the soil before winter, by which means it is 

 enriched uniformly, and a great portion of the manure, having become 

 soluble, absorbs moisture from the atmosphere. And in dry weather 

 it is well to sow the seed with the water drill. As soon as the turnip- 

 plant has put forth its rough leaves, the intervals between tin 

 should be stirred with a light plough drawn by one horse. The 

 plough can be made to go within an inch or two of the plant*, throwing 

 the earth from the row into the interval : a small harrow, which can be 

 set to any required width, is then drawn between the rows to luosen 

 the earth raised by the plough. This greatly increases the absorption 

 of moisture and invigorates the young plants. They may now be 

 thinned out and even singled in the rows by means of a hoe about 12 

 inches broad, leaving plants a foot or more apart. Thus the turnips 

 are left at a proper distance, and, having ample room, will soon cover 

 the rows. A horse-hoe is now drawn between the rows to eradicate all 

 weeds and keep the soil open for the fibres of the roots to shoot in. 

 It is not advisable to throw the earth over the turnips, unless it be 

 just before winter, to protect them from the frost; on the contrary, in 

 wet weather the earth is more likely to cause the turnip to i < t ' ' 

 help its growtbi The fibres which draw the nourishment strike in the 

 soil Iwlow, and spread between the rows wherever they meet with a 

 loose and mellow earth. 



In order to have a heavy crop, especially of Swedish turnips, it is 

 advisable to sow the seed early, that is, in southern counties, towards 

 the end of May. They will then have the advantage of the summer 

 showers, and be beyond the reach of the tly in a very few days, and 

 when the dry WMMMT seta in they will already have a supply of 

 moisture in their roots, and the fibres, having struck deep, will not 

 suffer any check. The only inconvenience of sowing early is that 

 many of the plant* are ant to run to seed. This is in many cases owing 

 to the seed which is used. If the seed has been raised from fine roots 

 which have stood the winter, there is little danger of the plants 

 running to seed in the first summer ; but, as is often the case, if small 



