146 Cultivation of Arable Land. Turnips After-culture Hotings. 



In Bcrvvickfhire they have a I8rt of hoe plough which effectually cleans the in 

 tervals of drilled turnips, by going up one interval and down another, being drawn 

 by one horfe. It is an extremely light convenient tool. 



In whatever way the operation may be performed, or whatever plough or hoe 

 may be madeufe of, it muft be of the greateft advantage to have the mould well 

 loofened near to the plants, efpecially on the heavier defcriptions of turnip foils ; 

 and in thefe, as well as thofe of the more light kinds, the turnip plants mould 

 never be fuffered to be annoyed or incumbered by any fort of weeds growing near 

 them. 



Turnip crops are expofed to danger from different caufes during the early ftagesr 

 of the growth of the plants ; but the chief are the attacks of the fly,* the flug, and 

 the black caterpillar. The firft chiefly prey upon the tender ficcharine feed-leaves 

 of the young plants, and its prefenceis rendered fufficiently evident by its leaving 

 many little brown fpots on them, and by eating away their ilcfhy green parts 

 down to the fibres. They are faid to increafe both in number and fize until the 

 plants are confumed. The ravages of the flug may be eafily traced, by obferving 

 the edges of the leaves ; as it is upon them it firft begins to feed, gradually pro 

 ceeding from one part to another till each of them is more or lefs confumed, and 

 the whole of the plants in many cafes deftroyed. It has been well remarked,, 

 that a field of young turnips, when attacked in this way, exhibits fome of the 

 leaves as having loft a quarter, others one-half, fome three- fourths, and others the 

 whole, the ftems only remaining,^ and in fome inftances thefe are alfo attacked. 



The depredations of the black caterpillar principally take place after the crops 

 are in a more advanced ftate of growth, and the plants have formed confiderable 

 tops, and are in what is ufually termed rough leaf: the green parts of the leaves 

 being eaten through and deftroyed, and of courfe the growth of the plants pre 

 vented. 



Various means of preventing the young turnip plants from being deftroyed by 

 animals of thefe kinds have been fuggefted at different times ; but hitherto 

 probably without any of them being effectual. It would feem, however,, from 

 what has been already advanced, that their fafety and prefervation depends much 

 both on the land being fo enriched by manure, and in fuch a condition in refpecl: 



* This highly mifchievous infect, according to Linnaeus, belongs to the Genus Coleoptcra, and is 

 defcribed under the titles of Crysomela oleracea and Crysomela, nemorum ; the former being of a dark- 

 blue colour tinged with green, and the latter black ftriped with yellow on the different fliells, and 

 fomething larger than the other. 



J Corrected Agricultural Report of Middlefex, p. 210. 



