XXX. 



ROOTS- TURNIPS BEETS CARROTS. 



IF there be any who still hold that this country 

 must ultimately rival that magnificent Turnip -cul- 

 ture which has so largely transformed the agricul- 

 tural industry of England and Scotland, while sig- 

 nally and beneficently increasing its annual product, 

 I judge that time will prove them mistaken. The 

 striking diversity of climate between" the opposite 

 coasts of the Atlantic forbids the realization of their 

 hopes. The British Isles, with a considerable portion 

 of the adjacent coast of Continental Europe, have a 

 climate so modified by the Gulf Stream and the ocean 

 that their Summers are usually moist and cool, their 

 Autumns still more so, and their Winters rarely so 

 cold as to freeze the earth considerably ; while our 

 Summers and Autumns are comparatively hot and 

 dry ; our Winters in part intensely cold, so as to freeze 

 the earth solid for a foot or more. Hence, every 

 variety of turnip is exposed here in. its tenderer stages 

 to the ravages of every devouring insect ; while the 

 1st of December often, finds the soil of all but our 

 Southern and Pacific States so frozen that cannon- 

 (178) 



