TURNER 



5918 



TURNIP 



way possible. He taught his son to read, per- 

 mitted him to neglect regular schooling for 

 art study, and had him enter the Royal Acad- 

 emy in. 1789. The next year, when Turner was 

 but fifteen years old, he exhibited his first pic- 

 ture, a view of Lambeth Palace. 



During his period of development, which 

 continued until about 1800, he made designs for 

 magazine prints, mastered the technique of 

 water-color painting, and became known as one 

 of the promising landscape artists of the day. 

 About 1802, the year of his election to mem- 

 bership in the Royal Academy, he began to 

 paint in oils, and during the next fifty years 

 exhibited nearly two hundred pictures at that 

 institution. When he died he bequeathed his 

 valuable collection of paintings, engravings and 

 sketches to the nation, and this collection may 

 be seen to-day in Turner Gallery, occupying 

 two rooms of the National Gallery. 



Turner was a devoted student of nature, and 

 to obtain material for his pictures he was ac- 

 customed to go away alone on sketching tours, 

 through England, France, Switzerland and Italy. 

 He depicted natural scenes with the brush of 

 an idealist, not a realist, and his work has a 

 high poetic quality that Ruskin calls the "Tur- 

 nerian mystery." He used light and color in 

 such a way as to create an effect of indistinct- 

 ness, and at the same time his coloring was 

 striking, even brilliant. Unfortunately he did 

 not fully understand how to mix oil colors, and 

 some of his finest works have greatly dete- 

 riorated. As a master of water color and of 

 etching and engraving, however, he ranks with 

 the best. 



There are numerous Turner collections in 

 America, and one may see good examples of 

 his work in the Metropolitan Museum and the 

 New York Public Library. His Grand Canal, 

 Venice, which is admired for its beautiful treat- 

 ment of sky and water, and The Castle of In- 

 dolence, are in the Metropolitan collection. 

 The Boston Museum possesses his Slave Ship, 

 and the New York Public Library his Stafla, 

 Fingal's Cave. His most popular picture, The 

 Fighting Temeraire, shown herewith in faithful 

 reproduction, is in the Turner collection of the 

 National Gallery. Other famous works are 

 Shipwreck, Sun Rising in the Mist, Bay oj Baiae 

 and The Splugen, an Alpine scene. R.D.M. 



Consult Armstrong's Life of Turner; Phythi- 

 an's Turner. 



TURNER, NAT, a slave who became famous 

 in American history as the leader of the NAT 

 TURNER INSURRECTION (which see). 



TURNIPS 

 Fleshy roots and tops. 



TUR'NIP, a common biennial plant of the 

 mustard family, cultivated in gardens and fields 

 for its fleshy root, which is used as a table and 

 stock food. There are numerous varieties of 

 turnips, and their roots vary considerably in 

 shape. Some are 

 elongated, some 

 are round, others 

 are broadened 

 out, and some are 

 spindle - shaped. 

 The flesh is whit- 

 ish or yellowish. 

 Garden varieties 

 are usually 

 smaller and of 

 more delicate 

 flavor than field 

 varieties. If the 

 roots are desired 

 for early summer 

 use the seed must 

 be sown in the 

 spring as soon as 

 the ground can 

 be worked, but planting for winter turnips need 

 not take place until the middle of July, or even 

 later. In the cultivation of garden turnips the 

 seeds are sown in shallow drills fifteen inches 

 apart and the plants are thinned until they are 

 from four to six inches apart in the row. In 

 field culture the seed may be sown broadcast 

 or in drills two or two and a half feet apart. 

 Careful hoeing is essential. 



The roots will have a sweeter flavor if not 

 dug until they have had a touch of frost. They 

 may be stored for winter use in damp earth, 

 sand or leaves, but a cellar with earth walls and 

 floor makes a good storage house. If piled in 

 heaps on the floor and covered with earth they 

 will keep indefinitely. Turnips are about nine- 

 tenths water and have a low percentage of nu- 

 triment, but they can be cooked and served in 

 an appetizing way, and they give variety to a 

 meal. Large quantities of field turnips are fed 

 to stock in Great Britain, Europe and Canada, 

 and to some extent in the United States. 



A species known as the Swedish turnip, or 

 rutabaga, has a large root of firm flesh, pro- 

 nounced flavor and yellow color. The rutabaga 

 is used as a stock food more extensively than 

 the ordinary turnip ; sheep prefer it to all other 

 varieties. M.W. 



Consult Cornell Experiment Station Bulletin 

 No. 317, published by the New York State Agri- 

 cultural College, Ithaca, N. Y. 



