234 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch, XVII I. 



SEED AND SOWING. 



The lime of sowing these different species, it will be thus seen, varies 

 according to their quality; those which are the most nutritive requiring the 

 longest period in coming to perfection, and consequently to be the earliest 

 put into the ground. First, therefore, the Swedes are sown as early as pos- 

 sible from the beginning of April, throughout May, and should never be 

 deferred beyond the latter end of that month, or the crop, unless unusually 

 favoured by a dripping season, will assuredly suffer in weight : then the 

 yellow sorts, some short time afterwards ; and lastly, the white, at any 

 time from about the middle of May until the close of June. Sometimes, 

 indeed, the sowing is not completed until July, and the common Norfolk 

 species are not unfrequently put in upon one ploughing — as " brush- 

 turnips" — after the corn-crops have been reaped. These late sowings, 

 however, yield but little * ; yet, as they produce a delicate root for early 

 dropped lambs, they are not uncommonly used by farmers who have large 

 flocks. 



These periods, it should also be observed, are entirely dependent uj)on 

 the state of the land and weather, as well as the ability to get the ground 

 ready in due season for bringing forward the crops. If the soil be of a 

 cold nature, and slow in communicating its vegetable powers, the sowing 

 should be proportionately early ; but if rich, and well manured, it may, in 

 tliat case, be later. Still, however, there is an advantage in early sowing, 

 which arises from the soil being more moist, and the heat less intense ; 

 which forwards the plants, and subjects them to less injury from insects. 

 In contradiction to this, however, it is frequently found that if the seed be 

 sown too early, the plants are apt, in warm seasons, to run up their 

 flowering-stems before winter, to the great injury of a feeding flock. 

 The third or the fourth week in May is therefore the time most generally 

 adopted ; but in every instance the sowing should be deferred until the 

 ground is in a perfect state of dryness — though unaccompanied by drought, 

 — and sufficiently moist to ensure vegetation. Many farmers, indeed, sow 

 their turnips — particularly those of the white species — at stated times, in 

 different portions, each at the distance of perhaps a week or fortnight from 

 the other ; by which means they come successively into rotation for the 

 hoe, and partially also into use for consumption. 



The quantity of seed usually employed seldom exceeds from one to two 

 pints — or about one pound when drilled, or a pound and a half to two 

 pounds when sown broad-cast ; though some farmers use considerably 

 more as a precaution against the attacks of the flyt; in the view that, if 

 the plants be numerous, probably sufficient will be spared by the insect to 

 form a crop, and, if it should not appear, they can then be hoed out. 



The quality of the seed is matter of considerable importance, for much 

 of a spurious kind is commonly sold in the shops, and though charged by 



* Mr. Malcolm gives an extract from his diary regardine; the sowing of the " tankard- 

 turnip," — a large variety of the white species, — from which it appears, that he sowed it 

 during three following years : in the first, he commenced on the 14th of June, and con- 

 tinued sowing it every day as fast as three ploughs could get the ground ready, until the 

 14th of July ; and in the two following years, he hegan on the 14th of May, and 

 sowed every other day for two months. The result was, that those which were sown in 

 ]\Iay, were, in the month of January following, worth two acres of those sown in July. — 

 Surv. of Surrey, vol. ii. p. 402. 



t It has been remarked that the fly attacks the turnip plants more voraciously upon 

 chalky soils than upon any other; and therefore, upcm such land, a greater portion of 

 seed is necessarj-. Suflblk Report, 3rd edit. p. 97. — Mr. Coke of Ilolkham invariably 

 sows 31bs. on au acre, and his crops are seldom if ever injured by the tly. 



