246 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XVIII. 



The expenses of topping and tailing, thatching and storing turnips in the 

 manner first described, are indeed considerable ; and if to this be added the 

 injury sustained by raising them from the ground, it may be doubted 

 whether they do not exceed the amount of the average loss occasioned by 

 frost ; for it seldom happens that a whole crop is destroyed, and in some 

 years the weather is so favourable that the plants escape entirely unhurt. 

 The practice, when abstractedly considered, may therefore be viewed as dis- 

 advantageous ; but, on wet soils, it is unavoidable, while on upland farms 

 it is rendered justifiable, by its guarding against the uncertainties of cli- 

 mate ; and, if regarded with reference to the husbandry of land tluis situ- 

 ated, it may at least be deemed a necessary evil. 



APPLICATION, 



The most usual mode of consuming turnips is by eating them off upon 

 the ground with sheep, though large quantities are also carried off the land 

 for the support of store cattle and cov.s ; in which latter case they are almost 

 invariably topped, tailed, and sliced. Altliough when fed off by sheep, they 

 are usually allowed to remain whole, yet the hoggets frequently lose many 

 of their young teeth from eating turnips when they become tough in the 

 spring ; and, from the same cause, the older sheep become crones before 

 their natural time, to the serious detriment of the flock. To prevent these 

 inconveniences, the roots are commonly cut into pieces by an instrument 

 called the " turnip-chopper," consisting of a handle with an iron head, 

 formed as if the blades of two gardener's hoes were placed at right angles 

 the manner of a cross. The bulb being placed upon the ground is thus 

 divided into four equal parts by a single stroke, ])erpendicularly given by 

 the workman ; and the other end is usually furnished with a I'ork, which 

 is useful both in adding force to the blow, and in tearing the roots out of 

 the earth. 



It is an efficient tool in the hand of an expert man, but it requires con- 

 siderable strength of arm as well as constant exertion, and therefore various 

 implements have been invented for the purpose of expediting the work and 

 lessening the labour. These are generally constructed upon the principle 

 of containing a hopper for the reception of the turnips, and knives fixed 

 in a wheel, which is worked by a winch-handle, and cuts the roots as it 

 revolves : but some are formed, in a more simple manner, with upright 

 slicers, wliich receive the roots from an inclined trough, and are wrought 

 with the hand by a lever*. They are, however, so well known, that we 

 deem it unnecessary to describe them more minutely ; but we insert in 

 the following page cuts of a turnip-slic'uig cart, with the drawings of which 

 we have been lately favoured by Messrs. Kansome of Ipswich, and we 

 transcribe the description from an account furnished to us by a practical 

 farmer, at whose suggestion the implement was constructed, with the 

 intention of cutting the roots upon the ground. 



When the tops of the turnips are fed off, the bottoms, or bulbs, are 

 picked up and put into the cart. The horse moving forward, the turnips 

 are cut in a few minutes either into slices or smaller pieces on the place 

 where they were grown, or any other part of the field : the pieces are scattered 

 behind the cart, and not a vestige will be left uneaten by the flock on dry 



* See plates of improved .specimens of these in the Quart. Journ. of As^ric, N. S., 

 vol. iii. p. 127 ; and in the Transactions of the Highland Society, N.S., vol. iv. p. 51. — 

 The former is made by Mr. Morton of Edinburgh, and the latter by J\Ir. Baird of 

 Shotts. 



