ART OF GARDENING. 63 



fruit may be exposed to the sun. They can be trained either 

 horizontally or to a pole. Care should be taken that the 

 fruit does not rot on the ground. Tomatoes are great ex- 

 hausters of the soil, and their beds should be changed from 

 year to year. 



TURNIP (Brassica Eapd). 



Turnips should be sown early in the spring for summer 

 use, and for winter vegetables a bed should be sown later. 

 If the first crop does not come to maturity early in summer, 

 they are stringy and worm-eaten. 



Turnips are best grown upon land which has been pre- 

 viously manured. A light soil is desirable. Insects must 

 be fought off constantly, by lime, ashes, soot, and pungent 

 powders put on the surface of the bed. Sometimes whole 

 beds of turnips are cut off by insects. 



For garden culture, turnip-seed is sown in drills about a 

 foot apart, and hoed between the rows as the plants grow. 



The Swedish, or Ruta-Baga, which grows to an enormous 

 size, is very good for cows mixed with other food. 



The table varieties are various. The small turnips are 

 sweeter than the larger kinds, which are more suitable for 

 extensive agricultural purposes. 



Early White Dutch, Swan's Egg, Long Yellow French, 

 and many other varieties of white and purple rooted turnip, 

 are excellent for the table. 



Garden-seed should seldom be put lower down than an 

 inch, unless where seed is necessarily sown late, when it 

 may be covered deeper, to protect the seed from being 

 scorched by the sun. 



Though it has never been proved that plants throw out 

 " matters of an excrementitious nature injurious to the plant 

 from which they have been separated," yet it is known that 



