THE TURNIP. 631 



in August or September. At first a few black spots, about the size 

 of hail-stones, speck the leaves. The gangrene spreads rapidly, runs 

 down and blotches the stem, and rots the suckers in a wholesale man- 

 ner. Cutting off the branches, raising new varieties, change of soil, 

 new modes of culture, and endless specifics, have all been tried in vain. 

 The only chance of a sound crop is to grow early varieties, plant 

 early, and get them safely harvested before the disease comes. When 

 this is the case, the disease has no power over the tubers afterwards ; 

 but when once the black specks appear among them, the disease is 

 latent in the tubers, and may break forth after they are stored. 

 Forcing the Potato. See p. 518. 



The Jerusalem Artichoke. 



The Jerusalem Artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus, L.) is a tuberous- 

 rooted perennial, a native of Brazil, but sufficiently hardy to thrive 

 in the open air in Britain. Before the potato was known, the tubers 

 of this plant were much esteemed, but they are now comparatively 

 neglected, though in our opinion the Jerusalem artichoke is as deserving 

 of culture as the common artichoke. The tubers are wholesome, nu- 

 tritious, and in stews boiled and mashed with butter, or baked in pies 

 with spices, they have an excellent flavour. In many families they 

 are much used for soups. Propagation is effected by division of the 

 tuber, or by small tubers planted in March : the soil ought to be 

 light, sandy, and rich, and the situation open. As the stems grow 

 from four feet to eight feet in height, the rows may be three feet or 

 four feet apart, and the plants a foot distant in the row. The tubers 

 may either be taken from the plants as wanted, or the crop dug up and 

 housed in the manner of potatoes. No plant in the whole catalogue of 

 culinary vegetables requires less care in its culture. It very seldom 

 flowers, but by destroying the tubers as they appear, it might doubtless 

 be made to produce seed, by means of wliich some improved varieties 

 might possibly be obtained. 



The Turnip. 



The Turnip (Brassica Rapa, L.) is a cruciferous biennial, a native 

 of Britain, of no value in its wild state, but so greatly changed by 

 culture as to become one of our most useful culinary and agricultural 

 vegetables. It was cultivated by the Romans, but was little known 

 about London till the beginning of the seventeenth century. The use 

 of the root in broths, soups, stews, and entire or mashed, is general in 

 all temperate climates, and also the use of the tender radical and stem 

 leaves, and the points of the shoots, when the plant is coming into 

 flower, as greens. The seedling plants, when the rough leaf is begin- 

 ning to appear, like those of all others of the Brassica family, are 

 used in small salading. The earliest crop of turnips, if sown in March, 

 comes into use about the end of May or beginning of June, and a 

 succession is kept up throughout the summer by subsequent sowings 

 once a fortnight till September ; and turnips may be had through the 

 winter, partly from the open garden and partly from roots stored 



