786 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



be ripe. Subsequent experiments, which will be found detailed in The Farmer's Muga^ 

 'Arte, and Caledonian and London Horticultural Transactions, have firmly established the 

 fact, that the curl is prevented by using unripe seed, therefore the farmer ought to select 

 his seed stock a fortnight or three weeks before he takes up the general crop, as already 

 recommended. It is also a safe practice frequently to change the seed, and also to change 

 the variety. 



4875. Sherrif, an ingenious speculator and yet practical agriculturist, is of opinion that there are only 

 two causes for the curled disorder in potatoes. " The first is excessive seed bearing, that is, carrying great 

 quantities of plums or apples; from the effects of which, if the plant be not too far advanced in life, it 

 may recover for a time, by removing it to a shady or upland situation. The second cause is time or old 

 age, which never fails ultimately to bring the curled or shrivelled disorder, followed by death, on the 

 whole animal and vegetable kingdoms. An old decaying oak is an instance of the curled or shrivelled 

 state of trees from age, as is " the lean and slippered pantaloon" of the curled disorder from old age in 

 the human species. An apple tree, again, that has carried extraordinary crops of fruit within a few years, 

 is often in the state of a potatoe curled from excessive apple bearing ; so is a hart, or a buck, immediately 

 after the rutting season. Both the tree and animals will recover their health and vigor for a time, unless 

 they are too old, or have gone to the very greatest and last extremity in seed bearing and venery, in which 

 cases the effects will be the same as those of time, viz. death. It is not then to over-ripening the tubers that 

 the curled disorder in potatoes is to be attributed, but to time and seed-bearing, that is, carrying great 

 quantities of plums or apples. 



Sect. II. The Tumijy. ' Brassica Rapa^ L. Tetrad. Siliq. L. oxidi Cruciferece, J. 

 Bave, Fr. ; Bube, Ger. ; and Bapa, Ital. 



4876. The turnip is a native of Britain, but in its wild state is not to be recognized by 

 ordinary observations from wild mustard. It was cultivated as food for cattle by the 

 Romans ; and has been sown for the same purpose in the fields of Germany and the low 

 countries from time immemorial. When they were introduced in this country, as a field 

 plant, is unknown ; but it is probable turnips would be found in some gardens of con- 

 vents from the time of the Romans ; and it is certain that they were in field culture 

 before the middle of the seventeenth century, though then, and for a long time after- 

 wards, in a very inferior and ineffectual manner. It has been stated that turnips were 

 introduced from Hanover in George I. 's time ; but so far from this having been the case, 

 George II. caused an abstract of the Norfolk system of turnip husbandry to be drawn 

 up for the use of his subjects in Hanover. [Campbell's Polit. Survey, &c. vol. iii. p. 80.) 

 ITie introduction of improved turnip culture into the husbandry of Britain, Brown 

 observes, " occasioned one of those revolutions in rural art which are constantly oc- 

 curring among husbandmen ; and, though the revolution came on with slow and gradual 

 steps, yet it may now be viewed as completely and thoroughly established. Before the 

 introduction of this root, it was impossible to cultivate light soils successfully, or to devise 

 suitable rotations for cropping them with advantage. It was likewise a difficult task ta 

 support live-stock through the winter and spring months ; and as for feeding and pre- 

 paring cattle and sheep for market during these inclement seasons, the practice was 

 hardly thought of, and still more rarely attempted, unless where a full stock of hay was 

 provided, which only happened in very few instances. The benefits derived from turnip 

 husbandry are, therefore, of great magnitude. Light soils are now cultivated with profit 

 and facility ; abundance of food is provided for man and beast ; the earth is turned to 

 the uses for which it is physically calculated; and, by being suitably cleaned with this 

 preparatory crop, a bed is provided for grass seeds, wherein they florish and prosper 

 with greater vigor than after any other preparation." ( Treatise on Bural Jffairs.) 



4877. Turnips and clover, it is elsewhere observed, " are the two main pillars of the 

 best courses of British husbandry ; they have contributed more to preserve and augment 

 the fertility of the soil for producing grain to enlarge and improve our breeds of cattle 

 and sheep and to afford a regular supply of butcher's meat all the year, than any other 

 crops ; and they will probably be long found vastly superior, for extensive cultivation, ta 

 any of the rivals which have often been opposed to them in particular situations. Though 

 turnips were long cultivated in Norfolk before they were known in the northern counties, 

 yet it is an undoubted fact that their culture was first brought to perfection in Roxburgh- 

 shire, Berwickshire, and Northumberland, and chiefly through the exertions of Dawson, 

 of Frogden, in the first named county, and Bailey, of ChiUighain, in the latter. 



4878. The varieties of turnip grown by farmers may be arranged as whites and 

 yellows. 



4879. Of white turnips, by far the best and most generally cultivated, is the globe;, 

 but there are also the green topped, having the bulb tinged ; greenish and purple topped, 

 with the bulb reddish, which, though they do not produce so large a crop as the globe or 

 oval, stand the winter better, and the red topped, it is said, will keep till February. The 

 pudding, or tankard turnip, has a white bulb which rises from eight to twelve inches high, 

 standing almost wholly above ground. It is less prolific than any of the others, and 

 more liable to l)e attacked by frost. 



4880. Of yellow turnips,, there are the field yellow, which is more hardy than the globe,, 

 and answers well for succeeding that variety in spring ; and the ruta baga, or Swedish 



