Book VI. THE TURNIP. 787 



turnip, which may be preserved for consumption till June. The Siberian turnip has a 

 bulb and a branchy top, but both of inferior quality. It is a hybrid between a wliite 

 ruta baga and field cabbage, or between rape and cabbage. 



4881. New varieties are obtained by selection and by counter impregnation ; but in 

 either case the greatest care is requisite to keep the plants at least a furlong from any 

 others of the brassica tribe likely to flower at the same time, otherwise the progeny will 

 certainly be hybridized. 



4882. The choice of sorts may be considered as limited to the white globe, yellow, and 

 Swedish, according as early, middling, or late supplies are wanted. No other varieties 

 are grown by the best farmers. 



4883. In the choice of seed the farmer must rely on the integrity of the seed-dealer, as 

 it is impossible to discover from the grains whether they will turn out true to their 

 kinds. Turnip-seed requires to be frequently changed ; and the best is generally pro- 

 cured from Norfolk and Northumberland. The Norfolk seed, Forsyth observes, is sent 

 to most parts of the kingdom, and even to Ireland : but after two years it degenerates ; 

 so that those who wish to have turnips in perfection, should procure it fresh every year 

 from Norwich, and they will find their account in so doing. For, from its known repu- 

 tation, many of the London seedsmen sell, under that character, seed raised in the 

 vicinity of the metropolis, which is much inferior in quality. 



4884. Turnip-seed will grow of any age, if it has been carefully preserved ; that which is new comes up 

 first, and therefore it is not a bad plan to mix new and old together,as a means of securing a braird against 

 drought or the fly. Whether plants from new or old seed are most secure from the depredations of the 

 fly, is perhaps a question which cannot be easily determined, even by experiments ; for concomitant circum- 

 stances are frequently so much more operative and powerful as to render the difference between them, if 

 there be any, imperceptible. It is, however, known to every practical man, that new seed vegetates 

 several days before the old, and more vigorously ; and it is equally well known that the healthy and 

 vigorous plants escape the fly, when the stinted and sickly seldom or never escape it. Hence it would seem , 

 that new seed, aeteris paribus, is more secure from the fly than old. 



4885. The soil for turnips should always be of a light description. In favorable 

 seasons very good crops may be raised on any soil ; but from the difficulty of removing 

 them, and the injury which the soil must sustain either in that operation, or in eating 

 them on the spot with sheep, they never on such soils can be considered as beneficial to 

 the farmer. Turnips cannot be advantageously cultivated on wet tenacious soils, but 

 are grown on all comparatively dry soils under all the variations of our climate. On 

 dry loams, and all soils of a looser texture, managed according to the best courses of 

 cropping, they enter into the rotation to the extent of a fourth, a sixth, or an eighth part 

 of the land in tillage ; and even on clayey soils they are frequently cultivated, though on 

 a smaller scale, to be eaten by cattle, for the purpose of augmenting and enriching the 

 manure, into which the straw of corn is converted. 



4886. The climate most desirable for the turnip is cool and temperate. This 

 was long ago noticed by Pliny, and it is so obvious on the continent that it admits of 

 no dispute. Von Thaer observes, that the turnips grown on the fields of Germany 

 seldom exceed half a pound in weight, and that all his care could not rai.se one 

 beyond fourteen pounds. In France and Italy they are still less. A rapid climate is 

 equally disadvantageous to the turnip ; and they are accordingly found of no size in 

 Russia, Sweden, and many parts of North America. Even turnips grown in the south- 

 ern counties of England, in the same excellent manner as in Northumberland, never 

 equal the size of those grown in the latter county, or further north, or in Ireland. 



4887. In the preparation of the soil, the first ploughing is given with a deep furrow 

 soon after harvest, usually in the direction of the former ridges ; though, if the soil be 

 dry, it is of little consequence in what direction. As soon as the spring seed-time is 

 over, a second ploughing is given across the former, and the harrows, and, if necessary 

 the rollers, are then set to work to clean and pulverize the soil. All the weed-roots 

 that are brought to the surface are carefully gathered into heaps,. a4Jd either burnt on the 

 ground, or carried off to form a compost, usually with. lime. The land is then gene- 

 rally ploughed a third time, again harrowed well,^ sometimes also rolled, and the weed- 

 roots picked out as before. Unless land is in a much worse state, in regard to clean- 

 ness and pulverization, than it usually is after turnips have been some time a rotation 

 crop, no more ploughings are necessary. It is next laid up in ridgelets, from twenty- 

 seven to thirty inches wide, either with the common swing-plough, or one with two 

 mould-boards, which forms two sides of a ridgelet at once. Well-rotted dung, at the 

 rate of twelve or fifteen tons per acre, is then carried to the field, and dropped from the 

 cart in the middle one of three intervals, in such a quantity as may serve for that and the 

 interval on each side of it. The dung is then divided equally among the three, by a 

 person who goes before the spreaders, one of whom, for each interval, spreads it with a 

 small three-pronged fork along the bottom. The plough immediately follows, and, re- 

 versing the ridgelets, forms new ones over the dung ; and the drill-barrow, commonly 

 one that sows two drills at once, drawn by one horse, deposits the seed as fast as the new 

 drills are formed. This drill-machine is usually furnished with two small rollers ; one 



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