790 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



ing cattle, and sometimes milk cows. A grass field contiguous to the turnip one is 

 always very desirable, that the sheep confined on other sides by hurdles or nets, may 

 always find a dry place to lie on. 



4898. In the expenditure of turnips to young cattle, and to sheep in their first year to- 

 wards spring, when the loosening and shedding of their teeth render them unable to break 

 the large roots, it is usual to cut or slice the turnips, either by means of a spade, or 

 chopping knife, or by an implement constructed for the purpose, called a turnip- 

 slicer, formerly mentioned (2456.) ; or they are crushed by means of a heavy 

 wooden mallet. 



4899. During severefrosts, turnips become so hard that no animal is able to bite them. 

 The best remedy in this case is, to lay them for some time in running water, which effec- 

 tually thaws them ; or, in close feeding houses, the turnips intended for next day's use, 

 may be stored up over night, in one end of the building, and the warmth of the animals 

 will thaw them sufficiently before morning. But in those months when frosts are usually 

 most severe, it is advisable to have always a few days' consumption in the turnip barn. 

 When a severe frost continues long, or if the ground be covered deep with snow, potatoes 

 ought to be employed as a substitute. 



4900. The advantages of eating turnips on the place of their growth hy sheep, both in ma- 

 nuring and consolidating the ground, are sufficiently well known to every farmer. One 

 great defect of the inferior sort of turnip soil is the want of tenacity ; and it is found 

 that valuable crops of wheat may be obtained upon very light porous soils, after turnips 

 so consumed. It is not uncommon to let turnips at an agreed price, or board, for each 

 sheep or beast weekly. This varies according to age and size, and the state of the de- 

 mand, from four-pence or less, to eight-pence or more for each sheep weekly, and from 

 two shillings to five for each beast. An acre of good turnips, say thirty tons, with straw, 

 will fatten an ox of sixty stone, or ten Leicester sheep. Supposing the turnips worth 

 six guineas, this may bring the weekly keep of the ox to six shillings and three-pence half- 

 penny, and of the sheep to about seven-pence halfpenny a week. In this way of letting, 

 however, disputes may arise, as the taker may not be careful to have them eaten up clean. 

 The person who lets the turnips has to maintain a herd for the taker ; and when let for 

 c;attle, and consequently to be carried off, the taker finds a man and horse, and the latter 

 maintaining both. The taker has to provide hurdles or nets for fencing the allotments to 

 sheep ; but the latter must fence his own hedges if necessary. The period at which the 

 taker is to consume the whole is usually fixed in the agreement, that the seller may 

 be enabled to plough and sow his land in proper season. {Suppl. to Encyc. Brit. art. 

 Agr,) 



4901. The Swedish and yellow turnip are eaten greedily by horses; and afford a very 

 nutritive and salutary food along with hay or straw for working stock. The best mode 

 is to steam them after previously passing them through the slicing machine, as no root 

 requires so much cooking as the Swedish turnip. Horses will also eat the white turnip, 

 but not freely, unless they have been early accustomed to them, as in some parts of 

 Norfolk. 



4902. Near large towns the most profitable mode of disposing of turnips, is to the 

 cow-keepers and greens-grocers. 



4903. The application of turnips in domestic economy is well known. They may also 

 be used in the distillery, and a wine is said to be made from them by the London manu- 

 facturers of imitations of foreign wine. 



4904. The storing of turnips is attended with too much labor and risk, to be of much 

 advantage in the greater part of the kingdom. Common turnips are never stored in 

 any great quantity, though sometimes a portion is drawn and formed into heaps, like 

 potatoe camps, and lightly covered with straw, or preserved for some time under a shed. 

 On these occasions , the shaws or leaves, and the tap-rootsj must be cut off and removed 

 before storing up, to prevent heating and rotting. The heaps must not be covered with 

 earth like potatoes, for in this case their complete destruction is inevitable. This root 

 contains too much water to be preserved for any length of time in a fresh and palatable 

 state, after being removed from the ground ; and though the loss in seasons unusually 

 severe, particularly in the white globe variety, is commonly very great, it is probable that a 

 regular system of storing the whole, or the greater part of the crop every season, would, 

 upon an average of years, be attended with still greater loss ; besides the labor and ex- 

 pense, where turnips are cultivated extensively, would be intolerable. {Sujip. ^c.) 



4905. Taking up and replacing is a mode by which turnips have been preserved, by 

 Blaikie, of Holkham, and some others. The mode is to cart the turnips from the field 

 where they grow, to a piece of ground near the farm-offices before the winter rains set in, 

 when the tap-root being cut off, the plants are set on the surface of the ground, in an up- 

 right position, as close to each other as they can stand, where they keep much better than 

 in a store, during the whole season. And the advantages of having them quite close to 

 the homestead, in place of bringing them most probably from a distant part of the farm in 



