244 



CRUCIFERyE. LXXXIII. BRASSICA. 



purpose of augmenting and enriching the manure into which the 

 straw of corn is converted. 



Climate. The climate most desirable for the Turnip is cool 

 and temperate. Turnips in the south of Europe never grow 

 large, and a rapid climate is disadvantageous to the Turnip, and 

 they are accordingly found of no size in Russia, Sweden, and 

 many parts of North America. 



Preparing 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 set to work in order to clean and 

 pulverise the soil, and the weed-roots are carefully burnt or 

 carried off the field to form a compost, usually with lime. The 

 land then generally undergoes a third ploughing, and weed-roots 

 carried off as before, again harrowed well, sometimes also rolled. 

 It is next laid up in ridgelets from 27 to 30 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 12 or 15 tons per acre, this is spread equally over 

 the ground. The plough immediately follows, and reversing 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 seeds as fast as the new drills are formed. This 

 machine has usually two rollers, one that goes before the sowing 

 apparatus and levels the pointed tops of the ridgelets, and 

 another that follows, for the purpose of compressing the soil and 

 covering the seed. Ground cannot be made too rich for the 

 Turnip, for in fact the weight of the crop depends upon its con- 

 dition in this respect." 



Time of sowing. " The several varieties are somewhat differ- 

 ent ; the Swedish should be put in earliest, and then the yellow, 

 both of them in the month of May. But as these kinds are 

 much less extensively cultivated than the globe, the month of 

 June is the principal seed-time. In the southern counties, Tur- 

 nips are frequently sown in August after peas, wheat, or tares. 

 The crop, however, is always light, and only fit to be eaten down 

 by sheep in spring, or to send their tops to market as greens. 

 After a crop of hotspur peas, sold green for the London market, 

 the land is well cleansed with the horse-hoe, and upon once 

 ploughing Turnips are sown, and when the plants first appear, the 

 field receives a light top dressing of soot, ashes, &c. : this has 

 a good effect in preserving the plants from the depredation of 

 the fly." 



Mode of sowing, in all the best cultivated districts is on 

 raised drills, for sowing broad-cast, or even sowing in rows on a 

 flat surface, is never found to answer. 



After culture. The turnip farmer, as soon as the Turnip has 

 put forth the rough leaf, runs a horse-hoe between the ridgelets, 

 and cuts up the weeds on each side almost close to the ridgelets, 

 clearing out the bottom of the interval at the same time. The 

 iiand-hoers are always set to work as soon as possible after, and 

 the plants are left about 9 inches apart or more. A few days 

 after this a small swing plough enters the intervals between the 

 rows, and taking a furrow slice off each side, forms a smaller 

 ridgelet in the middle. If the weeds still arise in great abund- 

 ance, the horse-hoe may be employed again ; otherwise, the next 

 operation is to go over them a second time with the hand-hoe, 

 when the intermediate ridge is levelled. When no more manual 

 labour is necessary, a small plough with two mould-boards is 

 employed to lay up the earth to the sides of the plants, leaving 

 the ridgelet the same form as when sown, which finishes the 

 process. 



Use of Turnips. They are either eaten by sheep on the spot, 

 lotted off by means of hurdles or nets that they may be regularly 



consumed in grass fields or fold-yards ; when the weather is wet or 

 the fields are moist, when the sheep ought not to be allowed to lie 

 on the field. Eating Turnips on the spot is of great advantage 

 both in manuring and consolidating the ground. Turnips are 

 also used for feeding cattle and sometimes milch cows, but the 

 far greater part, wherever they are extensively cultivated, by 

 sheep. The Swedish and yellow Turnip are eaten greedily by 

 horses, and affords a very nutritive and salutary food along with 

 hay or straw for working stock. During severe frost Turnips 

 become so hard that no animal can eat them ; in this case lay them 

 in running water, which effectually thaws them : or placed 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 by morning. But in those 

 months when frosts are severe, it is always advisable to have a 

 few days' consumption in the turnip barn. It is necessary to 

 slice with a spade or chopping-knife, or crush them by means of 

 a heavy wooden mallet, for sheep and young cattle in their first 

 year towards spring, when the loosening and shedding of their 

 teeth render them unable to break the large roots. A wine is 

 said to be made from the Turnip by the London manufacturers of 

 imitations of foreign wine. A kind of bread is also said to be 

 made of the Turnip. 



Sir Humphrey Davy has proved that Turnips contain 42 parts 

 in 1000 of nutritive matter, of which 7 were mucilage, 34 sugar, 

 and 1 gluten. Swedish Turnips afforded 64 parts of nutritive 

 matter in 1000, of which 9 were starch, 51 sugar, 2 gluten, and 

 2 extract. 



" To raise plants for seed the usual mode is to select the 

 most approved specimens at the season when they are full grown, 

 and either remove all others from the field, and leave them 

 to shoot into flower-stems next year, or transplant them to a 

 place by themselves, where they will be secure from the farina 

 of others of their genus. In either case, they must be protected 

 by earthing up from winter's frost." 



The diseases and injuries to which Turnips are liable are 

 various. At their first appearance the leaves are liable to the 

 attacks of the fly (Aphis and Chrysomela, Lin.) of the cater- 

 pillar (Papilio noctua, &c. Lin.) of the slug (Limax, Lin.) and of 

 mildew. Their roots are attacked by worms of various kinds ; 

 by a singular tendency to monstrosity, known provincially by 

 the names of fingers and toes ; by the ambury ; by canker, and 

 by wasting or gangrene from water or frost. Of all or most of 

 these injuries or diseases, it may be observed that they neither 

 admit of prevention or cure by art, but under favorable circum- 

 stances of soil, climate, culture, and weather they seldom occur, 

 and therefore all that the cultivator can do is to prepare and 

 manure his land properly ; and in the sowing season supply water 

 when the weather is dry or the soil deficient in humidity. 



4 B. NA'PUS (Lin. spec. 931.) leaves smooth, of a greyish- 

 glaucous-hue, radical ones lyrate, stem ones pinnatifid and cre- 

 nated, uppermost ones cordate-lanceolate, clasping the stem ; 

 siliques divaricate-spreading. $ . H. Native country not 

 known. Cultivated in fields. It is to be found almost natu- 

 ralized in waste ground and on ditch banks in Britain. Smith, 

 engl. bot. t. 2146. Schrank. fl. mon. 3. t. 218. Sinapis Napus, 

 Brot. fl. lus. 1. p. 586. 



* A. oleifera (D. C. syst. 2. p. 592.) root slender $ . H. B. 

 oleifera, Mcench. meth. 253. B. Napus, Nestl. Navette d'hiver 

 Natette, Rabette (Fr.) Ruben, Reps, Winter Reps, (Germ.) Rape, 

 Naverv, Coleseed, Winter Navette (Eng.) Lob. icon. t. 200. f. 2. 



Rape. Navette, (Fr.) Ritbsamen, (Germ.) Naba Sylvestre, 

 (Ital.) This is the British Rape, or Colsat. It is distinguished 

 from the Colsat or Colsai of the continent, by the smoothness of 

 its leaves, the other being hispid. It would be desirable, De 

 Candolle observes, if all cultivators would examine whether 



