184 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 3 



tops of which coming up weaker, they do not seem 

 at fiff^t to promise so well Ibr a crop as the coarser 

 kiiiH. and besides which the Hy has more power on 

 thein. The Hy is not one-tenth [)art so troublesome 

 in some pans of Enirland as it is in others. I ain 

 informed that in the north they are not so much 

 troubled with it; and, from personal observation, I 

 know they are not on tlie coast of Norf()lk and 

 Snttoik; the cold blasts from the great Northern 

 Ocean do not suit them. 1 am inclined to believe 

 that the sea fogs, so common on those coasts, are 

 a benefit to the turnips grown there. There are 

 few persons take the trouble of being so particular, 

 as I am in raising Swedish turnip seed. I super- 

 intend the selection, and see that not one turnip is 

 planted that has run out of shape. And, to prevent 

 any inoculation by bees when they are in flower, I 

 will not suffer any thing of the turnip or cabbage 

 tribe to run to seed in my kitchen garden, although 

 it is five hundred yards from where my seed is 

 growing. When it is raised near a villatje, there 

 is no security against inoculation. My ridged crop 

 of Swedish turnips is this year unusually small; but 

 I think I may, without presumption, say, I believe, 

 that there is not to be seen at this time (Auirust 

 31,) a finer or cleaner crop. To show the differ- 

 ence between the crops, I had some drilled on a 

 flat surface, and, as I well knew, the ridges will 

 certainly produce much the greatest weight per 

 acre. By having nearly twice as many turnips 

 on the flat as on the ridges, it might be supposed 

 that a greater weight might be produced. I have 

 tried the two ways, both sown at the same time, 

 and found the ridged turnips so much larger, that 

 they produced the greatest weight per acre. A 

 Swedish turnip is doubled in weight by a small in- 

 crease of its girth. * I have often been somewhat 

 incredulous as to some of the reported weights per 

 acre of Swedish turnips; for. having been f()r some 

 years past in a sweepstakes with Lord Spencer, 1 

 consider, from the weights we have produced, five 

 and twenty tons per acre, a good crop for regular 

 tillage land that has, the previous year, borne a 

 crop of white grain. Around Manchester, where 

 they can obtain such immense quantities of good 

 manure, and have, during the summer, three times 

 the quantity of rain that we have in this county, 

 they can produce a greater weight per acre of 

 Swedish turnips than we can; for turnips cannot 

 have too much rain. I recommend that land in- 

 tended for turnips (but think it not so necessary for 

 corn) should be ploughed up at the beginning of 

 winter; and if it is tree from couch, and intended 

 for Swedes, a small quantity of dung ploughed in, 

 (not too deeply,) wdl produce good eflects, by 

 causing the infant plant to grow stronger and 

 quicker, and therefore sooner free from the attacks 

 of the fiy. 



* With Northumberland ridges a certain degree of 

 fallowing is carried on during the growth of the tur- 

 nips. As to a broad-cast crop of Swedes, I think that 

 quite out of the question with a good system of farm- 

 ing. Three pounds of seed per acre is my usual quan- 

 tity. Swede turnips will keep stacked in the field very 

 w.dl, in not too large heaps; and I think it a good plan 

 to have a reserve of unfrozen turnips there for sheep, 

 in a hard frost. They will keep through a long frost 

 by being placed in rows close to each other, with the 

 roots cut off, the tops thus forming a pretty secure 

 •covering. 



Afler numberless trials to prevent the ravages 

 of the tiirni[) fly, the only way which I found at all 

 successful is, to collect all the weeds I can on the 

 farm, and lay them in heaps all around the field 

 sown with turnips; on the plants coming up, and 

 showini; the least appearance of being attacked 

 by the fly, the heaps to windward are set on fire, 

 brimstone is put in the fire, and thus the strong 

 smoke which is very oflijnsive to the insect, is 

 wafted over the crop. If this is continued till the 

 turnips get into rough leaf, they will be safe; but 

 if beibre this, the process is stopped Ibr five or six 

 hours together, in a fly-working day. the crop, 

 most likelv will be lost: therefore I have not scru- 

 pled on a Sunday to have the fires lighted beibre 

 the morning, and also before the afternoon service. 

 When, some years ago, I mentioned my smoking- 

 fly preventive scheme after dinner at our society's 

 annual meeting, I got a little smoked myself; but 

 having had, last year, a full crop of Swedes, which 

 was a very rare sight, I have had the satisfaction 

 this year (1836,) to see my plan adopted on the 

 farm of the noble patron of our society, and on 

 many other farms in the county. I think my 

 smoking plan might be serviceable to protect hops 

 from the insects which attack them.. The fly 

 commences, and ceases to commit its depreda- 

 tions, at such different times, in different seasons, 

 that no one can with any degree of certainty fix 

 the time for sowing, when the crop shall be least 

 likely to be injured. The fly likes only the smooth 

 seed leaf of the turnip, if that is eaten, the plant 

 dies. When they cannot meet with seed leaves 

 they will eat holes in the rough leaf, but they can- 

 not thus destroy the plant. When corn crops are 

 mowed, they will then prey on the young clover 

 plants. No one has yet been able to prove where 

 the fly is produced. Some assert that it comes 

 from the earth; others that it is bred in the seed. 

 I made an experiment two years ago, which satis- 

 fied me and all those I showed it to, that it comes 

 out of neither. When my turnips were sown, I 

 covered a piece of land with a large square of thin 

 gauze, which I so fastened down that no insect 

 could creep under it. Under the gauze, the tur- 

 nips were not touched by the fly; all round it they 

 were eaten and destroyed by it. Where the in- 

 sect is generated, is not known, it flies in the air 

 like other insects, and although it may appear 

 strange to us, it has the power to discover that 

 there is food for it as soon as the turnip leaf ap- 

 pears above ground. I have dwelt long on the 

 cultivation of mangel wurzel and turnips; but I 

 trust that the generality of my readers will so 

 agree with me as to the great value of these crops 

 as not to think me tedious. 



For the Farmer's Register. 



MEMORANDA OF HASTY VISITS TO THE COUN- 

 TRY. 



By the Editor. 



Crops and farming at Shirley. 



June I6th, 1837. 



The crop of wheat on the Shirley farm is very 

 fine for this bad season. That which succeeded 

 corn, stands thin, and is much hurt by the Hessian 

 fly. But the field on clover fallow seems not to 

 have been materially reduced in product by that 



