186 



BRA 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



BRA 



Turnips are so closed as to exclude all hoeing, any weeds still 

 shew themselves, women and children should be sent in to 

 pull them by hand. The second hoeing is sometimes omitted, 

 but seldom without great detriment to the crop and the land ; 

 and, strange to tell, there are yet some parts of the kingdom 

 wherein, it is said, hoeing of Turnips is altogether omitted. 

 Upon the whole, the object of the first hoeing should be, not 

 so much that of setting out the plants at exact and wide dis- 

 tances, as of checking the weeds, and thinning the plants, 

 to prevent their crowding each other ; the regulation of dis- 

 tances should be left in a great measure to the second hoeing : 

 in the first, by reason of many accidents young Turnip plants 

 are liable to, it is a work of hazard and uncertainty ; in the 

 second, not only proper distances, but proper plants, may be 

 chosen with a degree of safety and certainty. The Norfolk 

 hoes are from nine to eleven inches wide. It is the interest 

 of the hoer to work with a wide hoe, because he performs 

 his work sooner, and has fewer plants to set out ; his interest, 

 therefore, is, in this case, in direct opposition to that of his 

 employer. The width of the hoe ought to be in proportion 

 to the medium distance between the plants, and that, it has 

 already been observed, should be in proportion to their ex- 

 pected size : for twelve inches, a seven-inch hoe is sufficient. 

 By sowing at different seasons, six men will hoe a hundred 

 acres twice over ; such as do not vary the season, must of 

 course proportionably increase the number. The price in 

 Norfolk, is 6*. an acre for the two hoeings, when let jointly, 

 as they commonly are ; if let separately, the first is from 

 3s. Gd. to 4s. ; the second from 2s. to Zs. 6d. In other counties, 

 8*., 10*., and even 12$. an acre, are given for the two hoeings ; 

 but the Norfolk men are more expert in the business, and 

 the soil of that county is more friable, and free from obstruc- 

 tions. In crops of drilled Turnips, the work of hoeing may 

 certainly be done cheaper, namely, from four to hve shillings 

 the acre; and cheaper still with the horse-hoe, when hand- 

 hoeing will be required only in the rows. When Turnips 

 are sown in drills, it will be the best way to hoe between 

 every other row first, and some time after to hoe the alter- 

 nate intervals, by which method the plants will receive more 

 benefit from the often stirring the ground, than they would 

 do if all the intervals were hoed at one time, and the plants 

 will be in less danger of suffering from the earth being thrown 

 up too high on some rows, while others may be left too bare 

 of earth ; but when the earth has been thrown up on one 

 side of the drill, it may be turned down again when the next 

 interval is hoed, and this alternate moving of the earth will 

 prepare the ground very well for the succeeding crop, as 

 well as greatly improve the Turnips ; but as this plough can- 

 not be well drawn nearer to the drills than two or three 

 inches, the remaining ground should be forked to loosen the 

 parts, and make way for the fibres of the roots to strike out 

 into the intervals ; otherwise, if the land be strong, it will be- 

 come so hard in those places which are not stirred, as to stint 

 the growth of the Turnips, and this may be prevented at a 

 small expense ; a good hand will perform a great deal of this 

 ivork in a day ; and whoever will make the trial, will find 

 their account in practising it, especially on all strong land, 

 where the Turnips are much more liable to suffer from the 

 binding of the ground, than on a loose soil ; but yet in all 

 sorts of ground it will be of great service to practise this. 

 When the ground is thus stirred in every part, one ploughing 

 will be sufficient, after the Turnips are eaten off the ground, 

 to prepare it for the sowing of Barley or any other crop ; so 

 that there will be an advantage in this when the Turnips are 

 kept late on the ground, as will often be the case, especially 

 when they are cultivated for the feeding of ewes, because it 



is often the middle of April before the ground will be clear- 

 ed ; for late feed in the spring, before the grass comes up, 

 is the most wanted, where numbers of sheep and ewes may 

 be maintained, and one acre of Turnips will afford more feed 



than thirty acres of the best pasture at that season. The 



chief consumption of field Turnips, is for feeding either neat 

 cattle or sheep : the first is most common in Norfolk, and 

 the second in most other counties. In feeding neat or black 

 cattle, the most common practice is, to draw and cart off the 

 whole crop ; the time of drawing begins about Michaelmas, 

 and continues until the plants are in blow. They are drawn 

 by hand until the frost is in the ground, or has cut off the 

 tops; they are then pulled by two-tined hooks," which in 

 Norfolk they call crooms. When the roots are buried in a 

 deep snow, it is removed by an implement called the snow- 

 sledge ; the head-lands and side-lands are first cleared, and 

 then they begin on one side, and clear the ground progres- 

 sively for the plough : some leave the small roots to increase 

 in size, and to throw out tops for feed in the spring : but 

 this can be done only on land that will bring Barley with one 

 ploughing. The most common method of giving Turnips to 

 cattle, is by throwing them abroad on stubbles, grass-land, 

 and fallows : the general practice is, to begin with theWheat- 

 stubbles, until they are broken up for fallow for Barley. The 

 next throwing ground is frequently the Barley-stubbles, until 

 they in their turn are broken up for Turnip-fallow. From 

 about Christmas till the beginning of April, the Clover lays 

 are thrown open ; and after these are shut up, the Turnip- 

 fallows sometimes become the throwing place. In throwing 

 Turnips, the carts begin on one side of the land, and work 

 regularly to the other, giving every part an equal share, and 

 never throwing twice in the same place, until the whole is 

 gone over. At the beginning of the season, whilst grass is 

 still in plenty for the lean stock, the fatting cattle are kept 

 constantly in the same piece, having a fresh supply of Turnips 

 every day, or every two days at farthest : but when the Clo- 

 ver stubbles are cleared, and the store-beasts begin to want 

 assistance from Turnips, the fatting cattle are followed by 

 rearing cattle, lean bullocks, cows, or store-sheep, to pick 

 up their leavings. In this case it is convenient to have three 

 shifts or pieces of throwing ground, one for the head beasts, 

 one for the followers, and the third empty, to throw in : two 

 pieces or dvisions are indispensably necessary. The Turnips 

 should be thrown evenly and thinly, about a yard asunder, 

 not in heaps or parcels ; for whilst a bullock is breaking one 

 Turnip, he should not have it in his power to tread or dung 

 upon another. The bullocks, sometimes, when the distance is 

 not too great, are driven into the straw-yard at night, other- 

 wise they have a little clean straw given them under the hedge, 

 merely to clean their mouths from the dirt of the Turnips ; not 

 one in ten of the highly-finished bullocks, that are annually 

 sent to Smithfield market out of Norfolk, taste one handful 

 of hay, or any other food beside Turnips and Barley-straw, 

 except such as are finished witli Hay-grass in the spring : and 

 a few, that have a little hay and Turnips towards spring, when 

 the Turnips are going off, before the Ray-grass lays are ready 

 to receive them ; which is an excellent practice, bullocks 

 being otherwise liable to receive a check between Turnips 

 and grass. It is evident that this method of throwing Tur- 

 nips cannot be practised except on dry land, and not even on 

 that in a wet season : in such cases, nothing but a sound old 

 lay will answer the purpose ; and, where it can be done, a 

 farmer should contrive to have two such pieces in the neigh- 

 bourhood of his Turnips. Another method of fatting cattle 

 is, to keep them loose in a straw-yard, giving them the Tur- 

 nips in close bins, or small cow-cribs, with boards or ban 



