CULTIVATION OF PARSNIP. 413 



44,000 Ib. per English acre. This is a less 

 heavy crop than turnip, but it is much more 

 considerable than that either of the carrot or 

 potato. If we consider, at the same time, that 

 the quantity of saccharine, mucilaginous, and, 

 generally speaking,' of nutritious matter in the 

 parsnip, beafc a far larger proportion to the wa- 

 ter, than it does in the turnip, its superiority in 

 point of produce, will appear in this case also to 

 be greater. 



The roots are dug up about the middle of 

 August, when they are thought to be most nu- 

 tritious, and to fatten animals better than after 

 the leaves are decayed. I do not understand 

 that the green tops are used in Guernsey, al- 

 though in England they have been found as use- 

 ful for live stock, as other green food, either con- 

 sumed in the field, or cut off when the roots are 

 taken up. The quantity dug up at this season, 

 is not more than is required for two or three 

 clays consumption. It is only in October that 

 the root is fully ripe, when it may be dug up 

 with forks, and preserved dry in sheds during 

 the winter, but it is usually left in the ground 

 in Guernsey, where frost is rare, and taken up 

 as it is wanted. 



The parsnip is considered by the farmers of 

 Guernsey, as the best fallow crop known, and as 

 in the greatest degree influencing the subse- 

 quent crop of grain. In Jersey, it is the usual 



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