10 HORTICULTURAL MEMOIRS. 



as other green food, either consumed 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 days 

 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 subsequent crop of grain. In Jersey (7) it 

 is the usual practice to follow it by wheat. As it draws 

 its nourishment from the deeper parts of the soil, it is 

 evident that it is particularly calculated to succeed the 

 generality of fibrous-rooted vegetables. If sown, therefore, 

 after a hay or barley crop, it seldom needs any manure, 

 and yields a very good produce without it. In England, 

 where manure is required, farm-yard dung is preferred, and 

 it is turned into the soil by a light plough, immediately 

 before sowing the seedi But in Guernsey, sea-weed is 

 universally adopted when it can be obtained, a species of 

 manure, in which many districts of the Highlands abound, 

 although its use is by no means so extensive as it deserves 

 to be. The recent and apparently steady diminution in 

 the price of kelp now going on, will doubtless introduce 

 this valuable manure into much greater use in the High- 

 lands, than has hitherto been the case. 



The parsnip is considered by the Guernsey farmers, to 

 be the most nutritious root known, superior even to the 



(7) And also in Guernsey. 



