SUCCULENT. ROOTS. 233 



In Barbary a small parsnip-like turnip with fibrous 

 roots, called in that country el bashoure, is held in 

 much esteem for its agreeable pungency.* 



A light gravelly soil, broken fine by tillage, is most 

 favourable to the production of turnips of the best 

 quality ; but they will succeed in almost any land. 

 Any poor, light, sandy ground suits the naveu, which 

 has the great advantage of never requiring any 

 manure in its cultivation. 



Turnips may be obtained in this country in suc- 

 cession almost throughout the year by sowing seed 

 every month in spring and summer. This is dis- 

 tributed broad-cast, or sometimes sown in drills in the 

 proportion- of about half an ounce of seed to one 

 hundred square feet. As soon as the plants are 

 sufficiently advanced, having rough leaves of- about 

 an inch broad, they are hoed and thinned to six or 

 eight inches apart from each other. In the early 

 stages of their growth turnips are rather a delicate 

 crop. When they first put forth their tender and 

 succulent seed-leaves, they are liable to be preyed 

 upon by a peculiar species of beetle called thence the 

 turnip fly ; this is extremely destructive, and various 

 preventives against the evil have been suggested. 

 Several preparations of the seeds previously to sow- 

 ing have by turns been recommended, such as steep- 

 ing them in sulphur-water or sprinkling them with 

 soot at the time of sowing ; these, however, have 

 not been considered efficacious, and even when 

 they have apparently been successful, perhaps it has 

 been under circumstances in which the plants would 

 have equally escaped without any precautionary mea- 

 sure . No insect can very well deposit its eggs in the 

 seed of the turnip before it is in the ground, at least 

 there is no known species which perforates the pods 

 r that purpose. The sulphur or soot, or any other 



* Shaw's Travels. 

 VOL. xv. 20* 



