ON ROOT CROPS. Ill 



Neat cattle and sheep have trebled in England since the culture 

 of the turnip crop commenced, about fifty years ago. And the in- 

 crease is attributed by writers on the svxbject almost wholly, if not 

 entirely, to the turnip culture. " English agriculture has been rev- 

 olutionized by it." Mr. Webster saw these fields of turnips, of 

 three, four and five hundred acres. 



The great extent of the turnip culture in Scotland, is evidence 

 that such crops cannot be unsuited to Massachusetts, as the climate 

 there resembles ours more than the English does. 



Objections considered. " Few barns," it is said, " have a suit- 

 able cellar, and the labor of storing a large crop of turnips in the 

 house cellar, and of carrying them to the barn as they are wanted, 

 is an insuperable difficulty." The labor would not be trifling, but 

 how many tons of English hay, that could be spared in consequence 

 for the market, would it require, to hire a boy to do all the carrying ? 

 " Insects attack every kind of turnip,''^ it is further said. This 

 objection is a great one, it is admitted. The half acre of turnips 

 of which mention was made above, were green as the sea on the 1st 

 of July last, and about the 15th there were some half dozen spots 

 where the turnip louse was commencing. By the 1st of August, 

 every leaf was covered, aud remained so a little more than two 

 months, when thej^ yielded to a cold storm and disappeared rapidly. 

 They staid too long, however, for the crop. It was estimated in 

 June that there would be five hundred bushels upon the half acre — 

 there cannot now be one hundred bushels. 



But this may not occur again in ten years. Besides, some very 

 simple remedy may be yet discovered. When the Government of 

 Sweden called the attention of Linnaeus to the fact, that all the ship 

 timber in the dock was worm eaten, he discovered the cause to be a 

 ' little fly, and so simple a thing as laying the timber under water for 

 the few days, during which the fly laid its eggs, prevented the diffi- 

 culty entirely. Some other Linnaeus may find, that though he can- 

 not lay a turnip lot under water, there may be a kind of water which 

 can be sprinkled upon the turnip, destructive to the louse, and yet 

 safe for the plant. I would recommend an experiment, beginning 

 with soap suds, adding dissolved potash gradually, going from medi- 

 f um strength to one that would color the leaf. Animal life would feel 

 I it before vegetable. Something short of the death of the plant 

 would kill the louse, there can be no doubt. Much observation would 



