112 ON ROOT CROPS. ^ 



be necessary to (determine what strength of alkali would be required 

 but as the turnip Aphides is so perceptible to the eye, any one can 

 ascertain when it is sufficient to overcome the insect. It will be 

 a triumph worth achieving to overcome this pest, so contemptible for 

 its size, yet so mighty for its numbers. Like the army worm, nothing 

 vegetable can stand before it ; twenty generations — sometimes in a 

 single summer, so that " the son may finish what his short lived sire 

 begun." 



With respect to using potash upon the turnip, though as before 

 stated, a strength that would spare the leaf, might destroy the in- 

 sects ; yet even if the leaf were killed and cut oflf with the scissors, 

 it would be a smaller evil than to allow the ravages to go on, because 

 though the leaf should be killed with the alkali, a new one would 

 grow long before the louse would otherwise leave it. The insect be- 

 gan to disappear in the case referred to, before the middle of Octo- 

 ber, and new leaves in many cases began to grow ; but it is obvious 

 that the leaf would have grown long before that time, had it been 

 cut off by the first of August. 



Manure. — Any manure almost will answer for the French or 

 Swedish turnip. Upon the half acre referred to, which is an island 

 in Essex river, called Dilley Island, I spread rockweed and other 

 sea stuff, such as is washed up by the tide. This was the only kind 

 of manure that had for previous years been used. Probably the 

 plants derived their support from the rotten manure of the last year. 



Quantity of Seed. — One pound of good is sufficient for an acre. 

 This will cost at the seed store about seventy-five cents. 



Preparation of the ground. If the soil has dog grass in it, the 

 rows should be made across the furrows — that is, should run across 

 the furrows made in ploughing the field, and these rows should be 

 made, not with cultivator teeth, but with a pair of oxen or horses, 

 and a plough large enough to go through the dog grass turf, and 

 then mellow soil hoed in to fill these cross furrows, so that the plants 

 may have a free soil to work in. And one excellent effect of a 

 French turnip crop upon dog grass is, to shade, and smother, and 

 extirpate that foul weed. 



Since the potatoe has been suffering from the inscrutable disease 

 •which has prevailed so fearfully, French turnips have come in as a 

 tolerable substitute for the table. A farmer in Essex, who raised 

 them among his corn, sold them at fifty cents per bushel, for cash, 

 at Gloucester market. 



