ENGLISH TURNIPS. 



TURNIPS. 



There are two quite distinct species of Turnips grown, one called the English Turnip, and 

 the other the Swede, or Ruta Baga Turnip. As they require somewhat different treatment, 



serious mistakes are some- 

 times made on that point. 

 In ordering seeds, care 

 should be taken to state 

 which kind is desired. 

 The English Turnip, if 

 designed for early use, 

 should be sown soon as the 

 ground can be prepared 

 in the spring, so as to 

 have the benefit of early 

 showers, for the Turnip 

 will not grow in dry, hot 

 weather. For the main 

 crop, for fall and winter 

 use, sow in August, and 

 the plants will have the 

 benefit of the autumn 

 rains. * If the weather 

 should prove dry, the crop 

 will be light. The soil 

 for Turnips should be rich and mellow. Sow in drills, from twelve to eighteen inches apart, and 

 half an inch deep. When the plants are a few inches in height, and strong enough to resist the 

 attack of insects, thin them out to some five or six inches apart in the drills. Two pounds of 

 seed are sufficient for an acre. 

 Fig.. 1 represents the Strap- 

 Leaved Purple-Top; 2, Orange 

 Jelly; 3, Yellow Malta; 5, 

 Jersey Navet ; 7, White Nor- 

 folk. 



The SWEDE, or RUTA BAGA 

 TURNIPS are large, very solid, 

 perhaps the most solid vegeta- 

 ble that grows. The flesh of 

 nearly all the varieties are yel- 

 low. They do not grow as 

 rapidly as the English Turnips, 

 and should be sown as early as 

 the first of June. The rows 

 should be about eighteen inches SWEDE TURNIPS. 



apart, and the plants in the 



rows not less than ten inches. The engravings show, fig. 4, Carter's Imperial Purple-Top ; fig. 

 6, Green-Top. We do not suppose that a warm, dry climate will ever be considered favorable 

 to Turnip culture, and yet we never saw better crops in the most favored districts of England 

 than we have seen in America. It is only in exceptionally dry seasons that our crop fails, with 

 good culture. A soil rich in phosphates is necessary for a large crop, hence all bone manures 

 are exceedingly valuable. With proper Turnip food and a moist season success is almost certain. 

 There is then only one enemy to be conquered. The little black flea, or Turnip beetle, is very 

 destructive when the plants are in the seed-leaf, but with a fair sAon and a rich soil the plants 

 are soon in the rough leaf, when they are troubled no longer. Some good farmers sow twice the 

 usual quantity of seed, and in this way save plenty from the little enemy, and this, we have no 

 doubt, is the safest and most economical way, for it is better to feed them on plants that we do not 

 need than on those upon which the crop depends. 



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