R54 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Par* III. 



is prevented After the rata Is come nearly to boH, pom .1 off wad replace the hot by cold water into 

 which throw a good portion of tail The cold rater tends the heat from the surface to the heart of the 

 ",',!„,', a,»i maka It mealy. Like all other vegetables, they arc bnprored by being boiled with salt, which 

 ought not, therefore, to be •pared Meek. Hag. L IS.) 



169. Frosted potatoes may be applied to various useful purposes, for food by thawing 

 in cold water, or being pared, then thawed, and boiled with a little salt. Salt, or salt- 

 petre chaff, or bruised oats, boiled with them, will render them (it food for cattle, swine, 

 poultry ftc. Starch, and paste for weavers, bookbinders, and shoemakers, may be made 

 from then when too sweet to be rendered palatable, and also an ardent spirit, from 

 hydrometer proof to 10 per cent over proof. 

 ' 5370. The disease* 0/ the potato are chiefly the scab, the worm, and curl. 



made'bv the farmers near Edinburgh, who observed that seed potato..- procured from the moors, or 

 elevated cold ground, in the internal parts of the country, never suffered from the curl and * conse- 

 quently became a practice, every three or four years, to procure a change ol seed from these districts. 



vented by using unripe seed ; therefore the farmer ought to select his seed stock a fortnight or three weeks 

 before he takes up the general crop, as already recommended. It is also a safe practice frequently to 

 change the seed, and also to change the variety. .«...*.»«.• , 



5172 Shirreff, an ingenious speculator and practical agriculturist, is of opinion that there are only 

 two causes for the curled disorder in potatoes. The lirst is excessive seed-bearing, that is, carrying great 

 quantities of plums or apples j from the effects of which, if the plant be not too far advanced in lite, it 

 in iy recover for a time, by removing it to a shadv or upland situation. The s cond cause is time or old 

 age which never fads ultimately to bring the curled or shrivelled disorder, followed by death, on the 

 whole animal and vegetable kingdoms. An old decaying oak is an instance ot the curled or shrivelled 

 state of trees Horn age, as is " the lean and slippered pantaloon " of the curled disorder Irom old age in 

 the human species. An apple tree, again, that has carried extraordinary crops of Iruit within a few years, 

 is often in the state of a potato curled from excessive apple-bearing; so is a hart, or a buck, immediately 

 iltcr the rutting season. Both the tree and animals will recover their health and vigour tor a time, unless 

 they are too old or have gone to the very greatest and last extremity in seed-bearing and venery, in which 

 cases the effect? will be the same as those of time, viz death. It is not then to over- ripening the tubers 

 that the curled disorder in potatoes is to be attributed, but to time and seed-bearing ; that is, carrying great 

 quantities of plums or apples. 



Sect. II. The Turnip. — Brdssica Rdpa, L. ; Tetradynamia Siliqubsa L., and Cruci- 

 ferce J. Rave, Fr. ; Riibe, Ger. ; Rapa, Ital. ; and Xabo, Span. 

 5:373. The turnip is a native of Britain, but in its wild state it is not to be recognised 

 by ordinary observers from wild mustard. It was cultivated as food for cattle by the 

 Romans ; and has been sown for the same purpose in the fields of Germany and the Low 

 Countries from time immemorial. 



1 When they were introduced in this country, as afield plant, is unknown : but it is probable turnips 

 would be found in some gardens of convents from the time of the Romans; and it is certain that they 

 were in field culture before the middle of the seventeenth century, though then, and for a long time after- 

 wards in a very inferior and ineffectual manner. It has been stated that turnips were introduced from 

 Hanover in George I.'s time; but so far from this having been the case, George II. caused an abstract of 

 the Norfolk system of turnip husbandry to be drawn up for the use of his subjects in Hanover {Campbell's 

 Polit. Survey, &C vol. iii. p. 80.) The introduction of improved turnip culture into the husbandry of 

 Britain, Brown observes, " occasioned one of those revolutions in rural art which are constantly occurring 

 among husbandmen ; and, though the revolution came on with slow and gradual steps, yet it may now he 

 viewed as completely and thoroughly established. Before the introduction of this root, it was impossible 

 to cultivate light so'ils successfully, or to devise suitable rotations for cropping them with advantage. It 

 was likewise a difficult task to support live-stock through the winter and spring months ; and as for feed- 

 ing and preparing cattle and sheep for market during these inclement seasons, the practice was hardly 

 thought of, and still more rarely attempted, unless where a full stock of hay was provided, which only 

 happened in very few instances. The benefits derived from turnip husbandry are, therefore, ol gnat 

 magnitude. Light soils are now cultivated with profit and facility j abundance of food is provided for 

 man and beast ; the earth is turned to the uses for which it is physically calculated ; and, by being suitably 

 cleaned with this preparatory crop, a bed is provided for grass seeds, wherein they flourish and prosper 

 with greater vigour than alter any Other preparation." {Treatise on Rural Affairs.) 



5375. Turnips and clover, it is elsewhere observed, " are the two main pillars of the 

 best courses of British husbandry; they have contributed more to preserve and augment 

 the fertility of the soil for producing grain, to enlarge and improve our breeds of cattle 

 and sheep, and to afford a regular supply of butcher's meat all the year, than any other 

 crops; and they "ill probably be long found vastly superior, for extensive cultivation, to 

 any of the rivals which have often been opposed to them in particular situations. 

 Though turnips were long cultivated in Norfolk before they were known in the northern 

 counties, yet it is an undoubted fact that their culture was first brought to perfection in 

 Roxburghshire, Berwickshire, and Northumberland, and chiefly through the exertions of 

 Dawson, of Frogden, in the first named county, and of Culley, in the latter. 



5S7& Drilling turnips, as well as other crops, evidently originated with Toll, whose first work, Specimen 

 of a Work on Horseshoeing Husbandry, appeared in 1731. it appears that Craig, of Arbigland, in Dum. 

 11 es hire, began to drill turnips about 1746 ; and next we find Philip Howard, of Corby, drilling in 1755; 

 and Pringle, drilling" from hints taken from Tub's book," in 1756 or 1757. William Dawson, who was 

 well acquainted with the turnip culture in England, having been purposely .sent to reside in those districts 



