Book VI. THE TURNIP. 855 



for six or seven years, where the best cultivation was pursued, with an intention not only of seeing, but 

 of making himself master of, the manual operations, and of the minutia? in the practice, was convinced of 

 the superiority of Pringle's mode over every other he had seen, either in Norfolk or elsewhere ; and in 

 1762 "hen he entered on Frogmore Farm', near Kelso, in Roxburghire, he immediately adopted the 

 practice upon a large scale, to the amount of 100 acres yearly. Though none of Pringle's neighbours 

 followed the example, vet no sooner did Dawson, an actual or rent-paying farmer, adopt the same system, 

 than it was immediately followed, not only bv several farmers in his vicinity, but by those very farmers 

 adjoining Pringle, whose crops thev had seen, for ten or twelve years, so much superior to their own : the 

 practice in a few years became general Drilling turnips was first introduced to the county of Northum- 

 berland, about the year 1780. 



*5S77. The varieties of turnip grown by farmers may be arranged as whites ami 

 yellows. 



5378 Of white turnips, by far the best and most generally cultivated is the globe ; but there are also the 

 green-topped having the bulb tinged greenish ; and purple-topped, with the bulb reddish : which, though 

 th"V do not produce so large a crop as the globe or oval, stand the winter better, and the red-topped, it is 

 said' will keep till February. The pudding, or tankard turnip, has a white bulb which rises from eight to 

 twelve inches high, standing almost wholly afceve ground. It is less prolific than any of the others, and 

 more liable to be attacked by frost. . 



5379 Of yellow turnips, there are the field or Aberdeen vellow, which is more hardy than the globe, 

 and answers well for succeeding that variety in spring; and the rutabaga, or Swedish turnip, which 

 mav be preserved for consumption till June. The Siberian turnip has a bulb and a branchy top, but 

 both of inferior quality. It is a hybrid between a white rutabaga and field cabbage, or between rape and 



5380 New varieties are obtained bv selection and by counter impregnation ; but in either case the 

 greatest care is requisite to keep the plants at least a furlong from any others ot the brassica tribe likely to 

 flower at the same time, otherwise the progeny will certainly be hybridised. .__.,.,. ,• 



5381 The choice of sorts may be considered as limited to the white, globe, yellow, and Swedish, according 

 as early, middling, or late supplies are wanted. No other varieties are grown by the best farmers. 



5382. In the choice of seed the farmer must rely on the integrity of the seed-dealer, 

 as it is impossible to discover from the grains whether they will turn out true to their 

 kinds. 



5383 Turnip-seed requires to he frequently changed ; and the best is generally procured from Norfolk 

 and Northumberland. The Norfolk seed, Forsyth observes, is sent to most parts of the kingdom, and even 

 to Ireland: but after two years it degenerates; so that those who wish to have turnips in perfection 

 should procure it fresh every year from Norwich, and thev will find their account in so doing: for, from its 

 known reputation, many of the London seedsmen sell, under that character, seed raised in the vicinity of 

 the metropolis, which is much inferior in quality. 



fir 



drought o. 



fly is perhaps a question which cannot be easily determined, even by experiments ; for concomitant cir- 

 cumstances are frequently so much more operative and powerful as to render the difference between them, 

 if there be am, imperceptible. It is, however, known to every practical man, that new seed vegetates 

 several days before the old, and more vigorously ; and it is equally well known that the healthy and vigor- 

 ous plants escape the fly, when the stinted and sickly seldom or never escape it. Hence it would seem, 

 that new seed, ceteris paribus, is more secure from the fly than old. 



5385. The soil for turnips should always be of a light description. In favourable 

 seasons very good crops may be raised on any soil ; but from the difficulty of removing 

 them, and the injury which the soil must sustain either in that operation, or in eating 

 them on the spot with sheep, they never on such soils can be considered as beneficial to 

 the farmer. Turnips cannot be advantageously cultivated on wet tenacious soils, but 

 are grown on all comparatively dry soils under all the variations of our climate. On dry 

 loams, and all soils of a looser texture, managed according to the best courses of cropping, 

 they enter into the rotation to the extent of a fourth, a sixth, or an eighth part of the 

 land in tillage ; and even on clayey soils they are frequently cultivated, though on a 

 smaller scale, to be eaten by cattle, for the purpose of augmenting and enriching the 

 manure, into which the straw of corn is converted. 



5386. The climate most desirable for the turnip is cool and temperate. This was long 

 ago noticed by Pliny, and it is so obvious on the Continent that it admits of no dispute. 

 Von Thaer observes" that the turnips grown on the fields of Germany seldom exceed half 

 a pound in weight, and that all his care could not raise one beyond fourteen pounds. In 

 France and Italy they are still less. A rapid climate is equally disadvantageous to the 

 turnip; and they are" accordingly found of no size in Russia, Sweden, and many parts 

 of North America. Even turnips grown in the southern counties of England, in the 

 same excellent manner as in Northumberland, never equal the size of those grown in the 

 latter county, or further north, or in Ireland. 



5387. The field culture of turnips is effected either by sowing the seed of the plant 

 from the hand on a flat surface, or by depositing it on the tops of little ridges. In the 

 best cultivated districts, the latter 'method is universally practised and approved of, 

 chiefly for these reasons: — 1. By this method the land may be more easily and 

 perfectly cleaned during the growth of the plants ; the width of the rows affording the 

 means of better tilling the intervals. 2. The plants can be more cheaply and quickly 

 hand-hoed, the process being so simple as to be taught to young persons in a few hours , 

 whereas when the plants are not regularly disposed in rows, a considerable degree of ex- 

 perience and time are requisite. 3. The manure may be more perfectly covered, and 

 bv being applied in a more effectual manner to the roots of the plants, a smaller quantity 

 will suffice. And lastly, the turnips mav lie kept drier, and crops of them in consc- 



3 I -i 



