TURNIP CART. 



the Indian corn crop, denied to Europe, except 

 in a small space on or near the Mediterranean. 

 The value of this crop, far transcending that 

 of any other staple, is referred to under the 

 head of MAIZE. In reference to the agricul- 

 tural value of the turnip and other roots, Mr. 

 Nicholas Biddle in an address before the Phi- 

 ladelphia Agricultural Society in 1842, made 

 the following interesting observations: 



"It is strange how things so lowly acquire 

 national importance. The best farming is that 

 which will give the greatest mass of suste- 

 nance to animals since the less land required 

 for animals, the more can be given for the 

 maintenance of human beings. That fine 

 farming region, England, had reached the limit 

 of its power of supporting animals since it 

 turned to the root culture it more than doubled 

 or quadrupled its power and now, odd as the 

 mingling of such dissimilar notions may seem, 

 it is scarcely an exaggeration to say, that Eng- 

 land's power is based upon its iron, its coal, 

 and its turnips. Then, that beet, which the 

 commercial jealousy of Napoleon endeavoured 

 to raise to the dignity of the sugar-cane, which 

 at this moment yields to France more than 60 

 millions of pounds of good sugar, and has now 

 become so incorporated into the French agri- 

 culture as to divide the government of France 

 between the encouragement of the foreign 

 sugar-cane and the domestic sugar beet. To 

 us the question is unimportant, since sugar is 

 so cheap in this country as to leave to us the 

 sugar beet as an excellent food for our cattle." 



Although the excessive frosts in the United 

 States interfere with the English plan of feeding 

 the turnips from the ground during winter, still 

 there is no question that great; advantages may 

 be derived by the American farmer from the 

 cultivation of the turnip, the Swedish especially, 

 to lay up as green and succulent food for stock, 

 to be used conjointly with hay and other kinds 

 of provender. Very satisfactory experiments 

 have demonstrated the value of turnips appro- 

 priated in this way, for an account of which the 

 reader may consult BucVs Farmer' 1 s Instructor, 

 Colcman's Reports, the Cultivator, and other Am. 

 agricultural periodicals. 



The insects which attack turnips in .America will 

 be found described under the heads CATERPIL- 

 LAR, FLEA-BEETLE, FLY ix TURNIPS, &c. 



TURNIP CART. This is an ingenious 

 adaptation of the disc turnip cutter to the tur- 

 nip cart. The disc is put in motion by a face- 

 wheel fixed upon the nave of the cart-wheel, 

 which, as it revolves communicates by means 

 of cog-wheels with the axis of the cutting- 

 plate. It offers a very convenient mode of 

 feeding sheep on pastures or lawns, and was 

 introduced about the year 1834, by Arthur Bid- 

 dell, farmer, of Playford, the inventor of the 

 well-known scarifier, which bears his name. 



TURNIP CUTTERS. Although there are 

 several kinds of turnip cutters, the principles 

 upon which they are constructed do not em- 

 brace much variety : setting aside the simple 

 application of the knife with a lever handle, 

 the others may be divided into two classes ; 

 first, those which have their knives placed on 

 a disc ; and secondly, those with their cutting 

 edges arranged on a cylinder. 

 1070 



TUSSER, THOMAS. 



As the object to be effected is simple, and 

 involves little mechanical contrivance, a short 

 description will suffice. 



Gardner's Patent Turnip Cutter, is pronounced 

 the best known in England. In Ransome's Bar- 

 row Turnip Cutter, Gardner's machine is used, 

 the disc of which is attached to the side of a 

 barrow, which serves as a hopper ; the knife is 

 nearly the length of the radius, and when re- 

 quired to cut the turnip in slices is alone used; 

 if it be necessary to cut small slices for sheep, 

 the small cross-knives are, by a simple con- 

 trivance, adjusted to dissect the slice ; and in 

 this case the barrow is useful, as it is easily 

 moved from trough to trough, into which the 

 small slices may be made to fall. 



It is intended to cut into small slices for 

 sheep, and is generally acknowledged to be the 

 best implement for the purpose that is at pre- 

 sent in use in England. 



TURPENTINE. A transparent, oleo-resin- 

 ous substance, which exudes naturally, but is 

 chiefly obtained by incision, from various spe- 

 cies of pine. There are several kinds of tur- 

 pentine, namely, common, Bordeaux, Cana- 

 dian, Strasburg, Venice, and American white. 

 The Chian turpentine is the production of the 

 Pistachia tcrebinthus: but all of them possess 

 the same general and chemical properties. 



TUSSER, THOMAS, a celebrated agricul- 

 tural writer. Five-and-twenty years after the 

 publication of the first English work upon agri- 

 culture (Fitzherbcrt's Boke of Husbandrye}, ap- 

 peared (in 1557) the One 'Hundred Points of 

 Good Husbandry, by Thomas Tusser. This 

 celebrated work must be regarded more as a 

 series of poetical good farming, and domestic 

 directions and axioms, than as a regular treat- 

 ise upon agriculture. All that is known of the 

 author of this curious production has been col- 

 lected by Dr. Mavor, in his able edition of 

 Tusser's book, and by my brother, Mr. George 

 W. Johnson, in his History of English Garden- 

 ing; and both these authors have been obliged 

 to content themselves chiefly with Tusser's 

 own account of himself; for Tusser did what 

 few men ever attempt he wrote his own life, 

 and in a manner still more rare, in verse. His 

 life was full of adventure ; for he evidently had 

 all the restlessness of genius, with the unsettled 

 habits too commonly confirmed by continued 

 change of occupation. 



He was born about the year 1515, at Riven- 

 hall, a village on the high-road between the 

 towns of Witham and Keldevon, in Essex, of a 

 family allied by marriage to the higher ranks 

 of society. 



He was buried in the church of St. Mildred 

 in the Poultry, according to Stowe, with this 

 epitaph : 



1 Here, Thomas Tuseer, clad in earth, doth lie, 

 That sometime made the Points of Husbandry : 

 By him then learn thou may'st ; here learn we must, 

 When all is done, we sleep, and turn to dust : 

 And yet, through Christ, to heaven we hope to go ; 

 Who reads his books, shall find his faith was so." 



In whatever capacity he at various times 

 lived he acted with ability, yet never so as to 

 benefit his fortune. That he excelled as a 

 chorister, to which he was originally edu- 

 cated, though strongly against his inclination, 



