334 



JUNE. 



TURNIPS. 



THIS is the great season for sowing turnips : 

 later sown crops scarcely ever arrive at the size of 

 those sown in June. There is a common idea 

 among the farmers, that the turnip season lasts 

 just a month, a fortnight before, and a fortnight 

 after Midsummer. The land, I suppose to have 

 been ploughed for the last time but one, in May : 

 the beginning of this month the manure should be 

 carted on to it, which, in a well-ordered farm, 

 should come from the farm-yard ; and, if that 

 does not yield a sufficiency to cover a fifth part of 

 the arable land, the farmer is negligent. If he has 

 a thorough command of litter, and money enough 

 in his pocket to buy plenty of cattle, it will cover 

 a third of it ; but, whatever quantity of turnips he 

 has, let him dung them well. In this work he 

 should proceed regularly, beginning on one side of 

 the field, and laying the heaps in lines from top to 

 bottom ; it should be spread immediately, and the 

 ploughs follow directly to turn it in. Upon that 

 ploughing, the seed should be sown without loss of 

 time, and covered by two or three harrowings, ac- 

 cording to the fineness of the land. I have some- 

 times seen the dung carried out long before it is 

 ploughed in ; but that is bad husbandry : for much 



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