On the Cultivation of Turnips. 133 



but they yield a weighty and profitable crop, peculiarly calculated for 

 the maintenance and the fattening of live stock and producing manure. 

 It is a circumstance also, much in favour of the turnip plant, that in 

 the latter stages of its growth, it is, in a great degree, nourished by 

 the atmosphere, as well as by the soil, and consequently, less exhausts 

 the fertility of the latter, than culmiferous or grain crops. The close and 

 deep shade which the leaves of turnips produce, has a most advantage- 

 ous effect in rotting all below them ; while the quantity of putrescent 

 manure, in a solid or in a liquid form, which they are the means of 

 furnishing, is greater than what is obtained from any other article 

 whatever. Under the improved system of turnip-husbandry, a more 

 correct style of management is introduced, by which our fields are 

 cultivated like our gardens ; and various crops, in judicious rotations, 

 are successively rendered highly productive, without any additional 

 manure, (when sheep are fed upon them in the field), except what 

 the turnips would produce. There is no crop, on the whole, the cul- 

 ture of which has been brought to a higher degree of perfection, or 

 which contributes more, to increase the value of the land, or the 

 amount of its produce; yet in many districts, possessed of light and 

 loamy soils, and thence admirably calculated for the production of tur- 

 nips, the farmers are often but little acquainted with the superior ad- 

 vantages of that plant *. 



It is much to be regretted, that this most valuable article, is liable 

 to be injured, and in many cases to be totally destroyed, by a small 

 fly, or beetle, that attacks the young turnip, when just appearing 

 above ground; at which tender period of their growth, the least 

 puncture, in dry seasons, effectually kills the plant. 



To prevent the ravages of this insect, various modes have been re- 

 commended, which may be arranged under the following heads : 1. 

 Destruction of the fly ; 2. Rendering the turnip less attractive ; 3. 

 Quickening its growth ; and, 4. Improving its culture f . 



1. To destroy the fly, it has been recommended, to roll the land at 

 midnight, while the dew is on the ground, by means of which, if the 

 roller is heavy, the soil may be so compressed, that even these small 

 insects may be crushed against the moist earth. Boards have been 

 smeared with tar, and drawn across the land, for the fly to skip on 

 them, and be caught; a trap has been invented, by which consider- 

 able numbers have been taken ; train-oil and sulphur have been 

 used with the seed f ; quick-lime has been often suggested ; and lime, 



* The proprietors and farmers of those districts of England or Ireland where 

 this plant is either little known, or imperfectly cultivated, who would wish to 

 introduce the turnip culture, in its greatest perfection, in their respective neigh- 

 bourhoods, might easily effect that object, by procuring some farm labourers 

 from Scotland, by whom, in all its well-cultivated districts, it is almost univer- 

 sally understood. 



f See a letter written by an intelligent and public- spirited clergyman, the 

 Rev. J. A. Rhodes, of Horsforth-hall, near Leeds: his letter is dated 29th 

 July 1820, and was printed soon afterwards in the Farmer's Journal. 



| In America they afterwards mix the turnip-seed with ashes, or pounded 

 gypsum, which promotes a rapid vegetation ; and it is asserted in that country 



