On the Cultivation of Turnips. 137 



employed, for the express purpose of destroying tfte fy, and with the 

 greatest success. The articles employed are burnt in the manner 

 above described ; and an intelligent friend of mine, who farmed in that 

 county, has assured me, that it has succeeded on alternate ridges ; and 

 that the fly was destroyed where the burning was applied ; but that 

 where the burning had been purposely omitted, for the sake of an 

 experiment, the crop was ruined. 



Mr John Sutton of Fisherton, near Salisbury, Wilts, strongly re- 

 commends, taking all the previous steps necessary for the cultivation 

 of the turnip crop, but not actually to sow the seed for ten days, or 

 even a fortnight, after the ground has been thus prepared. He con- 

 tends, that if the land is cultivated, and if the weather be warm and 

 dry, the flies will be produced in vast numbers, having been disen- 

 gaged, by the heat of the solar rays, from the eggs which contain them ; 

 and in that case, there being no vegetable sustenance for them, they 

 will soon perish. The more therefore, that the land is turned up and 

 cleaned, allowing a few days to elapse between each working, the 

 more effectually will the destruction of the fly be promoted. 



As soon as it is ascertained that the fly, thus brought to life, has 

 been destroyed, the land should be immediately sown, without bein 

 again turned up, which might occasion another swarm of flies. 



In a recent communication it is stated, that by following these in- 

 structions, many farmers in the neighbourhood of Salisbury have de- 

 stroyed the fly. 



If the soil, before the turnip seed was sown, were watered with a 

 solution of sulphuric acid, the destruction of the fly would probably 

 be effectually secured. 



These experiments are strongly recommended to the attention of 

 the diligent farmer ; and indeed, if Mr Sutton's plan were followed, by 

 the system of burning stubble, on the surface of the field to be culti- 

 vated with turnips, the depredations of the fly need not be apprehend- 

 ed, and could hardly ever take place. 



The most recent discovery for preventing the destruction of the fly 

 on crops of turnips, is made by Captain Barclay, who has ascertained 

 that, in his part of Scotland, a mixture of bone-dust, and of common 

 fermented manure, sown together, in the proportion of ten cart loads 

 of farm-yard manure, to fifteen bushels of bone-dust, per Scotch acre, 

 one-fifth less per English acre, insures a crop of turnips. The land is 

 put in ridges in the usual manner, with the dung in the centre, and the 

 bone-dust, in a pounded state, is sown with the turnip seed, by a 

 drill machine. If five or six Ibs. of seed per acre are sown in this man- 

 ner, the crop can hardly fail. The bone manure brings the turnips so 

 rapidly forward, that they are soon out of the risk of any attack from 

 the fly, and the progress of the crop is, in other respects, greatly 

 promoted. This is perhaps the most valuable application that can 

 be made of bone-dust, and the quantity required is not considerable. 



Mr Oliver of Lochend, a most respectable farmer near Edinburgh, 

 having been peculiarly successful in the management of bis turnip 



cessity of distant carriage at a critical period. By collecting weeds also, from 

 the land, and even using sea-weeds on the coast, much benefit may be derived 

 at a trifling expense, 



