OF ROOT CULTIVATION. 15 



caused by the fertilization of the turnip with rape 

 and its congeners. Indeed, the hybrid with turnip 

 and rape is doubtless the origin of the Swedish turnip ; 

 but there is reason to believe that mixtures may 

 accidentally be made with such wild plants as char- 

 locks and mustards, the growth of which in the 

 vicinity of a seeding crop tends to the production of 

 degeneracy. Seeding-patches, then, and the ground 

 about them, cannot be kept too clean. 



Again, if trueness be aimed at, there should be no 

 mixture of sorts in seeding examples; all of the 

 same kind should be selected for seeding-plots, as 

 even one or two of a wrong sort may result in a 

 very mixed sample, as it would seem that sometimes 

 strange plants exert more than ordinary influence. 



Of course, the putting seeding-patches of different 

 sorts side by side is to be reprehended. If more 

 than one sort be seeded in a season, it is advisable to 

 place the patches as remote from each other as possi- 

 ble. And we would here remark, that, for seeding, the 

 roots should, as a rule, be farther apart than when 

 grown for bulbs, both in rows and in sets ; as, if too 

 close, the stems grow up thin instead of robust, and a 

 smaller seed, with a tendency to the growth of smaller 

 roots, will be the result. 



3rd. Mixtures of seeds should be avoided for the 

 reason assigned, that " sorts " do not usually grow 

 evenly ; and when one sees (as is by no means infre- 

 quent) a patch of swedes overshadowed by a mix- 

 ture of some large early turnip, — the Tankard, for 

 example, our crop of swedes will certainly suffer for 

 it, even supposing the turnip to be as useful as the 

 swede, which is seldom the case. 



