212 FLAT TURNIP. 



pose. I do not say that I got a poor crop, but no crop 

 at all. I sowed, the last year, about two acres of land, 

 from which I received 7iot one turnip ; nor am I alone 

 in this great evil ; my neighbors (and v^ho, by the way, 

 are good farmers) make the same complaint, and are 

 unable to tell the cause. Tn most cases the seed has 

 been selected as the best, but has hardly ever made its 

 appearance in the shape of a turnip top. If you will 

 give me any information on this subject, so that I may 

 benefit myself as well as my neighbors, you shall, to 

 say the least, receive the thanks of a q . 

 Aiidover, July 25, 18.)9. 



We are at a loss to account for the failure — a total 

 failure it seems — of our correspondent's crop of tur- 

 nips. We have often raised very good ones among 

 corn by sowing the seed at hilling time ; that is, the 

 last hoeing. Among corn, flat turnips are quite an un- 

 certain crop, as the dews seldom fall to the earth when 

 corn is heavy, and tiuniip-seed must soon have mois- 

 ture after it is sown, or it will not vegetate. 



When showers come soon after sowing, we have 

 never failed of a good harvest, even among corn. . 



The seed should never be buried deep : a shower 

 upon it, when it is sown on fresh earth, makes a suf- 

 ficient covering. We do not recollect that we ever 

 failed of a crop when the seed was sown in an open 

 field. 



Flat turnip-seed should be of the same year's growth, 

 for a fall harvest. Seeds one year old are not sure to 

 vegetate. We think not one in four ever grows, and 

 we commonly sow four times as much seed when it is 

 one year old as when it is new. Whether any of it 

 would vegetate at two years old we are not sure. 



But the turnip fly is a rapid and sweeping destroyer 

 in some fields, and we suspect our friend's turnij s have 

 had some company of this kind. 



The English are much oftener troubled with this 



