Book VI. THE TURNIP. 859 



when young ; so that, where blanks appear in a field, the spaces may be filled up by 

 transplanting. Analogous to the Swedish turnip, in hardiness and nutritive qualities, 

 is the large yellow or Aberdeen turnip. This root is perhaps superior to the Swedish 

 turnip, in so far as it may be raised with less difficulty. It serves the same purpose of 

 a succedaneum to the common turnip in spring. 



5410. Consu?nption of the turnips. By the end of October or beginning of November, 

 when the pastures have decayed, the turnips begin to be used for food. 



5411. W/ien sheep are to be fed, the turnips are either pulled up by the hand, and carried away, as 

 wanted, into the fields, in which the sheep are kept, and there spread regularly upon the ground; or more 

 frequently and economically the sheep are at once driven into the fields of turnips, and suffered to con- 

 sume the roots as they stand. In this case tlie animals are not suffered to range over the whole field at 

 first, but are confined to a space of an acre or more, by means of nets, or a series of moveable rails or 

 hurdles. When the sheep have eaten the roots very nearly, the remnant in the ground may be picked up 

 by a little hoe {Ji^. 766.) or by the turnip chopper already described (2.072.) ; and when the whole are 



Y^/j consumed, the nets or rails, or hurdles, are moved to another 



' "" division, and so on throughout the field, leaving the spaces before 



cleared open to the sheep to move upon. This manner of con. 

 suming the turnips affords an admirable manure to the land, and 

 prepares it well for the subsequent crops of grain and herbage. In 

 feeding in this manner, it is frequent to place in the field a little 

 rack with a cover, containing a small quantity of hay, which seems 

 to be relished by the animals amid tjieir moister food. 



5412. In (he feeding of oxen, the turnips may be laid down on a dry field, as in the case first mentioned ; 

 but the proper and regular manner of feeding these animals is to supply them with the turnip in the 

 house or open yard, littering them at the same time plentifully and regularly with straw, and giving them 

 what they choose to consume of it as provender, with their turnip-food. Cattle are fed either by being 

 tied to upright posts in the house, or they are suffered to go at large in the straw- yard. This last is greatly 

 the better mode of feeding, the turnips being supplied from troughs or otherwise, and a shed for shelter 

 being always at hand and open to the cattle to repose in. It is well, however, that too many animals, of 

 different strength and size, be not put together, lest they disturb each other in feeding. Sometimes courts 

 are made and divided into separate compartments, holding only two cattle in each, and this is found to be 

 an exceedingly good practice. When cattle are of value, and put up for quick fattening, it is common to 

 cut off the leaves and tails of the turnip, giving the leaves to the younger and less valuable stock, and the 

 halh only to tliat which is to be fed. 



5413. Youiifr cattle, not intended to be immediately fattened, receive only a limited portion of turnips, 

 their princii)al provender being straw^. By receiving a portion of turnips with their drier provender, these 

 animals are kept in a much more healthy condition than if confined to the latter food, and continue to 

 grow throughout the whole season, instead of pining away at the time when green herbage can no longer 

 be found for them. With the design, too, of keeping them in a good condition, turnips are supplied in a 

 limited quantity to milch cows, and in particular at the time of calving. The turnip, however, though it 

 adds to the quantity of milk, gives it a strong and disagreeable flavour. 



5414. WherL both sheep and cattle are fed upon a farm, it is usual to pull up every alternate four or five 

 rows of turnips for the cattle, leaving the remainder on the ground for the sheep, so that the land on 

 which the turnips had grown may receive its proportion of the manure produced. {Quar. Jour. As. 

 vol. i. p. 286.) 



5415. The advantages of eating turnips an the place of their growth by sheep, both in manuring and 

 consolidating the ground, are sufficiently well known to every farmer. One great defect of the inferior 

 sort of turnip soil is the want of tenacity ; and it is found that valuable crops of wheat may be obtained 

 upon very light porous soils, after turnips so consumed. It is not uncommon to let turnips at an agreed 

 price, for each sheep or beast, weekly. This varies according to age and size, and the state of the demand, 

 from four-pence or less, to eight-pence or more, for each sheep weekly, and from two shillings to five for 

 each beast. An acre of good turnips, say thirty tons, with straw, will fatten an ox of sixty stone, or ten 

 Leicester sheep. Supposing the turnips worth six guineas, this may bring the weekly keep of the ox to 

 six shillings and three-pence halfpenny, and of the sheep to about seven-pence halfpenny a week. In this 

 way of letting, however, disputes may arise, as the taker may not be careful to have them eaten up clean. 

 The person who lets the turnips has to maintain a herd for the taker ; and when let for cattle, and conse- 

 quently to be carried off", the taker finds a man and horse, and the letter maintains both. The taker has 

 to provide hurdles or nets for fencing the allotments to sheep ; but the letter must fence his own hedges 

 if necessary. The period at which the taker is to consume the v. hole is usually fixed in the agreement, 

 that the seller may be enabled to plough and sow his land in proper season. {Suppl. to Encyc. Brif) 

 The rule for selling turnips in Norfolk is calculated from the fact, that one acre of good tm-nips is 

 sufficient for 100 sheep for one week. Then, whether turnips be dear or cheap, the price per week may be 

 easily found at 51. per acre. Is. per week per head, and sq^of all other prices. This is under the suppo- 

 sition that the crop is to be eaten ofFon the ground. 



5416. The Swedish and yelloio turnips are eaten greedily by horses ; and afTord a very nutritive and 

 salutary food along with hay or straw for working stock. The best mode is to steam them after pre- 

 viously passing them through the slicing machine, as no root requires so much cooking as the Swedish 

 turnip. Horses will also eat the white turnip, but not freely, unless they have been early accustomed to 

 them, as in some parts of Norfolk. 



5417. Cattle fatten much faster tvith clean turnips than with such as are dirty, and therefore Waistell 

 recommends that they should never be given without being previously washed. " The earth upon unwashed 

 turnips," he says, " scours the cattle, and keeps their bodies too loose and open ; their dung being thin and 

 almost liquid, carries off" with it a white mucous matter from the bowels, which is frequently seen among 

 the dung, the loss of which must necessarily retard the fattening of the cattle ; but with washed turnips 

 their dung is wax-like, and figured similarly to the dung of cattle fed on rich meadow hay. Cisterns 

 are also found very useful in frosty weather ; for when frozen turnips are thrown into spring water, it 

 speedily draws out of them all the icy particles, which, when retained, must undoubtedly render them 

 much less nourishing and improving to the cattle that eat them." ( IVaistell's Desigm, Sfc. p. 40.) 



5418. Near large toivns the most profitable mode of disposing of turnips is to the 

 cow-keepers and green-grocers. 



5419. lite application of turnips in domestic economy is well known. They may also 

 be used in the distillery ; and a wine is said to be made from them by the London manu- 

 facturers of imitations of foreign wine. 



5420. The storing of turnips is attended with too much labour and risk to be of much 

 advantage in the greater part of the kingdom. Common turnips are never stored in 

 any great quantity, though sometimes a portion is drawn and formed into heaps, like 



