Book VI. THE TURNIP. 861 



seed is sown broadcast and not hoed, but suffered to grow like rape. So treated the plants form vory 

 small woody sorts, which are capable of enduring frosts. {J. L.) 



5430. After the seed has hecojne fully ripened, it is mostly reaped by cutting off part of the stems, and 

 afterwards tying them up into sheaves, which, when sufficiently dry, are put into long stacks, and kept 

 through the winter, in order to be threshed out about the time when it is wanted. But as in this way 

 much seed is liable to be lost, by its readiness to escape from the pods in which it is contained, it is advised, 

 as a much better practice, to have it immediately threshed out, either upon a cloth in the field where it 

 grew, or in some other convenient place, being then put into bags proper for the purpose and placed in a 

 situation which is perfectly dry. From seed crops of this sort being subject to much injury, and loss in 

 different ways, the quantity of produce must be very different under different circumstances ; but it 

 may in general be stated at not less than from twenty to twenty-four bushels the acre. The price of 

 turnip seed being seldom less than seven or eight shillings the bushel, on account of the great demand for 

 it, it may at first appear to be a very advantageous sort of culture ; but from the exhausting nature of the 

 crop, the loss sustained in grain, and the quantity of manure afterwards necessary, it is probable that 

 turnip seed can only be grown to advantage in particular circumstances of soil and situation. In most 

 cases it is, however, well for the farmer to raise his own seed, as that of the shops is seldom to be fully 

 depended upon. 



5431. The diseases and injuries to which turnips are liable are various. At their first 

 appearance their leaves are liable to the attacks of the fly (A^phisand Hdltica,) the cater- 

 pillar, the slug, and the mildew. Their bulbs and roots are attacked by worms of 

 different kinds ; by a singular tendency to monstrosity, known provincially by the name 

 of fingers and toes ; by the anbury ; by canker, and by wasting or gangrene from water 

 or frost. Of all or most of these injurious diseases it may be observed, that they 

 neither admit of prevention or cure by art. Under favourable circumstances of soil, 

 climate, culture, and weather, they seldom occur ; therefore all that the cultivator can 

 do is to prepare and manure his land properly, and in the sowing season supply water 

 when the weather is deficient in showers or the soil in humidity, 



5432. Thefltj attacks the turnip when in the seed-leaf, and either totally devours it, or partially eats 

 the leaves and centre-bud, so as to impede the progress of the plants to the second or rough leaves. 

 Whether the eggs of these flies are deposited on the plants or in the soil, does not appear to be ascertained ; 

 in all probability they are attached to the former, as in the gooseberry caterpillar, and most cases of flies 

 and insects which feed on plants. Preparations and mixtures of the seed, as already treated of, are all 

 that have yet been done in the way of preventive to this evil. 



5433. The caterpillar makes its appearance after the plants have produced three or more rough leaves; 

 these they cat through, and either destroy or greatly impede the progress of the plants. There can be 

 little doubt that the eggs of these caterpillars are deposited on the leaves of the plants by a species of 

 moth, as the caterpillar may be detected when not larger in diameter than a hair. As preventives to 

 the moths from fixing on the turnips for a depository for their eggs, it has been proposed to place vessels 

 with tar in different parts of the field, the smell of which is known to be very offensive to moths and all 

 insects ; or to cause a thick offensive smoke from straw or weeds lo pass over the ground at the time when 

 it is supposed the moths or parent flies were about to commence their operations. To destroy the 

 caterpillar itself, watering with tobacco water, lime water, strong brine, and laying on ashes, barley 

 awns, &c. have been proposed. 



5434. The slug and snail attack the plants both above and under ground, and eat both the leaves and 

 roots. Rolling, soot, quicklime, awns, &c. have been proposed to annoy them; but the only effectual 

 mode is, immediately after the turnips are sown, to strew the ground with cabbage leaves, or leaves of any 

 of the 5r&ssica tribe. On these, especially if sweet from incipient decay, the slugs will pasture, and may 

 be gathered off" by women or children every morning. If as many cabbage leaves, or handfuls of decaying 

 pea haulm, or any similar vegetable be procured, as will go over a ridge or two, say at the rate of a leaf to 

 every square yard, a whole field may soon be cleared by picking off the slugs and removing the leaves 

 once in twenty-four hours. This mode we have found most effectual, and it is extensively practised by 

 market and other gardeners. {Encyc. of Gard. 2275.) 



5435. The mildew and blight attack the turnip in different stages of its progress, and always retard its 

 growth. Its effects may be palliated by watering and strewing the leaves with sulphur; but this will 

 hardly be considered applicable to whole fields. 



5436. The worms attack the roots; and, when they commence their ravages at an early period, impede 

 their growth, and ruin or greatly injure the crop. They admit of no remedy or prevention. 



5437. The forked excrescences, known as fingers and toes in some places, and as the anbury in others, are 

 considered an alarming disease, and hitherto it can neither be guarded against nor cured. The following 

 account of it is given by William Spence, president of the Holderness Agricultural Society in 1811 : 



5438. In some plants, the bulb itself is split into severalfinger like-diverging lobes. More frequently the 

 bulb is externally tolerably perfect, and the tap-root is the part principally diseased ; being either wholly 

 metamorphosed into a sort of misshapen secondary bulb, often larger than the real bulb, and closely attached 

 to it, or having excrescences of various shapes, frequently not unlike human toes (whence the name of the 

 disease!, either springing immediately from its sides, or from the fibrous roots that issue from it. In this 

 last case, each fibre often swells into several knobs, so as distantly to resemble the runners and accom- 

 panying tubers of a potato; and not seldom one turnip will exhibit a combination of all these different 

 forms of the disease. These distortions manifest themselves at a very early stage of the turnip's growth ; 

 and plants, scarcely in the rough leaf, will exhibit excrescences, which differ in nothing else than size 

 from those of the full-grown root. 



5439. The leaves discover no unusual appearance, except that in hot weather they become flaccid and 

 droop ; from which symptom the presence of the disease may be surmised without examining the roots. 

 These continue to grow for some months, but without attaining any considerable size, the excrescences 

 enlarging at the same time. If divided at this period with a knife, both the bulb and the excrescences 

 are found to be perfectly solid, and internally to differ little in appearance from a healthy root, except 

 that they are of a more mealy and less compact consistency, and are interspersed with mol-e numerous 

 and larger sap-vessels. The taste, too, is more acrid ; and, on this account, sheep neglect the diseased 

 plants. Towards the approach of autumn, the roots, in proportion as they are more or less diseased, be- 

 come gangrenous and rot, and are either broken (as frequently happens) by high winds, or gradually dis- 

 solved by the rain. Some, which have been partially diseased, survive the winter; but of the rest, at this 

 period, no other vestige remains than the vacant patches which they occupied at their first appearance. 

 There is no longer any doubt about the cause of this disease : it is the effect of the deposition of the eggs 

 of a small fly (probably a Scarabae^'us) into the pitiiy parts of the roots, and the alburnous parts of the bulb, 

 which soon changing to a maggot, and ultimately to a perfect insect, eat their way out. 



5440. For the prevention of this disease, marl has been recommended by Sir Joseph Banks and others; 

 and where marl cannot be procured, it has been thought that an addition of moula of any kind, that has 

 not borne turnips, will be advantageous ; such as a dressing taken from banks, woodlands, ditches, &c. 

 and mixed up with a good dose of lime. But lime alone has been tried in vain ; and no great dependence 



