288 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



by ploughing up old sward ground some time in June, har- 

 rowing well, and sowing from the 1st to the 20th of July, 

 and this without the application of manure. But there can 

 be no doubt that folding sheep or horned cattle on the land 

 thus ploughed would very much enhance tiie crop. 



All American writers on this subject, whose works we 

 have perused, advise to sow seed of the common English tur- 

 nip as late as about the middle of July. They tell us that 

 late sowed turnips are much the best for the table, and that 

 they are less liable to be injured by insects, if sown so late, 

 than when sown much earlier in the season. 



Turnips are frequently, if not most generally, raised in the 

 United States as a second crop, and no doubt this practice 

 is often very eligible and may be perfectly consonant with 

 the 'soundest maxims of good husbandry. But when it is 

 intended to make the most of your crop of turnips, or to obtain 

 as great a product as possible for the purpose of feeding 

 cattle, we do not perceive any objection to giving turnips a 

 larger portion of the season to grow in than has been with 

 us tbe general practice. 



An English writer on agriculture, whose remarks on this 

 and other agricultural topics appear to us to be judicious, 

 and to display a thorough knowledge of the subjects of his 

 essays, says, ' It is not pretended that there lies any solid 

 objections to early sowing of turnips, simply considered ; on 

 the contrary, such seems to be the most proper means of ob- 

 taining a full crop ; but the advantages of early sowing, 

 whatever they be, are given up, and the season postponed 

 from near three to five months by way of retarding the 

 growth of the crop, that it may last to a later period in the 

 spring, and rcceiv^e less damage from the frosts than that to 

 which it would be liable in its early matarity. The disad- 

 vantages attending this plan are a c^op far inferior in weight 

 to Avhat might be obtained from the land ; the very common 

 risk of destruction from drought and fly. The weight and 

 perfection of the turnips being the objects, the land may be 

 got ready for them as for any other early spring crop, and 

 the seed sown with the first warm showers. This will afford 

 ample scope for resowing, should the first seed fail, of which, 

 however, granting it to be good, and the land sufficiently 

 fine, believe there is scarcely any risk.' 



' x\s to any advantages of a crop previous to the turnips, 

 nothiaQf scarcely can stand in competition with the first crop 

 of roots. 



