KITCHEN-GARDENING. 137 



some soils naturally suit particular kinds of vegetables better 

 than others ; yet, as we have not always a choice, if the soil is 

 light and altogether not suitable for vegetables in general, two 

 crops of Turnips may be grown in one year by sowing seed for 

 the first crop early in the spring, and for the second about the 

 first of August. For general crops, it will be better to have 

 ground manured with short, rotten dung, or compost containing 

 a considerable poi-tion of coal, wood, peat, or soapers' ashes. 

 Most ground that has been well manured for preceding crops, 

 and recently broken up, will do well for Turnips, when there is 

 not an excess of clay and water. If the seed for the first crop 

 be not sown soon enough to mature early in July, the roots are 

 seldom fit for the table, being stringy and wormy ; and if the 

 seed intended for a crop for autumn and winter use is sown before 

 August, unless it be a very favorable season, even if they escape 

 the attack of insects and reptiles, the turnips often are defective 

 and unpalatable. 



To have turnips in perfection, they must be hoed and thin- 

 ned out as soon as the leaves are as large as a cent, leaving 

 the best plants from six to nine inches apart. The roots will 

 be better, and the crops greater, if thinned out properly, than 

 if the plants are allowed to grow so closely together that the 

 leaves override and the roots crowd each other. 



It is generally admitted that one pound of Turnip-seed is 

 amply sufiicient for an acre of ground, yet it is better to use 

 considerably more, because of the diflSculty of distributing so 

 small a quantity of seed regularly broadcast. This diflSculty is, 

 however, obviated by sowing the seed in drills ; and although 

 drilling-in the seed may seem a tedious process to those who 

 have no other means of doing it than by hand, the facilities 

 thus afforded of hoeing between the rows, more than compen- 

 sate for the extra labor. 



I once induced a friend of mine to sow four ounces of 

 Turnip-seed in August, in drills a foot apart, by which means 

 he made it extend over more than half an acre of land ; and by 

 hoeing the plants twice, he had the gratification of pulling four 



