THE TURNIP CROP. 



WE now have to consider a very different class of our 

 "Farm Crops," that class which comprises those usually 

 known as " root and fallow crops." Of these, turnips natu- 

 rally in this country take the. precedence, being the key- 

 stone of our improved system of farming the crop by 

 whose success or failure the welfare of the whole rotation 

 is mainly influenced. 



Hooker tells us that the turnip is one of the plants 

 indigenous to this country, and is not uncommonly met 

 with in waste places, at the sides of roads, &c. When 

 it was first introduced into cultivation in this country 

 is not very distinctly known, as, doubtless, it was culti- 

 vated to a greater or lesser extent in the gardens of 

 the religious houses from the time of the Romans, to 

 whom, it is most probable, we are indebted for a know- 

 ledge of its value, as well as for several other of our 

 culinary herbs. As long back as we have any distinct 

 records of agriculture to refer to, we find information 

 respecting this plant. The Romans, and even before 

 them the Grecian authors Hesiod and Theophrastus 

 especially have given us full details of the value placed 

 upon turnips by the farmers of their day, and also of the 

 methods recommended and adopted for their successful 

 cultivation. Columella speaks chiefly of two sorts grown 

 in his time the rapa and the napus. Palladius confirms 

 the statement of Columella, and, remarking on the two 

 varieties, gives it as his experience that the difference is 

 due to cultivation and the soil, and that by clue care they 



