PLACE IN THE ROTATION. 287 



The proper place of the turnip crop in the rotation is 

 very clearly denned. By common consent it is every- 

 where placed between two straw crops. The preceding 

 crop is* usually harvested at a sufficiently early period in 

 the autumn to allow of the land being ploughed up and 

 thoroughly cleaned before the winter sets in, and the tur- 

 nip crop, whether carted off or fed on the land, is cleared 

 away, and the land ploughed up, in time for the succeeding 

 straw crop, whether winter-sown wheat or spring-sown 

 barley or oats. In the Norfolk four-course system of farm- 

 ing the lighter soils, so commonly called "turnip soils/' 

 the turnip crop is taken after the wheat, and is succeeded 

 by barley ; as on such soils it is customary to consume the 

 turnips on the field, for the double purpose of manuring 

 the surface soil and of consolidating it after the deep stir- 

 ring it had in preparing for the crop. In the five, six, 

 and seven course systems it is invariably placed in the 

 same position, the straw crops between which it is grown 

 differing with the nature of the soil, the climate, the 

 markets, and the general labour arrangements of the farm. 

 It is essentially a fallowing and manuring crop, its culti- 

 vation admitting of the weed-growth being checked and 

 the land kept clean. Its requirements from the soil differ 

 materially from those of the straw crops (as may be readily 

 seen by comparing their respective analyses), while, from 

 the nature and habits of the crop itself, it abstracts from 

 the atmosphere a large amount of those nitrogenized sub- 

 stances which, we have reason to believe, are so beneficially 

 applied to the growth of the succeeding cereal plants. In 

 humous soils, containing a large amount of organic matter, 

 which, in general, are not favourable to the growth of cereal 

 crops, turnips in most cases are successfully cultivated, 

 though the bulb is less in proportion to the top, and less 

 firm in its texture than in those grown on other soils. 

 Here, where oats are frequently the only cereal crops cap- 



