8 THE PARSNIP CROP. 



as described in regard to carrots ; the same description of 

 fork (see woodcut], of which the details are given at p. 474, 

 vol. i., should be used, and the storing of the crop effected 

 in the same way. The parsnip, however, is such 

 a hardy root, that it will resist the winter very 

 well if left standing in the ground, and on 

 very light and dry soils, where the breadth 

 grown is but small, this practice might be per- 

 mitted, and the roots forked up as required for 

 food purposes. 



The produce of the crop, generally speaking, 

 is very inferior in weight per acre to that of 

 carrots, though the general habits of the plants 

 and their cultivation so greatly resemble each 

 other. In the Channel Islands, where they are 

 very largely cultivated, their reports of the re- 

 turns are far more favourable than we are able to 

 assign to them. There the soil and climate both 

 appear to be favourable to their growth; and we hear not 

 only of roots of a far larger size than we are accustomed 

 to see, but also that the gross produce per acre 1 is much 

 more satisfactory. 2 However, we are, from our acquaint- 

 ance with the constituents of the root, quite ready to 

 acknowledge its high feeding and fattening properties. 

 In Jersey it is considered that 30 rods of crop will fat- 

 ten a four-year-old beast in three months from store to 

 butcher's meat. In various parts of the Continent, espe- 

 cially in Roman Catholic countries, parsnips are in gene- 

 ral cultivation salt fish and a good dish of parsnips being 



1 In 1840, Col. Le Couteur reports that the produce in Jersey ranged from 

 11 tons to 27 tons per acre. In a more recent paper on the "Agriculture of. 

 the Channel Islands," we find that 20 tons is considered a good crop. 

 Roy. Agri. Soc. Jour., vol. xx. p. 32. 



2 Some comparative details of the cultivation, cost, and produce of parsnip 

 and other root crops, are given in the Agri. Gaz., 1851, p. 650. 



