THE TURNIP CROP. 283 



arises a difficulty in judging as to the exact time to pull 

 the plant. Before the seed is quite ripe is the best time, 

 when the seeds are beginning to change from a green to a 

 pale brown, the stalks for two -thirds of their height being 

 yellow. Laid plants and wet should be kept separately. 

 If undrained and improperly levelled ground is used for 

 the crop, it will grow in diiferent lengths ; each length in 

 this case should be pulled and kept separately. This is 

 necessary, as it is highly important that the flax should be 

 laid even like a brush at the root end ; the value of the 

 plant is increased or diminished in proportion as this 

 rule is attended to. Where there is considerable second 

 growth, the plant should be pulled immediately under- 

 neath the bolls, leaving the short stalks behind j on 

 the other hand, where the second growth is trifling in 

 extent, it is better not to pull it at all, the loss from 

 mixture and discolouration being greater than the profit. 



DIVISION FOURTH. 

 ROOTS AND LEAP CROPS TUBERS. 



87. The Turnip Crop. Having, in the previous Chap- 

 ters which we have placed before our readers, discussed the 

 crops cultivated for their seeds, as the cereals, wheat, oats, 

 and barley, beans, pease and flax, we now proceed to take 

 up the points connected with the crops cultivated for their 

 roots. As the wheat is chief in importance amongst the 

 cereals or white crops, so is the turnip chief amongst the 

 root or green crops. It is difficult, indeed, to over-esti- 

 mate the importance of the turnip crop to the British far- 

 mer. It not only enables him to produce a large quantity 

 of food of a nutritious kind for his cattle, but it also enables 

 him to introduce that kind of farming by which, while 

 he produces this abundance of green food for his stock, 



