290 CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



Kent, the merit of having introduced it into this country 

 about the year 1765. 



91. Of the varieties, which are very numerous, of the 

 turnip, the following may be named, classifying them under 

 the heads (1) swedes, (2) the common turnip, and (3) the 

 hybrid. The swedes are distinguished by the colour of 

 their crowns or upper part of the bulbs, as green, purple, 

 or a mixture of these two, a greenish purple. Lawson, in 

 his work, enumerates of the green three varieties, five of 

 the purple, and six of the greenish purple. The names of 

 the leading varieties of swedes are as follows: (1) Purple 

 top, a drawing of this with the leaf is shown in fig. 1 0, 

 the shape is pretty nearly of its correct formal type ; in 

 fig. 11 we give an abnormal root " finger and toe ; " (2) 

 Skirving's purple top ; (3) the green top ; (4) Laing's im- 

 proved purple top. The common turnip is distinguished 

 like the swedes by the colour of the crown, as white or 

 yellow. The white may be said to be the antipodes of the 

 swede, so far as keeping properties and ability to stand 

 frosts is concerned; white turnips must therefore be taken 

 up and consumed almost immediately. The yellow occu- 

 pies the rank between the white and the swede. The 

 varieties of the common turnip are also sometimes classed 

 according to their shape the " globe " resembling fig. 3 in 

 form, only more spherical and the oblong, or, as it is 

 called, the "tankard," of which in fig. 12 we give an illustra- 

 tion. Of the varieties of the common turnip, whether globe 

 or tankard, we may name the following : (1) Purple top, 

 Aberdeen ; (2) Aberdeen green top ; (3) Skirving's im- 

 proved purple top ; (4) Gibb's green top ; (5) yellow globe ; 

 (6) Altringham ; these are all of the " yellow " class. Of 

 the " white " class the following varieties may be named ; 

 (1) common globe ; (2) white Norfolk ; (3) stone globe ; 

 (4) tankard, of which the favourites are the Norfolk bell, 

 the Cambridge yellow, and the green top; (5) the stubble 

 turnip is a variety very quick in its growth it is so called 

 from being often taken as a stolen crop from fields which 

 have been occupied by grain crops and harvested early. Of 



