326 CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



in place of the plough at this season, the grubber or scari- 

 fier; third, to discontinue the taking of vetches or tares 

 as a preceding crop to the turnips ; fourth, to chalk or lime 

 soils which are non-calcareous previous to taking the tur- 

 nip crop ; fifth, to avoid stolen crops, such as stubble or 

 summer turnips, as these encourage very much the increase 

 of the enemies of the crop ; and lastly, to obtain, by liberal 

 manuring and high cultivation of the land, as heavy a crop 

 as possible. 



124. On the subject of the cultivation of the turnip, 

 the following remarks, by a writer in one of our leading 

 Agricultural Journals, will be suggestive ; they refer to one 

 or two points too frequently overlooked. 



125. The turnip is "by nature a biennial, requiring one 

 season to perfect its bulb, and another to perfect its seed. 

 Well, how have we of late been managing ft 1 ? Why, I 

 will tell you. So long as the turnip was but partially 

 grown, great care was taken in selecting full matured bulbs, 

 and saving the seed from those. So long as this was done, 

 no talk of finger and toe and every other disease now com- 

 mon to that root was known ; but when the turnip was 

 found to be so useful and profitable a root in the feeding 

 of stock, and its cultivation became so general that a greater 

 supply of seed was required than what could be grown in 

 the ordinary way (unless at a considerable expense), then 

 the cry of seedsmen for farmers to commence and raise 

 turnip-seed on a large scale was so prevalent that very many 

 who had a good soil and climate began its culture. Not 

 content with bringing the bulb to maturity, and letting it 

 take two full seasons to mature and perfect both its bulbs 

 and seeds ; no ! avarice again steps in ; a crop of hay is 

 grown. The land is then prepared for turnip seed, and 

 sown in the autumn, when the bulb is grown to not 

 more than probably a root the size of one's finger ; no mat- 

 ter, it will produce seed as good to appearance as that grown 

 from the full matured bulb, and fully a greater quantity 

 per acre, as the plants can be grown much closer on the 



