454 GARDEN FARMING 



Botany. Botanically, the turnip belongs to the Mustard family, 

 which includes, among common garden plants, mustard, rape, 

 cabbage, and radish. They are known specifically as follows : the 

 rutabaga as Brassica campestris ; the common strap-leaf, flat-top 

 turnip as Brassica rapa ; rape as Brassica napus. One would 

 naturally expect to find the specific name rapa used for the true 

 rape, but for some reason unknown to the writer the botanists con- 

 fused these names at an early day, and we now have Brassica napus 

 as the specific name of rape. The two types of mustard, white and 

 black, are known specifically as Brassica alba and Brassica nigra, 

 which are true explanatory titles. Besides these groups of plants 

 there is the Chinese cabbage, of which there are many types, and 

 which is considered under the true cabbage ; but the writer be- 

 lieves that, botanically and horticulturally, it is more closely related 

 to rape and kale than to the cabbage proper. 



Soil. The soil best suited to these plants is well-enriched, sandy 

 or clayey loam. Like all members of the Mustard family, they 

 make their growth quickly and must therefore have a liberal supply 

 of available food. The use of from thirty to forty loads of well-rotted 

 stable manure is not an excessive amount of fertilizer. Because of 

 the small return per acre received from the turnip, it would be 

 impracticable to apply this large amount of manure if the land were 

 to be used only for a single crop of turnips. The usual practice, 

 however, is to grow the common turnip as a catch crop, or as a 

 crop to follow early potatoes, early beets, peas, beans, or some 

 other standard vegetable which has yielded a large profit. As a 

 rule, no special fertilizer is applied to turnips, but in rare cases a 

 readily available nitrogenous fertilizer is used to stimulate rapid 

 growth and insure a firm, brittle texture. 



Seed sowing. The fall crop of the common flat-top turnip is 

 usually sown from July 1 5 to August 1 5 in latitudes north of 

 Washington, and usually upon land that has previously produced 

 an important crop. One method is to sow the seed broadcast and 

 slightly rake or harrow it in, after thoroughly plowing and harrow- 

 ing the land to make it as smooth as possible. Rutabagas require 

 a longer period for development and are usually sown in the month 

 of May in the latitude of New York City. It is customary to plant 

 this crop | inch deep in rows like those for beets. After the young 



