234 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



PEBRrAHY 4, 1835. 



arronipanyiDf; a pacUasc of turnip scctl, with a 

 pamplili't, wliicli lie brought with him I'roni Scot- 

 land. It was thrrenpou 



Voted, Tliut thetlianks of'tliis Board be present- 

 to Jlr Brimmcir for his ycrj' accciitable gill of the 

 Hybridal turnip seed, and the Trustees also ex- 

 press the hope tliat tiie example of j\!r I'riuinier 

 may induce other gentlemen when absent to bring 

 buck with them new varieties of seeds and fruits 

 and thereby essentially promote the Agricultural 

 interests of the country. 



A Copy of the Record, 



"benjamin guild, Rec'g Sec'ij. 



The thanks of the board were also given to 

 Jacob Porter, Esq. M. D. of Plainfield, for his 

 present of several valuable pamphlets, translations 

 and reports. 



Boston, January 7, ISsri. 

 Sir — I have the honor to send you herewith 

 half a pound of seed of a new variety of Turnip, 

 which I recently procured in Scotland, called 

 " Dale's Hybrid Turnip," It is the cross of the 

 White Globe and the Swedish Turnip, and is 

 found to combine the good qualities of both. The 

 rapid growth and great size of the former with 

 the nutritive matter and hardiness of tlie latter. 

 I have to remark that this variety has found favor 

 in Scotland, and in the anticipation that it may 

 ju-ove valual)Ie in this country, I place at your 

 disposal the accompanying sample ; I also enclose 

 some remarks taken from the " Quarterly Journal 

 of Agriculture" in which the subject is treated 

 more at large and to which I beg to refer. 



I have the honor to be, Sir, A 



f 



Your obedient servant. 



M. BRIMME 



Hon. Thomas L. Wintiirop, 



Pres. of the Masc?. Society for Promoliiig Agriculture. 



On a Hyhndiil Varklxj of the Turnip. — By Charles 

 Lawson, Seedsman, Edinburgh. 

 Since the period when Linnaeus clearly demon- 

 strated the functions of the anthers and stigmas, 

 numerous additional evidences have been adduc- 

 ed in support of the doctrine of the sexes of 

 plants. The question has long been set at rest, 

 and it woulil be now, in botany, a heresy of the 

 lirst order to throw doubts on the theory of im- 

 liregnation. In fact, that process is ]>erformed by 

 tlic contact of the sexual secretion of the male 

 plant, or of the male organs of the hermaplirodite 

 I>lant, with the female organs. Upon this hint, 

 botanists have not only observed many of the 

 i-tirious contrivances to which nature has had re- 

 c-ourse in remlering sure the progress of impreg- 

 nation, but have l:;t loose their imagination, and 

 iiiveuteil othei-s for her. It is well known, that 

 in the animal kingdom, a male and a female of 

 two different species belonging to the same genus, 

 may occasionally, by the (bice of circumstances, 

 break through tln^ antipathy in which they hold 

 each other, and t!iat a progeny iiarticii)ating of 

 the forms of both parents may result. It miglit 

 be imagined that in plants such interiiiivtnres 

 sliould be of more couniion occurrence. The pol- 

 len, wafted by the winds, or conveyed by bi^es and 

 Hies, may be applied to the stigntas of other spe- 

 (Mcs as readily as to those of its own. Yet, wheth- 

 er it be that the germeus an; impregnateil by the 

 pollen of their own flower, before any other pollen 

 reaches them, as is inidoubtediy the ease in most 

 plants, or tliut there is an organic inaptitude be- 



tween the pollen and the stigmas of difterent spe- 

 cies, it so happens, that, in a field where there 

 exist multitudes of flowers of numerous species, 

 many closely allied to each other, one cannot, on 

 searcliiiig, find a single hybrid. Nevertheless, 

 that hybrids have occasionally been produced, we 

 have abundant evidence. Kolrcnter, for exam- 

 ple, crossed the Nicotiana rustica and Nicotiana 

 paniculata.* The genera Brassica, Geranium, 

 Ranunculus, Saxifraga, and others, are supposed 

 by some, from a few original species to have pro- 

 duced their present multiplicity of forms. To the 

 numerous variety of Melons, Strawberries, and 

 other cultivated plants, a like origin has been 

 attributed. In the animal kingdom, hybrids pro- 

 duced in the wild state are extremely rare, and 

 when ])rodueed in the domestic .state, do not con- 

 tinue in their mixed form. Hybrids of wild 

 plants are also, as has been stated above, compar- 

 atively rare ; and, as we see the same forms re- 

 appear season after season, we must suppose that 

 if they exist, they are only of ephemeral duration. 

 The case, however, is different in cultivated vege- 

 tables, of the crossing of two of which an instance 

 is here related. The crossing here is between the 

 Common Turnip, Brassica rapa, and the Swed- 

 ish Turnip, which some suppose a distinct spe- 

 cies, and others merely a variety of the former. 



Though there is a considerable number of va- 

 rieties of the turnip in cultivation, which are 

 more or less held in esteem according to their 

 supposed qualities, the nature of the soil in which 

 they are to be grown, and other circumstance.s, 

 those in most general use are the White Globe, 

 the Red-Top Yellow Bullock, the Green-Top 

 Yellow Bullock, and the Swedish. The White 

 Globe grows to the largest size, arrives soonest at 

 maturity, and decays earliest in the season ; the 

 Yellows are intermediate between the Globe and 

 the Swedish in their properties ; and the Swedish 

 is smallest in size, is latest in arriving at maturity, 

 and often does not decay, till, in the advanced 

 state of the following spring, the plant loses its 

 nutritive properties by pushing out a flower-stem ; 

 hence the Swedish is well adapted and chiefly 

 employed for spring feeding. The Swedish Tur- 

 nip possesses the greatest nutritive powers, and 

 the largest of this variety yields more nourish- 

 ment in proportion than the middle-sized ones ; 

 while the Globe, which attains the greatest bulk 

 contains the least nutritive matter, and the larger 

 kinds less proportionally than the middling-sized 

 ones of the same variety. 



New varieties or hybrids of turnips arc ob- 

 tained by cross impregnation. Thus, when two 

 varieties are planted alternately or ])roinlscu- 

 onsly in a plot of groimd, when they come into 

 flower the pollen is wafied by the wind in- 

 discriminately over the whole, or carried fiom 

 one i)lant to another by insects, when they are in 

 quest of the sweets of the nectarj', and applied to 



* Within these few months, difTorcnt species of 

 Calceolaria have been snccessfully crossed at the gar- 

 don of Lord President Hope at Granton, as described 

 by Professor Graham in the Edinburgh Philosophical 

 Journal for July, 1830. All the fine new Pears, Apples 

 and other fruits, of Mr Knight in England, and those 

 of the Earl of Dunmore in Scotland, which arc nowise 

 behind Ihcni, have been produced by dusting the stig- 

 ma of one kind of blossom (previously deprived of its 

 stamens) with the pollen from another. 



the stigmata. But though the means of Yu-oduc- 

 ing new varieties are simple and easily accom- 

 plished, little imiirovcment in this resi)ect has 

 been made in the varieties now generally used in 

 field culture. 



In all cases of turnip seeds' going through my 

 hands in the course of a Reason, I keep specimens 

 which are sown at the proper period in drills in 

 my nursery. This is done for the iiuriiose of exam- 

 ining the progress of the plants and the develope- 

 ment of their roots during the season ; it also en- 

 ables me to ascertain the correctness of the difler- 

 ent stocks of seeds, and to judge of the superiori- 

 ty of one variety over another. Two years ago, 

 my attention was particularly attracted to the pro- 

 duce of the samjile of a fiydrid or doubly-im- 

 pregnated sort, the seed of which I received from 

 Mr Robert Dale, a very intelligent farmer at Lib- 

 berton West Mains, near Ediidnirgh. It attract- 

 ed my attention, first, on account of its early 

 growth and maturation ; secondly, its fine shape, 

 as will be seen on inspection ; thirdly, by the 

 great size to which it attained, in comparison with 

 any sort under similar treatment ; and lastly, by 

 its standing the winter equally well with any other 

 turnip excc])t the Swedish. 



And conceiving that the great desidenitnm in 

 the selection of a proper variety of the turnip, is 

 to obtain the greatest possible weight on a given 

 space and at a given expense of manure, this va- 

 riety seems to be more adapted to this end than 

 any other sort hitherto introduced. 



The manner in which it was obtained by Mr 

 Dale, was the following : In the year 1S22 or 1823, 

 he got a few ounces of seed of a new hybrid tur- 

 u'rji from James Shii'eff, Esq. of Bastleridge in 

 Berwickshire. This, Mr Dale sowed, and ho 

 found the produce to resemble the Sw'edish in 

 shape, but it had too few of the superior proper- 

 ties of that variety. He, therefore, picked out 

 such as had most of the yellow appearance, and 

 jilanted them along with some of the best Swedish 

 which he could find. This he continued doing 

 for four successive years ; and, since that period, 

 he has selected the best roots of the doubly im- 

 pregnated kind which he could find for raising 

 seed, till they have attained the quality which they 

 now possess. 



The manner in which this variety has been ob- 

 tained, I .-mi aware, is not according to the nice 

 rules which horticulturists would have recom- 

 mended to be adopted, because, as the hybrids ■ 

 were always planted along with the Swedish for 

 producing seed, and the .seed collected proiniscu- 

 ousl)', that part of the seed which was produced i 

 from the Swedish would be much more nearly 

 allied to that variety than the seed of the hybrid.s. 

 But in tills, as in many other instances of imjirov- 

 iiig plants, the point is often attained more from 

 accidental causes than from the adoption of the 

 rules laid down by .scientific cultivators. And, 

 idthough all the hybriils may not stand in the 

 same relation to the jirimitive root, the circum- 

 stance of the raising the see<l being now jicrform- 

 ed solely by the hybrids themselves, without the 

 assistance as formerly, of the Swedish, will al 

 ways have the tendency to assist in modifying and 

 correcting any irregularity that may exist. In- 

 deed, judging from the appearance of the present 

 stock, there is nothing which indicates any impor- 

 tant consequences to this irregularity in the man- 

 ner of obtaining the hybrids. 



To sho^v in what respect this hybrid is superior 



