148 



TURNIP AND CABBAGE-ROOT ATTACKS. 



These little gnats may often be seen in swarms, or parties, of vast 

 numbers hovering at some one spot during the winter, and their 

 maggots feed especially in rotten Turnip bulbs. 



Passing now from malformations caused by insect presence, and 

 also from insect presence occurring in rotten Turnips or Cabbage, it 

 is necessary to give a few words to the spindly and much divided growth 

 (figure below) to which formerly the name of Finger-and-Toe was 

 sometimes given. 



This is in no way a diseased growth, rather the reverse. It is a 

 movement backwards towards the original condition of the roots, 

 whether of Turnip, or Carrot, or Parsnip, in their wild state, free 

 from the fleshy developments brought about by high cultivation. In 

 the words of John Wilson, Prof, of Agriculture in the University of 

 Edinburgh, it is "well known to the vegetable pathologist as 'dactylo- 

 rhiza'" (from two Greek words signifying, respectively, a finger or toe 

 and a root. — Ed.), "the intermediate condition between the natural 

 (wild) and the artificial state." * 



The experiments at Rothamsted (1843-45) showed that by planting 

 on unmanured land several years in succession, at the fourth year 

 the Turnip-bulb had disappeared, and the root resumed its former wild 

 state. The experiments and observations of Prof. J. B. Buckman at 

 the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, show that this split and 

 spindly-rooted state may be induced by a variety of causes, as weak- 

 ness of seed, poorness of ground, and other circumstances ; and in the 

 concluding lines of his elaborate paper on this subject. Prof. Buckman 



* ' Our Farm Crops,' by Prof. Wilson, vol. i., p. 316. 



