108 TURNIP. 



year (he mentions) he sowed his Swedes and Early Yellows in the third 

 week of May, "which would be considered early even in this early 

 district. The season was dry. The soil light and dry." 



The second portion (the lesser half of the crop) was sown in the 

 second week of June, there being thus about three weeks between the 

 sowings. " Both sowings came well to the hoe (thinning out), and 

 nothing unusual was to be seen at that time. But at the second 

 hoeing, when the tubers, or bulbs, were about the size of a man's 

 thumb, the shaws became spotted, — pale yellow spots all over the 

 leaves from the size of a sixpence to the size of a penny. The leaves 

 also grew in a kind of confined cluster, rising straight up from the 

 bulb thus (sketch given), having a hard and unhealthy appearance, 

 and also curled in over the edges." 



This, Mr. Cowie mentions, only happened to the Yellows of the 

 first sowing ; the Swedes of the first sowing, and the Yellows of the 

 later sowing, remaining healthy throughout. 



On examining the unhealthy Turnips, Mr. Cowie found maggots 

 like those reported on after in 1894 ; these had bored the bulbs of the 

 Turnips all round close at the surface of the soil ; the bored holes in 

 some of the Turnips were so near together that not a particle of 

 healthy skin remained. Mr. Cowie noted: — "I did not think of 

 looking among the leaves, and at that time I thought the maggots 

 were hatched on or in the soil ; many of the Turnips died out, leaving 

 the ground with large empty spaces, and the Turnips that remained 

 were small ' cryned ' things. 



" The spotted leaves were all off them by the end of July, and a 

 tuft of young tender leaves had come on by the middle of September, 

 when I commenced to use them ; they were not half a crop. Manured 

 per acre with six cwt. of J. Milne & Co.'s slag Turnip-manure, with 

 half cwt. sulphate of ammonia, sown separately of course, with a good 

 dunging. 



" This is all I can say of 1893. In 1894 the weather broke, and 

 it became wet and rainy before I got the soil cleaned of weeds (the 

 soil is a sandy loam, with gravel subsoil), consequently it was into the 

 month of June before I got any Turnips sown. I sowed Beck's Early 

 Yellow on the 5th of June, also twenty drills of Golden Yellow ; on 

 the 7th of June I had twenty drills of Swedes between them. The 

 Beck's Yellow came very slowly to the hoe, or thinning out, and they 

 had a pale-green, hard, ragged, unhealthy appearance even at that 

 time. They came away slowly, but at the second hoeing I observed 

 that the leaves had the same confined upright appearance, with the 

 edges curled in over, but no appearance of the spots on then, which 

 they had the previous year. The leaves at a distance had the appear- 

 ance of Swedes, dark bluish green ; I examined the bulbs, and was 



