16 TURNEPS. 



Cultivation of 3, every atom of the dung was carefully covered with the 



J""""? P?>. ^y plough. Immediately after No. 3 was finished. No. 4 was 



Mr. William , , , . , . , , 



Watson. dunged and sown with turnip-seed, m the usual manner, in 



the broad-cast method. — Every part of the four ridges was 

 manured with dung of the same quality. It was not thoroughly 

 rotten, but had arrived at a more advanced stage ofputrifac- 

 tion than that used by farmers in general ; and, in order that 

 its quality might be uniform, it was carefully taken from one 

 part of the fold-yard, and well turned over, and mixed in the 

 field*. An equal quantity was applied to each ridge, at the 

 rate of fifteen two horse cart-loads f per acre. The turnip-seed 

 was likewise of the same quality and kind, and was sown on 

 each ridge at the rate of about one pound and a half per acre. 

 The succeeding weather was remarkably dry and unfavourable 

 for the growth of the turnips, only one light shower having 

 fallen, Jrom the time the seed was committed to the ground, 

 to the 16th of September following. — Notwithstanding this, 

 however, the whole of the four ridges planted exceedingly 

 well, though not so early as I could have wished ; and their 

 progress into the rough leaf, as well as their appearance for 

 some time afterwards, was propitious. From the extreme se- 

 verity of the drought, however, -and the natural dryness of the 

 land many of the plants in every ridge were killed. 

 No. 1 lost the greatest quantity ; No. 2 the next, espe- 

 cially 011 those drills where the dung was not all completelyf 

 covered in ; and No. ^ scarcely so many as No. 3. — 

 Throughout the whole crop, vegetation seemed extreme- 

 ly languid, and the turnips were generally of a small size ; 

 the largest were produced on Nos. 2 and 3, in the drills with 

 intervals of 26 inches. These intervals were twice horse- 

 hoe. In these rows the plants were left about eleven inches 

 asunder. Numbers 1 and 4, in which the plants were set out 

 at about twelve inches from each other, were thrice hand- 

 hoed with great accuracy. The several operations of plouh- 

 ing, sowing, and hoeing, were performed in the same kind 

 pf weather on each ridge. I attended the whole of them my- 

 self, and can safely say that the utmost precision and impartia- 



* Dung was the only manure applied. 



t The cart was five feet three inches long, three feet three 

 inches broad, and one foot six inches high, in the inside. 



