TURNIP. 



comparauve benefits of the drill and broad-caft methods of 

 fowing, as afcertained by experiment. 



In explaining; the praftices wliich are moftly made ufe ot 



in putting m turnip crops in 



the above two different 



methods, it may be obferved, that where the former or 

 brond-caft manner of fowing is in ufe, which may be proper 

 and advantageous in fome cafes, as has been juft fhewn, it is 

 of much confequence to their fuccefs, that the more fuper- 

 ficial parts of the land be brought into as mouldy and fine 

 even condition as poflible previoafly to the putting in of the 

 feed, and that in fowing, the feed be difperfed over the fur- 

 face of it in as perfeftly even and exaiEl a manner as may be, 

 as foon as it can be done after the ground has been made 

 ready, as upon thefe circumftances being well attended to, 

 the goodnefs and abundance of the crops in a great meafure 

 depend. An expert feedfman is required for performing 

 this fort of work, but as it can feldom be done by the hand 

 in a fuitable manner by perfons who have not been long in 

 the habit of putting in fmall feeds in this way, a fort of box 

 or trough has been invented and conftrufted for the purpofe, 

 ■which is in frequent ufe ; and when proper care is taken to 

 prevent the perforations of it from becoming obflru&ed by 

 two or more feeds being faftcned in them, it is of great utility 

 in difperfing the feed in an uniform and regular manner over 

 the furface of the land. After this has been properly 

 effefted, the feed is moftly covered in, in a (hallow manner, 

 by means of harrowing, a light Ihort-tincd harrow being 

 tifed for the purpofe, as from the turnip plant forming its 

 bulb in fome meafure above the furface of the ground, it 

 Ihould not probably be put in to too great a depth in the 

 foil. Some advife the paffing of the tool twice over the 

 land only in the fame dircftion, in the firll going ilowly, 

 and in the latter more quickly, in order to give a neater 

 finilh and finer furface ; the ridges having been laid out to 

 the breadths of from four to ten yards, as the land may be 

 inclined to be more moift or dry. This is the Norfolk 

 practice in fome meafure, and found to be extremely bene- 

 ficial in many cafes of broad-caft fowing for this crop. 



In the drill method of fowing turnips, the land, after 



being prepared in the manner already defcribed, is either 



formed into httle ridges by the plough, and the feed put in, 



in drills upon them, or thefe are ilruck in the level furface, 



as noticed above ; but the firft is by far the moft common. 



In the great turnip-drilled diftrift of Berwickfliire, the 



little ridges or drills, in cafes where the ground is not well 



reduced, but remains in rather a rough and cloddy l\ate, 



arc, it is faid, formed with the common fwing plough, drawn 



by two liorfes, which lays together three or four fmall 



rinds or furrow-flicca for one fuch ridge or drill. But 



that the moft common and expeditious method of laying up 



thefe ridges or drills is by a double mould-boarded plough, 



which has the boards hung on the (heath with hinges, and 



which can be fet wider or narrower, as may be neceffary. 



This too is drawn by two horfes ahreaft, and forms two 



iides of the little ridges or drills at the fame time ; the 



width of fuch ridges or drills being commonly, as has been 



feen, irom twenty-feven to thirty inches. In cafes where tlie 



large ridges or lands are not much rounded, the little ridges 



or drills for fowing on are not laid in exaflly the courfe of 



them, which is moftly parallel to one or other of the fides 



of the fields, but are angled a little, for the purpofe of 



having the manure better mixed with the foil, when it 



comes to be ploughed up into ordinary fi^ed ridges or lands 



for other crops, after the turnips have been eaten or taken 



off the ground, as already fuggefted. 



But in another diftridt, where this mode of fowing turnips 

 L, largely pjcudikd, in the estenfiye cultivation of the root 



by fome, the manner of performing the work is, after the 

 land has been prepared and made very fine, as direfted 

 above, for the ploughman to fet up three fticks or poles in 

 a right line where it is thought moft proper to begin, and 

 by having the horfes yoked double, and driven by himfelf 

 with cords, thefe poles are feen between the horfes, and by 

 keeping the plough to bear alwaj-s upon the poles, the 

 firft furrow is drawn as ftraight as poflible. In returning, 

 the far-fide horfe is kept in the new-made furrow, and the 

 plough at fuch a diftance as to form a one-bout ridge or 

 drill in a complete manner, which has fomewhat this ap- 

 pearance A : by proceeding in this manner over the whole, 

 the land, when finiftied, difplays the forms of alternate 



little ridges and furrows in this way AA/\ ; the diftances 



of which are moftly as ftated above, as fmaller ones do not 

 admit of ploughing between the little ridges or drills. 

 However, in the praftice of the former of thefe diftrifts, 

 the land when ridged up or formed into narrow raifed divi- 



fions, the ridges have a lefs (harp form : thus /\/\/\ 



In the latter of thefe diftricls, or that of Northumber- 

 land, the next proceffes are thofe of applying and turning 

 in the dung or other manure into the little ridges or drills, 

 which is effefted in this way : a cart goes down every third 

 interval between the fmall ridges or drills, and lays fuch 

 matters in fmall heaps in it ; when labourers, as women and 

 children, are ready, and with fmall three-pronged forks 

 jilacc ihcm out evenly in the bottoms of the three furrows of 

 the ridges or drills ; that is, in the one where the matters are 

 dropped, and in thofe on each fide of it. This being done, 

 the ploughman fplitsthe one-bout ridges, and covers up the 

 manure exaftly in the middles of new-formed ridges of the 

 fame fi)rt : but before the fowing can take place, the tops of 

 the ridges require to be flattened, which is done by means of 

 a fmall roller, (bur feet eight inches in length, and nine 

 inches in dianK-ter, which flattens two ridges at once. On 

 the tops, and exaftly in the middles of thefe flattened 

 ridges, the feed is depofited in fmall openings, made by one 

 or more drill-fowing implements tied to the roller by a rope 

 of fix or feven feet in length, at which diftance the roller is 

 followed, the fowing-drill or tools being guided by a man, the 



.{ s S .V 



work when finiflied appearing in this form "TVT^^jVj" ' 



the letter s Ihewing the place of the fsed, and d that of the 

 fubftance ufed as manure. The ridging-up the land, and 

 covering in the manure, are done in the fame way as in the 

 firft diliritt, by ploughs of the fame kind. 



And in the mode of this diftricl, or Berwicklhire, the 

 work of manuring and covering it in go hand in hand, and 

 fucceed each other as faft as poflible ; the matters tlius ufed 

 being laid in heaps in the furrow? of the different ridges or 

 drills, from the third to the fixth, at the diftance of from 

 eight to ten feet, and immediately put carefully in along the 

 furrows of them, when, a few being completed from end to 

 end, the double mould-boarded plough is ufed, as before, to 

 fplit the ridges or raifed drills, and cover in the manure, 

 which it does at one bout, leaving the ridge-tops immediately 

 above the manure put in, rather high. Thefe are fomotimes 

 here, in fome cafes and circumilances, a little levelled down 

 before fowing, in a fort of Iharp convex manner, by a Hght 

 harrow run once or twice over them. But the moft ufual 

 mode of flattening them is by the light wooden roller, as 

 above, to which the drill or iowing-plough is attached, 

 in the manuer already feen. Sometimes, however, inftead 

 of the roller, a kind of fled, made of wood or iron, is had 

 retourfe to in fomj; places, for flattening the tops of one or 



more 



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