184 



CULINARY OR KITCHEN GARDEN. 



for spinach. They make an excellent white soup. 

 In France they are served as a sauce for ducks, 

 and are much used for garnishing tongues, hams, 

 stewed beef, &c, being cut into roses and other 

 devices. Turnip-tops, in spring, are the most 

 wholesome of all green hardy vegetables, acting 

 as a powerful antiscorbutic. The first settlers 

 in Virginia were greatly afflicted with scurvy, 

 until they were able to cure themselves by the 

 turnips they cultivated. Turnips are nutritious 

 and wholesome, and certainly ought to occupy 

 a place on our tables more frequently than they 

 do, particularly in Scotland, where the best tur- 

 nips are grown and the fewest eaten; and this the 

 more so, as potatoes are neither so nutritious, 

 so wholesome, nor are they now so abundant. 

 Turnips have also been converted into meal. 



The French turnip, or navet, yellow or petit 

 Berlin, is much cultivated all over the Continent 

 for culinary purposes, and forms an important 

 ingredient in almost all foreign soups. Stewed 

 in gravy or stock, it is much prized ; few dinners 

 are served at which it does not in one way or 

 other appear. The peculiar flavour is in the 

 outer rind, so that, in using it, it should not be 

 peeled. It was at one period much cultivated 

 in Britain for cooking purposes, and is mentioned 

 by Justice of Chichton as giving a higher flavour, 

 if two or three are used, to dishes, than a dozen 

 other turnips. It is occasionally met with in 

 the London market, both of home growth, and 

 also imported from Berlin and Altona. It is in 

 demand in all families where high cooking is 

 practised. 



The bulbs, taken up in the beginning of win- 

 ter, and planted in any light soil, rotten tan, or 

 leaf-mould, and placed in dark cellars, the floor 

 of a mushroom-house, or indeed anywhere, where 

 a temperature of from 50° to 60° can be main- 

 tained, and light excluded, will send up their 

 leaves in profusion, which, when from 6 to 9 

 inches high, and blanched white, form an excel- 

 lent substitute for forced sea-kale — a luxury any 

 one may enjoy by purchasing a few dozen roots 

 in November, and growing them as above in a 

 cellar, stable, or outhouse, in a moderate tem- 

 perature, and in darkness. 



Propagation. — By sowing the seed where 

 it is to remain, excepting in the case of the 

 Swedish or Rutabaga and Teltow, which 

 readily admit of transplanting. 



Sowing and planting. — For the earliest 

 crop, seed of some of the most approved 

 early varieties should be sown on slight hot- 

 beds about the 1st of February, and treated 

 as already recommended for radishes, p. 

 172. The first crop in the open air may 

 be sown in the middle of March in Eng- 

 land, the first week in April in Scotland, 

 in both cases choosing the warmest border 

 the garden affords. These will come into 

 use, in the former case, in May and June, 

 and in the latter about the end of May to 

 the end of June — much, in all cases, de- 

 pending on the locality, for there are some 



where it may be considered early if fit for 

 use in July. A second sowing should be 

 made about the middle of April in the one 

 case, and the end of the month in the 

 other. The first principal summer crop 

 in both cases should be made from the 

 middle to the end of May, for crops to 

 come in from the beginning of July, and 

 last throughout most of August. Sow 

 again in June and July for the principal 

 autumn crops; and indeed, in many places, 

 it is sufficiently late to sow at the end of 

 J uly for such as are to be used during win- 

 ter. For nice small roots, to serve during 

 winter and until spring, a sowing should 

 be made on a well-exposed spot, both in 

 the second and also in the third week in 

 August ; and in situations so favourable as 

 around Edinburgh, and along the sea- 

 coast, a last sowing should be made about 

 the middle or towards the end of Septem- 

 ber. This last crop we sow broadcast, 

 and find them succeed very well, to be 

 drawn for use through the winter, about 

 the size of from a pigeon's egg to that of 

 double that size. These also last much 

 longer in spring, when taken up before ve- 

 getation commences, and buried in deep 

 pits in a cold shaded place, to retard their 

 growth. They serve for soups, and for that 

 insatiable source of consumption, a French 

 cook's stock-pot. Where very small young- 

 turnips are in constant demand, two or 

 three intermediate summer sowings will be 

 required; but these need not be so exten- 

 sive as the general ones. It is unwise to 

 depend for such a supply on the thinnings 

 of other crops, because all turnips should 

 receive their final thinning long before 

 they are fit for such a purpose ; and leav- 

 ing them to attain the necessary size would 

 only injure the principal crop. 



The French turnip, or navet, should be 

 sown during the first and third week in 

 April, the first and third week in May, 

 and again the second and last week in 

 June, choosing the poorest light sandy soil. 



The two earliest spring-sown crops 

 should be sown broadcast in 3^-feet wide 

 beds, for the convenience of affording 

 temporary shelter in the event of late 

 spring-frosts, and also because they are 

 to be drawn young, and do not occupy 

 the ground long after they are up. The 

 latest crop of all may be sown in the 

 same manner over the ground, without its 

 being divided into beds ; for, unless the 



