ESCULENT-ROOTED PLANTS. — THE TURNIP. 



187 



for their reception, which might otherwise 

 be in full perfection of crop at the period 

 when these turnips should be sown. In 

 lifting them, care should be taken that the 

 roots are got up entire : the operation of 

 lifting them will be facilitated if the seed- 

 bed get a good soaking of water early in 

 the morning of the day on which trans- 

 planting is to take place ; it will cause 

 the roots to part more freely with the 

 soil, and they, at the same time, will ab- 

 sorb such a portion of water as will greatly 

 make up for the evaporation to which 

 their leaves will be exposed before the 

 spongiolets are in a condition to throw in 

 a sufficient supply for the support of the 

 plants. A dibble of sufficient length and 

 thickness must be used, so that the root 

 may be set in the hole in such a manner 

 that its natural position may be main- 

 tained, and the soil gently pressed around 

 it, but not in the way practised by many, 

 of thrusting the dibble into the ground 

 as soon as the root is set in the hole, in 

 an oblique direction, and giving it a twist, 

 with a view, as they say, of firming it at 

 the bottom. Such a mode of proceeding 

 is of all others the most likely to push 

 the root out of its perpendicular position, 

 if not to break it entirely. 



Besides the advantage of economising 

 space, by following the transplanting prin- 

 ciple in the case of Swedish turnips, we 

 have the opportunity of rejecting forked 

 or apparently malformed roots ; and even 

 another, and to us rather unexpected, ad- 

 vantage has occurred in Wigtonshire, as 

 reported by Mr Stephens, in " The Book 

 of the Farm," vol. ii. p. 82, and obtained 

 by Mr A. Johnstone, " on transplanting 

 swedes on land which he had not got 

 ready for sowing them at the proper sea- 

 son. He sowed some seeds of Skirving's 

 swedes in a bed in April 1847, and trans- 

 planted the plants from them as late as 

 the 22d of June. From ten to twenty 

 days afterwards, the transplanted plants 

 running into flower, some of them were 

 pulled up, and others cut over near the 

 ground; when, in about fourteen days 

 afterwards, bulbs began to form, and new 

 stems and leaves were put forth luxuri- 

 antly. He then cut over others that had 

 flowered, and the same results followed. 

 Finding the green leaves succulent, he 

 caused them to be pulled as green food, 

 and continued to do so during the season, 



three times, never imagining that the 

 bulbs would be of any value. Meanwhile, 

 however, the bulbs enlarged until the end 

 of October, when two were pulled up, and 

 one weighed 18 lb. and the other 15 lb., 

 with scanty stem and leaves, because the 

 former ones had been cut down not long 

 before." This appears so far to confirm 

 the newly-started opinion that tubers and 

 bulbs will increase in size after the leaves 

 and stems have been removed from them, 

 " The question after such treatment of 

 the bulbs" of the Swedish turnip " is, Are 

 they deteriorated as food?" From an 

 analysis made by Professor Johnston, it 

 would appear they were not. 



The Teltow may be set in rows 1 foot 

 apart, and the plants 9 inches asunder in 

 the row; while the Swedish should have 

 18 inches between the rows, and 12 be- 

 tween the plants in the line. 



Thick-sowing can only be sanctioned 

 on the plea of affording sufficient food for 

 the Haltica nemorum (the flea or beetle), 

 the Curculio contractus, Tenthredo (or saw- 

 fly), and other insect enemies, to satiate 

 them during the period of their limited 

 existence, and still leave a crop behind, 

 Other means have been had recourse to, 

 with more or less effect, such as that of 

 mixing old and new seed in equal propor- 

 tions, dividing the mixture, and steeping 

 one half twenty-four hours in water ; al- 

 though sown at the same time, four dis- 

 tinct brairds will be insured, one of which 

 has, so far as our experience goes, a fair 

 chance of escaping. It has often hap- 

 pened, when one-year and three-year old 

 seed have been mixed and sown together, 

 that the insect completely ate up the 

 braird from the new seed, and had disap- 

 peared before the other had come above 

 ground. Radish seed, which germinates 

 so much sooner than the turnip seed, has 

 been sown for a like purpose ; for it should 

 be borne in mind that these insects prey 

 alike upon all cruciferous plants. No 

 better way exists of ridding the crop of 

 such intruders than that recommended 

 by Mr A. Gorrie many years ago, which 

 is to dust the young plants with caustic 

 lime in powder, and the simplest way of 

 applying it is to put it into a thin canvass 

 bag, and to shake it over the plants twice 

 a-day, when their leaves are quite dry ; 

 but this remedy, like most others, greatly 

 depends on the quality of the medicine. 



