648 



RADICACEOUS ESCULENTS. 



be propagated by seed, and for a bed four and a half feet by twenty-four 

 feet, the plants to remain being thinned to seven inches' distance every 

 way, the quantity required is half an ounce. The seed comes up in ten 

 days or a fortnight, according to the season. The soil should be in good heart, 

 and well pulverised. If sown in raised drills, the}' do better than on level 

 ground, more especially on soils inclined to be tenacious. Sown broadcast 

 on such soils, they do no good. A sowing should be made once in March, and 

 twice in April, for the earliest crops ; and afterwards at intervals of four or five 

 weeks, till the middle of August;, for a winter crop or for plants to stand 

 through the winter to shoot up and supply greens in February, March, and 

 April. The main crops of white, yellow, and French turnips, should be- 

 so wn in the latter end of June. All the sorts should be sown in drills, as 

 admitting of stirring the soil among the plants with less labour. The earliest 

 and latest crops should be of the early Dutch, as coming into use sooner in 

 autumn, and sendmg up sprouts soonest in spring. They may be in rows a 

 foot apart, and the plants tliimied out to six inches' distance in the row, and 

 this width will also answer for the French turnip ; but the stone and the 

 yellow may be sown in rows eighteen inches apart, and the Swedish at two 

 feet ; the distance in the rows being proportionately increased. The routine 

 culture consists in weeding, thinning, stirring the soil, and supplying water 

 abundantly in ver}- dry weather, to prevent the roots from becoming tough 

 and stringy ; taking great care, when stirring the soil, not to earth up the 

 roots, which will prevent their swelling. 



1422. In gathering the root the entire plant is necessarily pulled up, 

 and the tops and tails taken at once to the rot heap. Choose the largest, 

 and take them from the most crowded parts of the rows, to make more 

 room for the growth of those w^hich remain. In gathering the tops in 

 spring, the tenderest leaves only are taken, whether from the crown of 

 plants that have not yet run, or from the flower-stems. Some also gather 

 the points of the stems, which, however, are much less delicate than the 

 leaves, but excellent to salt beef. The leaves and tops are equall}' good 

 from all the vai'ieties ; but most acrid from the French turnip, and least so 

 from the Swedish. 



1423. Preserving turnips through the winter. In ordinary winters neither 

 the yellow nor the Swedish turnip require to be covered ; but as when left 

 exposed they will begin to vegetate, in February a portion of the crop should 

 be taken up, topped (but not tailed, which would favour the escape of sap), 

 and preserved in sand or straw in the root-cellar, or in a ridge like potatoes 

 (141G) ; and like them so thickly thatched as to exclude both heat and rain, 

 and maintain a degree of coolness that will prevent vegetation. Or the rows 

 as they stand on the ground may have the leaves cut off and covered with 

 soil, so as to form them into ridges, and after the whole mass of the ridges 

 has been cooled down to 32° by frost, it may then be thickly covered ^^ith 

 litter, to exclude the heating influence of the sun. A tliird mode of pre- 

 serving turnips through the winter, consists in cutting off the tops with a 

 slice of the roots attached, so as to prevent them from ever vegetating again, 

 and in this state, with or without the tails, burying them in moist sand in a 

 cellar, or in a ridge in the open ah* like potatoes. As the turnip vegetates 

 at a much lower temperature than the potato, much greater care is required 

 to keep it in a dormant state, 



1424. To save seed. — One kind only can be sowed in one garden in the 



