170 State of Agriculture in Northumberland. 



or carted to young cattle in the stravz-yards. The turnips are laid 

 in some dry and convenient situation, upon the ground in long 

 heaps which are rounded at top and covered with straw, which 

 adinits the air but excludes the frost : if covered with earth or 

 even laid in a close house which prevents evaporation, they will 

 quickly rot ; but under straw, swedes will retain their qualities 

 and continue good food for cattle through all the month of May. 

 This covering is cheaply done by using the same straw and ropes 

 which have covered the stacks that may have been threshed ; the 

 ropes, broken into right lengths, need only be thrown over the 

 turnip-heaps from side to side and fastened down at the ends by 

 laying a spading of earth upon them, like a little ditch round the 

 heap. For preserving turnips in a juicy and fresh state till late in 

 the spring, the plan is sometimes followed of taking them to a 

 field ploughed for fallow in the next summ.er ; a furrow is made 

 by the plough, which furrow is planted full of turnips, another 

 furrow is laid over them and the hollow filled with turnips again, 

 and so on. 



This mode, though it preserves the turnips in a sound state, has 

 its inconveniences ; they cannot be got out if wanted in frost, and 

 are rather expensive to take up at any time ; and the tops shoot 

 out early in spring so as to draw the juice from the bulbs, making 

 them less nutritious for cattle than if laid up in hetips without tops, 

 although for ewes when at or near lambing they are more whole- 

 some, as a little fresh top corrects the too astringent quality of the 

 Swedish turnips, and promotes milk more ; at the same time that, 

 in a scarce season, an extra quantity of food is obtained : they do 

 very well too for young cattle fed on straw. A very common 

 mode of storing turnips for such young cattle, or for sheep in 

 grass-fields, is to place them with roots and tops on, close side by 

 side upon a piece of dry ploughed land, or even rough grass, if 

 it be more convenient ; the roots put out fibres which keep the 

 turnips in sap, and the tops are sufficiently close to cover them 

 tolerably well from frost, with this advantage, that a slight shower 

 of snow protects them, which would be of no service to them 

 standing singly on the drills. In this way they can be placed 

 conveniently for the ground on which they are to be used, so as 

 to be accessible even in deep snow, and can be filled into carts 

 with grapes or 3-pronged forks in clean and dry condition. I have 

 dwelt at such length on this p;irt of the subject, because it is im- 

 portant in itself, and is proved to be considered so by the. Society, 

 from their having offered a premium for the best essay respecting it. 

 It remains, however, for me to describe another mode of pre- 

 serving turnips, those left on the land for sheep-feeding, and 

 having naturally no protection but their leaves, which a few days 

 of frost, without snow, will destroy. I am not prepared to say that 



