State of AgricnUvre in Northumberland. 171 



it is in common practice in Northumhcrland, or so much so as it 

 deserves, probably because it is attended with a good deal of 

 labour ; but I have myself used it, when I was a large grower of 

 turnips, Avith much success, and in one season especially, when a 

 hard frost, without snow, in the end of January, destroyed nearly 

 all the white turnips in the district, and they rose in price from 

 4f/. and 5r/. to 9(r/. and \0d. per week for sheep, I had by this 

 precaution 60 acres of fresh and sound turnips standing in the 

 spring. When the turnips have ceased to grow, and those in- 

 tended to be stored up are removed, and the headlands cleared, 

 a double mould-board plough, with two horses abreast, is set to 

 work ; the horses walk in the outside drills of three, leaving the 

 centre one for the plough, which is set to such depth as to raise 

 the soil so as entirely to cover up the turnips on each side, just 

 leaving the tops above ground. The work is heavy, but the 

 effect certain, unless the turnips be unusually large ; in which 

 case it is impossible entirely to protect them. The only incon- 

 venience attending the eating of the turnips is, that as the sheep 

 can only get the tops, so soon as they have taken them off, as 

 many turnips must be drawn out by the picker from day to day as 

 the flock requires; and from the hoUowness of the drills, the 

 sheep have more difficulty in getting up if they lay awkward, 

 as the phrase is. 



Such farmers in the district as have more turnips than they 

 require, find a ready sale for them to the stock-farmers in the 

 mountain-range^ selling them to be consumed on the ground by 

 sheep from bl. to 71. per acre for white, and probably from 8^. to 

 10/. for swedes; or for 3c?. or 4cZ. per week for hogs, and 6c?. or 

 more for aged sheep. Sheep are generally made fat for market 

 in this county w ith no other food than turnips ; and in like 

 manner three-year-old steers are sent to market in the spring, 

 of good weight — say from 60 to 80 stones of Mlbs. — which have 

 tasted neither oil-cake, corn, nor hay; although many people now 

 use cake or meal for the improvement of the manure, and that they 

 may send off two lots of fat cattle in the season instead of one. 

 The superior feeding quality of the turnips in this and the counties 

 north of Tvreed has excited the surprise of agriculturists from 

 Cambridge and other counties where good turnips are produced, 

 but which they say will not bring stock to maturity without 

 adventitious aid. This may arise from a combination of causes — ■ 

 the greater friability and loaminess of the soil, the larger size of 

 the turnips and their more solid texture, from the greater moisture 

 in general of the climate. They are certainly less subject to the 

 ravages of the fly at the outset, and of mildew afterwards ; for 

 though frequently attacked by the fly, they are seldom overcome 

 by it. Their success in this respect may be mainly ascribed to 



