226 



On the Best Mode of Storing Turnips, 



On some farms in the hilly districts of the western counties, par- 

 ticularly those bordering on the sea-coast, scarcely any pasture- 

 lands are to be found, consequently but few cattle were reared, and 

 fewer fattened; the principal part of the land was sown with corn, 

 and produced large quantities of straw, which, before the growth 

 of the turnip was practised to any considerable extent, was thrown 

 in large masses into the lanes and farm-yards to rot for manure ; 

 but now on these farms, and on many others where a head of 

 cattle was but seldom, or perhaps never, fed, are to be seen dur- 

 ing the winter months large stores of turnips that have been 

 taken in the autumn and winter months from the lands which 

 either have been sown to wheat or thereby prepared for a barley 

 crop, and the cattle, which are partially fed on the moorlands 

 during the summer, are bought up by the farmer of the arable 

 lands, and thus by means of the turnip are finished out '' and 

 in a proper state for the butcher in the spring of the year, and the 

 straw, which formerly would have been rotted as described, has 

 been converted into a valuable manure. It is then by this method 

 that the farmer has been enabled not only to turn out a large stock 

 of fat cattle in the spring, but also, by having at his command a 

 greater supply of more valuable manure of his own making with- 

 out additional cost, to effect an improvement of the soil, and to 

 grow a larger quantity of the necessaries of life^ in order to supply 

 the wants of an increasing population. 



That so valuable a root, conferring such benefits on the land, 

 and through the land to the public, should have caused the 

 attention of the Agricultural Society to be directed to the best 

 means of storing it during the winter months, has prompted 

 mc to make these preliminary observations by way of introduction 

 to some remarks on the question proposed ; and although they will 

 appear in the author's " rustic style,'' not much in the shape of 

 an essay, he having no such pretensions, being a farmer, not 

 an essayist, he feels assured that, although his observations may 

 not present to the Society much original matter, they are derived 

 from careful observation and practical experience, and that they 

 will receive from so practical a body before whom they will 

 appear, and by whom they will be tested, whatever share of 

 attention they may be found to deserve. 



Under these impressions the author has broken a barrier 

 which he, in common with many others amongst his brother 

 farmers, had hitherto considered as almost insurmountable, that 

 of severe criticism, which now, under the favourable auspices of the 

 Society, they need no longer fear, but may witli confidence com- 

 mit their thoughts and experience to paper for the benefit of those 

 engaged in the pursuits of agriculture. 



The preservation of the turnip during the winter months has 



