1G4 



On Drawing Turnips. 



favoured hy an abundance — others entirely neglected — all left to 

 chance— nothing directed by care, experience, or system. Under 

 the weight of these facts, therefore, it may be assumed, that, in 

 drawing away turnips from the held to be consumed at home, in 

 combination with other food, not only will the quality of the 

 manure as to its strength be greatly improved, but the quantity, 

 also, under proper distribution and management, may be made to 

 produce far more beneficial and abundant results. 



The consideration of the foregoing questions in regard to the 

 *' drawing of turnips," has been confined to neat stock. When 

 the crop can be eaten on the field by sheep, some of the objec- 

 tions above urged will be neutralized. When the land, however, 

 is in sufficient heart to bring a crop of Swedes, and they are sown 

 on ridges, 1 believe it will be found most profitable to draw off 

 about one-half of the crop, to be eaten in the fold-yard ; the other 

 half to be eaten on the field by sheep. The prejudice which has 

 long existed in the minds of many persons against using manure 

 fresh from the yard, for turnips, is now giving way to the force of 

 experience and facts. The writer of this Essay has never failed 

 to have an abundance of Swede turnips (according to seasons), 

 with the using of manure fresh from the yard, after once turning. 

 Sir H. Davy says, that the process of fermentation and putrefaction 

 is pernicious above the surface of the ground, but salutary, when 

 carried on beneath it. 



The land being well cleaned and pulverized as early as pos- 

 sible in May, the manure may be led straight away from the 

 yard, having been once turned over a few weeks before, merely 

 for the purpose of its being spread more regularly in the spaces. 

 The ridges should be formed at 27 inches apart, measuring 

 from the middle of the ridge ; and this distance provides not 

 only for the free working of the cart-wheels in the proper 

 spaces, but for the working also of the cutter and mould-board 

 plough, to clean the spaces and to earth up the plants in the last 

 operation after hoeing and weeding. As soon as the ridges are 

 formed, the manure is flung down in proper quantities (10 or 12 

 good cart-loads to the acre) betw^een them, and then spread care- 

 fully by women and children, so as not to miss the giving of nou- 

 rishment to every turnip-plant as it grows. The ridges are then 

 carefully split by the mould-board plough, and all the manui e 

 belonging to the day's w ork covered neatly over in this manner. 

 The sowing should be done the same day. To a barrow-drill 

 may be attached a small roller, and by this plan the seed has the 

 advantage of being forced into growth by the warmth of the 

 fermentation carried on just beneath the surface on which it is 

 deposited. 



As to the expence of " drawing the turnips," it will be found 



