102 Anhunj ; and the Analysis of Diseased Turnips. 
light sandy soils ; hence the manifest benefit with which lime, 
chalk, marl, shell-sand, and other calcareous manures are used as 
preventives of this and similar diseases in turnips on such soils. 
But, at the same time, it must not be supposed that the ab- 
sence or deficiency of lime in land is always the cause of fingers 
and toes in turnips, and that liming is a universal preventive of 
this disease. In proof of this, I may observe that not long ago I 
examined a soil which contained plenty of lime, and yet pro- 
duced diseased turnips ; and also that 1 have seen fingers and 
toes in roots grown on calcareous soils, probably containing from 
30 to 40 per cent, of lime. If it be remembered that the ash of 
turnips contains some ten or twelve different kinds of inorganic 
matter, it will not appear strange that the absence of available 
potash, or the insufficiency of phosphoric acid, or the want of 
sulphuric acid in the soil, may produce diseased turnips as well as 
the deficiency of lime. There can be no doubt that we should 
know much more respecting the causes of the increasing failures 
in turnips than we do at present, if we were less apt to take 
things for granted, and were more inclined to examine a great 
number of cases, even at the risk of adding nothing more to our 
existing stock of information on the subject. Viewed in this 
light every well-authenticated case of disease in turnips must 
have some interest to the botanist and the agricultural chemist. 
I therefore gladly availed myself' of an opportunity of in- 
specting a crop of turnips affected by Anbury in the most extra- 
ordinary degree. A brief account of the case, and the subse- 
quent examination of the soil and evils to which it led, mav» 
I trust, not be altogether void of interest to the agricultural reader. 
The instance just referred to occurred on a farm at Ashton- 
Keynes, a village about six miles from Cirencester. On visit- 
ing the farm, Mr. Plumbe, the occupier, directed my attention 
to a field of considerable extent on the slope of a hill. Sur- 
rounded by a tract of country visibly abounding in limestone- 
gravel, the field on the slope and top of the hill presented a 
striking contrast, even to a superficial observer, with the fields at 
the base of tlie hill. These were moderately stifl, full of lime- 
stone-gravel ; and the root-crops on them looked healtliy, pro- 
mising a fair average yield. The elevated field in question, on 
the contrary, was sandy in the extreme ; apparently contained 
but little clay, no limestone-gravel whatever, and the turnips on 
it were affected by Anbury to such an extent as 1 never witnessed 
before. There was hardly a sound turnip to be seen, except on 
two isolated spots, to which I shall refer presently. With tliis 
exception, the wliole of the roots were so much injured by the 
disease that it was not considered worth while to send sheep over 
the field. The young plants came up well, I was informed, looked 
