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nate crops seem by certain natural laws to deteriorate if 
" recurring so frequently as once in four years, and that it 
has been found necessary to modify and subdivide the turnip 
course, this crop being uncongenial to strong soil ; but 
" still more essential has it been found to keep the land fresh 
" to seeds, for of all agricultural vegetables does the clover 
" family appear the most inclined to degenerate from too 
" frequent recurrence." Mr. Howard states On the deep 
" luold land, corn does not yield so well, neither does it ripen 
" so soon, as where the soil is shallower ; and it is land 
" unsuitable for turnips and barley ; and that the turnips are 
" almost invariably attacked with a disease called ' fingers 
" and toes.' " 
The remedies for these defects are indicated by the 
practice upon the other chalk districts in England. There 
is a difference between " fingery" turnips and those affected 
with anbury, or the true " finger and toes" disease : turnips 
grown on light, puffy soils, if repeated so frequently as once 
in four years, are often stunted and "fingery," and it is highly 
probable that this is caused as much by the effect of the 
rotation as by the repetition of the crop ; for it has been 
exceedingly well observed, in answer to the Duke of Port- 
land's letter, that the four-course system is not adapted to 
any light sandy soils, for it keeps them too pulverulent, 
friable, and deaf, and particularly with the manures now in 
use. But the true disease of " finger and toes" is caused by 
the larvse of a beetle called curculio pleurostigma : the 
excrescence appears in the beginning of August, below the 
bulb, and resembles roots of ginger hanging upon them. If 
turnips attain the size of walnuts, they do not subsequently 
become affected ; and soot, or lime, or the hydro-sulphuret of 
lime, 8 bushels per acre, are both said to be preventives ; but 
the most certain and efficient mode is the use of chalk, as prac- 
tised in the counties of Lincoln, Hampshire, &c. In Lin- 
