144 tiie amateur’s kitchen garden. 
become large enough to draw, or they will become fibrous and 
rank in flavour. As a rule a glut of turnips is not so welcome 
as a glut of peas in a private garden, but in the market 
garden it is a good thing to secure a heavy crop which can be 
cleared off all at once, or nearly so, to make the ground ready 
for other purposes. The market grower can draw his turnips 
when they are perfect, but the private gardener draws a few 
this week and a few next, and keeps them going as long as 
possible ; so that, although he may begin with a sample equal 
to any ever seen in market, it soon deteriorates, and he makes 
an end of his crop by sending in turnips tough as fiddle-strings. 
Hence, if we compare the turnips offered by greengrocers with 
those from the home garden every day throughout the year, 
we shall find that the vendor has the best of it ; and hence, in 
some cases, it may be better to depend upon the market 
for turnips than to trust entirely on the production of the 
garden. Let everyone judge for himself on this point, but let 
none who employ gardeners be in haste to find fault with their 
intermittent and defective supplies of turnips. If the market 
beats them in this matter, they can beat the market in almost 
everything else grown in the kitchen garden, and especially in 
peas, beans, cauliflowers, and all kinds of green vegetables. 
Successional Sorts. — We shall first speak of the simplest 
mode of growing turnips and the practice that is adapted for 
a majority of middle-class gardens. When March winds have 
made the seed beds ready, and a general sowing is made 
of what we call “ small seeds” — i. e., cabbage, winter greens, 
etc. — a few rows of any of the quick-growing white turnips 
should be sown with them. There can be nothing better for 
this purpose than Early Dutch and Early Snowball. These 
will afford a supply of nice juicy turnips in May and June, 
and perhaps until the middle of July. The times of coming in 
and going out are, however, dependent on the weather. It will 
be well if small successive sowings of quick growing white 
sorts can be made in April, May, and June, and in the early 
part of July the main crop for winter and spring use must be 
sown. The July sowing is the most important of all in a 
small garden, for it not only ensures plenty of turnips when 
they are much in request, but there is usually no difficulty in 
finding ground for it, as the early peas are then cleared off, 
and a general disposal of the ground for winter crops is in 
progress. The July sowing should comprise at least three or 
