THE AMATEUR’S KITCHEN GARDEN. 
145 
four sorts, one of them being a quick grower, such as Mouse- 
tail or Six Weeks, and the others slow-growing kinds for late 
autumn and winter use, such as Red American , Veitclis • Red 
Globe, Orange Jelly, and Chirk Castle Black Stone. If 
ground can be spared, and there is any probability of turnips 
being in great demand, sow again in August, and this time 
give the preference to Jersey Navet, a very hardy conical- 
rooted turnip, and Orange Jelly, which endures hard winter 
weather equally well. In favoured districts turnips may be 
sown in September, and then the sorts should be about two in 
number — say, one of the earliest, such as Six Weeks, and one 
of the latest, such as Jersey Navet. During a quarter of a 
century’s experience in kitchen practice we have never obtained 
turnips worth having by sowing so late as September, and 
therefore we advise all who have no better climate than that 
of Stoke Newington to be in time with their sowings of winter 
turnips, and make sure of a plant ere the dark days come and 
growth is arrested by fog and frost. 
Where a regular succession is required, the first sowing 
should be made at the end of January on a gentle hotbed 
covered with six inches of light rich soil. Thenceforward 
every month a bed should be sown, first on warm sheltered 
borders, and afterwards in the open ground. For hotbed 
culture brick pits are well adapted, but whatever the structure 
it must be one from which the lights can be easily removed, 
for it is impossible to grow turnips wholly under glass. 
Soil.— The turnip will grow in any good garden soil, but 
the best for the purpose is a deep, rich, mellow loam. An 
abundance of manure may be dug in when the ground is pre- 
pared, for not only is the turnip a hungry plant, but the 
sweet tender bulbs required for the table are only to be ob- 
tained by growing them as quickly as circumstances will 
allow, and a rich soil is essential to promote rapid develop- 
ment ; hence also irrigation, whether by means of pure water 
or sewage, is a grand aid to the turnip crop, whether in the 
garden or the field ; but the cultivator must take care to pro- 
portion the sewage to the amount of sunshine, for mere 
saturation of the ground is an injury, but plenty of moisture 
with a warm soil and a strong light will assist the develop- 
ment of the plant immensely. The best of all artificials for a 
turnip crop is phospho-guano. 
Turnip-seed should be sown in rows at least a foot apart, 
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