THE AMATEUR’S KITCHEN GARDEN. 147 
good preparation made for it, that the few jumpers left are 
comparatively powerless to injure it. Dressing the ground 
with fresh soot, or fresh lime or gas-lime, three days after 
sowing the seed, is a good practice, as it renders the soil and 
plant alike offensive to the insect, and at the same time pro- 
motes growth by the nourishment afforded. Another very 
important preventive is to destroy all charlock and bird- 
turnip that appear in the form of weeds : for these sustain 
the insect and keep the race in force, so that there is always a 
brood of Haltica where weeding is neglected, and especially 
near railway banks, where charlock is plentiful. There is yet 
another and apparently suicidal, yet not so foolish as it 
appears, system, and that is, to provide the rascal with food 
of another sort to decoy him away from the young turnips, 
on the plan of outwitting garden plagues by openly encourag- 
ing them. When sowing turnips sow also common rape in 
rows between them, and when the proper crop is advanced 
enough, hoe out the rape and let it perish. 
Another pest of the plant is “Ambury” or “Finger and 
toe,” the result of the puncture of the roots by a weevil. 
There is no cure for. this, but it may be in great part pre- 
vented by deep digging and liberal manuring, and by the 
employment of soot, when the seed-beds are made ready 
for sowing, just “ pricking it in” a few inches deep. It is 
generally on badly-cultivated old garden ground that ambury 
occurs, and it may be accepted as a proof that the ground has 
been dug, not with a spade or digging fork, but with a tooth- 
pick or a spoon. We have had to face the pest many times 
on land rented for garden purposes away from home ; but 
it never troubled us beyond one season, for at every oppor- 
tunity deep trenching was practised, and the whole generation 
of weevils were thereby consigned to deep graves beyond the 
reach of vegetation and the enjoyment of life. 
Storing. — It is advisable to store turnips before they suffer 
in any material degree by the frosts of early winter. Take up 
only the finest bulbs and pack them away in dry earth or sand 
in a cool dry shed or outhouse, leaving the inferior roots to 
weather the storm, and if they survive they will be useful to 
.supply turnip-greens in spring, when vegetables are scarce. 
They may also be clamped in the same way as potatoes, and a 
week’s supply may be taken out at a time, as in winter 
exposure to the air for a week or so does them no harm, and it 
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