104 
TURNIP. 
best in such soils as are nearest like their own native soil 
As we have not always a choice, I would inform the Young 
Gardener, if he has a very light soil, which is not suitable 
for vegetables in general, he may sometimes get two crops of 
Turnips from it in one year, by sowing seed for the first crop 
in March, and that for his second about the middle of August 
For general crops, it will be better to have ground manured 
with short rotten dung, or compost containing a considerable 
proportion of coal, wood, peat, or soapers’ ashes. Ground 
that has been well manured for preceding crops, and also 
ground fresh broken up, will do well for Turnips. 
It is important that particular attention be paid to the time 
of sowing the seed ; for if the first crop be not sown soon 
enough to be gathered early in July, they are seldom fit for 
the table, being hot, stringy, and wormy ; and if the crop in- 
tended for autumn and winter use is sown before August, 
unless it be a very favourable season, if they even escape 
the attacks of insects and reptiles, they often get so defective, 
that they seldom keep through the winter.* 
To have Turnips in perfection, they should be hoed in 
about a month after they are sown, or by the time the plants 
have spread to a circle of about four inches, and again about 
a month from the first hoeing, leaving them from six to nine 
inches apart. They will yield the cultivator more profit 
when treated in this way, than when left to nature, as is too 
frequently done. 
* Previous to sowing Turnip seed, the gardener should procure a suitable 
quantity of lime, soot, or tobacco dust, so as to be prepared for the attacks 
of insects. It should be recollected that Turnip seed will sometimes sprout 
within forty-eight hours after t is sown, and that very frequently whole 
crops are devoured before a pi it is seen abfcve grounl. A reck of either 
of these ingredients, mixed * <\ about an equal quantity of asnes, or even 
dry road dust, scattered over me ground, morning and evening, for the first 
week after sowing the seed, would secure an acre of ground, provided the 
composition be used in such a way that the wind carry it over the whole 
plot ; and as the wind often changes, this end may be effected by crossing 
the land in a different direction "h time, according as the wind may serve. 
If gardeners who raise Radishes, Cabbage, and such other vegetables as are 
•subject to the attacks of insects, were to pursue this course, they would 
save themselves from considerable loss 
