BEST SEASON FOR CUTTING BUSHES.—CULTIVATION OF TURNIPS.-NO. 2. 
235 
from the sides and edge with a common knife, and 
then rubbing all over it, with a woollen cloth, a 
thin coat of whey-butter, linseed oil, or a paint made 
of Indian red or Spanish brown, mixed with beer. 
After this, the cheese should be turned over at least 
twice a week, until the paint or coating becomes 
perfectly dry. It may then remain in the cheese- 
room, which, it must be recollected, should always 
be cool, of a uniform temperature, free from much 
light and flies, with a moderate current of air pass¬ 
ing through it, until required for use. 
THE BEST SEASON FOR CUTTING 
BUSHES. 
The month of August is accounted 
as the best time to cut under brush in 
forest lands, as well as wild bushes 
or shrubs which naturally throw out 
. ; branches near or under the ground, in 
o open pastures and fields. In general 
' they may be killed by cutting them off 
close to the ground this month, or by 
grubbing them up by the roots. Suckers, 
however, which shoot up from the roots 
of trees, should not be broken off below 
the surface of the ground, as a new set 
will be likely to spring up the next year, 
inconsequence of the fresh wounds thus 
made in the roots. The work may be 
done very expeditiously and in a perfect 
manner, with a bush-hook, denoted by 
the above cut, which we have on sale 
at $1 each without the handle, or $1.50 
complete. 
CULTIVATION~OF r TURNIPS.—NO. 2. 
Culture and Thinning out the Plants. —If the 
ground at the time of sowing be in a warm, moist 
condition, and an active stimulating manure be ap¬ 
plied, the young plants will, in general, make their 
appearance in six or eight days, according to the 
quality of the soil and the state of the weather. 
It may be longer, however, before they appear, 
particularly if the manure is not quick in its ac¬ 
tion, and the season should be adverse to vegeta¬ 
tion. 
As soon as the second, or rough leaves of the 
plants are about two inches high, a horse or hand- 
hoeing is to be performed between the ridgelets, to 
cut up the weeds. The hand-hoe may shortly af¬ 
terwards be introduced to thin out the plants, leav¬ 
ing them at intervals of from eight to ten inches 
apart in the row, or if sown broad-cast, about the 
same distance from each other. No fixed rule, be¬ 
yond the first thinning, can be laid down for the 
after-cultivation of the turnip, as so much must de¬ 
pend on the state of the weather and the size of 
the plants when fully grown. In a fortnight or 
three weeks after the first thinning has been done, 
the laborer must again pass through the field in dry 
weather (for no operation in the turnip-crop should 
be attempted in wet weather), and remove such 
weeds as may have sprung up in the interval, trim¬ 
ming the earth round each plant, and at the same 
time cutting out any unnecessary plant which had 
escaped his previous notice; for if left too thick, or 
if there are two or more together, they will grow 
up slender and weak, and not swell at the roots. 
After this the ground may be drilled or shuffled with 
a hoe in order to loosen its surface and kill the 
weeds. When the plants have made tolerably 
large bulbs, a double mould-board plow is some¬ 
times passed between the rows for the purpose of 
ridging them, and earthing up the plants. This 
will serve to keep the ground dry, if the soil is 
naturally moist, and assist the growth of the plants, 
the rapid progress of which will soon afterwards 
cover the intervals, and prevent the further growth 
of weeds. 
Accidents, fyc.~ The turnip in this country, as well 
as in Europe, is liable to several diseases, the most 
formidable of which with us, perhaps, is a striped 
flea-beetle, or fly ( Haltica striolata, Harris), appear¬ 
ing early in May, and continuing more or less abun¬ 
dant throughout the season. It is very injurious to 
the young plants, devouring their seed-leaves as 
soon as they expand. This insect, in time, it is 
thought, may become as great a pest in this country 
as the turnip flea-beetle in Europe, which it greatly 
resembles in its appearance, and in all its habits. 
Various expedients have been adopted to check 
the ravages of the latter, although no specific reme¬ 
dy has as yet been discovered. A mixture of equal 
proportions of quick-lime and soot, however, 
strewed along the drills, at the rate of six or eight 
bushels per acre, and dusted over the plants when 
wet with dew, at the time the insect appears, is con¬ 
sidered to be of great use in checking the evil. At 
any rate it certainly promotes the growth of the 
plants, and perhaps forces them beyond the injury 
of the fly. 
The leaves of the tqrnip are also preyed upon 
in the Northern States by a pale-green caterpillar, 
the larva of a white butterfly (Pontia oleracea, Har¬ 
ris), which makes its appearance by the last of June, 
and is found at intervals until the beginning of 
August. These caterpillars do not devour the leaf 
of the turnip at its edge, but begin indiscriminately 
upon some part of its under side, through which 
they eat irregular holes. In gardens or fields, in¬ 
fested by these caterpillars, boards placed horizon¬ 
tally an inch or two above the ground, will be re¬ 
sorted to by them, when they are about to change 
to chrysalides, when it will be easy to collect and 
destroy them. 
The bulbs and roots are sometimes attacked by 
worms of different kinds ; and when they commence 
their ravages at an early period, they impede the 
growth, and ruin, or greatly injure the crop. Hi¬ 
therto, no certain remedy has been ascertained for 
destroying these depredators; but it has been sug¬ 
gested that their ravages may be prevented by ma¬ 
nuring the soil with wood-ashes. 
Plowing with Elephants. —It is stated that in 
Ceylon, elephants are employed in plowing rice- 
fields and in preparing new grounds for the cultiva¬ 
tion of coffee, pepper, &c. One of these animals, 
well trained, it is said, will do the work of twenty 
oxen; consequently more labor is performed in a 
given time, and the period is hastened for putting 
in the crops. The price of an elephant in Ceylon 
varies from $50 to $75. Could not the elephants 
exhibited in the caravans in this country be more 
profitably employed in plowing our prairies of the 
W est ? 
