280 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July 14. 
altered since the days of our great grandfathers, has to 
do the same work now as then. Assuredly, this imple¬ 
ment has not reached the summit of perfection yet, 
though much improved by Boyd; so that we should 
like to hear of some ingenious friend to horticulture 
taking up the matter, and presenting the world with a 
something simple in its uses and construction, quicker 
I and more uniform than the scythe, and free from the 
defects of the machines of “Budding and Shanks.” 
Probably, there may be some such instrument in use 
in some remote district not known to the rest of the 
world, the same as the Scotch reaping machine was, 
and might perhaps have remained, had not the parade 
by which another one was ushered into the world called 
it forth, not only to vindicate its own merits, but to 
defeat the much-talked-of machine of the “ go-ahead 
American.” Doubtless, some of our readers will remem¬ 
ber seeing a drawing of the Scotch machine in Loudon’s 
“ Gardeners’ Magazine,” some twenty-five years ago, or 
more, when the inventor, Mr. Bell, explained its con¬ 
structions with unassuming pretensions, and certainly, 
without that clog to a useful contrivance, “ a patent; ” 
for though, iir some of the intricacies of mechanism, 
when it is applied to manufacturing and other purposes 
of an extensive nature, “ a patent” may remunerate the 
inventoi-, we question much whether any individual 
who secured to himself the exclusive right of making 
boilers of a certain shape, or pipes, tanks, fumigators, 
sulphurators, or glass walls, was ever benefited to the 
extent of the outlay the patent right incurred; besides 
which, the science of horticulture has, of late years, 
been freed from that description of secrecy and pro¬ 
tective enactments, which, in our younger days, tended 
to mystify the calling rather than to dignify it. 
J. Robson. 
CULTIVATION OF TURNIPS. 
(Continued from pay c 205. j 
When Common Turnips are sown very early they 
require as much, or more, space than Swedish Turnips; 
and if plenty of room is allowed them, the former often, 
under good cultivation, produce a greater weight per 
acre Ilian the latter. Therefore, when sown in the 
first earliest season, it is best to drill them at twenty 
inches apart between the rows, and set them out at 
eighteen inches apart in the rows. After having ma¬ 
naged a crop of early Turnips in this manner, they 
will, in favourable seasons, generally produce a heavy 
crop; but they must be fed oil', or pulled for use, at the 
period of maturity, otherwise they soon lose their 
nutrition, aud get rotten. 
The Common Turnip cannot be so successfully culti¬ 
vated when the land is hard underneath as the Swedish 
I Turnip. In fact, as a general rule, the land cannot be 
made too light, an illustration of which is contained 
in an old saying, “ When the land is in good order, 
1 plough once more to ensure a crop.” 
In choosing land for the growth of roots, I am in 
favour of light laud for Common Turnips, and strong 
loam for Swedes. 
In making the land up for drilling, I think it should 
i be ridged-up into such sized lands as the nature of the 
soil requires, so as to lay it dry in the winter mouths; 
; and I find this crop succeeds best when drilled upon 
I the Hat. Upon very dry soils, the larger the lands the 
better, there being fewer furrows left to make the crop 
irregular in growth, or to induce the sheep to lay in 
them to a disadvantage whilst feeding off the roots. 
Indeed, wherever it is intended to feed the crop by 
sheep on the land, as is often the case upon loamy land- 
which becomes very dirty from treading during the 
winter months, I find it answer a much better purpose 
to make the land up into lands of fourteen turns with 
the plough, and leave a deep and decided furrow, than 
to make up small lands of five or seven turns, for the 
sheep will avoid lying in a deep furrow, whereas nume¬ 
rous shallow furrows prove a complete trap for them, 
by which many, in some seasons, are lost, by rolling 
into the furrows on their backs. 
It is unusual to make the land into stetches for 
Common Turnips, although excellent crops may be 
grown in that manner, the crop not requiring the depth 
of soil which is necessary for the Swedish Turnip. 
When this crop is drilled upon the stetch, it is not so 
likely to keep sound during the winter, for the hoeing 
and interculture serves to remove the soil from the 
plants, and leave the roots exposed to the effects of 
frost, &c. 
lu manuring for Common Turnips, I am aware there 
is a general impression that artificial manures which 
are best for Swedish Turnips are likewise best adapted 
for the production of the common varieties; and it is so, 
to a certain extent; that is, when they are sown at an 
early period for forward consumption. 
Having stated, in a former paper on manuring 
for the Swedish Turnip, that I considered guano, 
or any manures rich in ammonia, could not be advan¬ 
tageously applied to that crop, I beg now to state, 
that the same rule applies to early-sown Turnips. But 
in applying artificial manures for the main crop of 
Turnips, for general purposes, and winter consumption, 
for which purpose they are not usually sown until the 
middle aud latter end of the mouth of J uly, it becomes 
a different case altogether ; for the Turnips, when sown 
at this advanced period, scarcely ever arrive at full 
maturity before they are consumed; they will, there- ! 
lore, bear the stimulating action of guano, and other 
ammouiacal applications, without injury; nor does frost, 
and alternate changes of the weather, affect the crop 
seriously when sown at this late season, the roots being 
generally in the vigour of growth, and fully covered with 1 
leaf, during the early part of winter. It can, therefore, j 
bo made advantageous to stimulate the plauts for the I 
purpose of inducing a luxuriant foliage. This being 
the case, I propose, as the best manures for the varieties 
of Common Turnips, a mixture of two hundredweight of 
superphosphate, and one hundredweight of Peruvian 
guano, with twenty bushels of ashes per aci'e, upon land 
in a fair state of tillage previously; and in case any 
extra manure may be required, apply, as an addition, 
a quarter of bone-dust by the drill, or two hundred¬ 
weight of guano broadcast, harrowed in at the time of 
sowing. 1 do not, however, recommend the use of the 
ordinary drill with ashes, under all circumstances, for, in 
many instances, I have noticed the superiority of the 
