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TURNIP. 513 
Scott’s improved purple-topped hybrid turnip 
obtained the prize of the Highland Society of 
Scotland, at the meeting at Glasgow in 1839, and 
owes its origin to the exertions of Mr. Scott, of 
Southend, near Tranent. For a white-fleshed 
turnip, it is remarkably solid, and attains a great 
size; and it is decidedly the best in point of 
size, symmetry of shape, uniformity of growth, 
and quality of flesh, of very many varieties of 
white turnips which have been simultaneously 
tested in model-plots by some distinguished ex- 
perimentalists. 
The Lewisham green-topped, ox-heart turnip 
| is an excellent variety, grown in some of the 
southern districts of England and in Scotland; 
and it acquired its name from having been in- 
troduced by Messrs, Willmot and Co., of Lewis- 
ham. 
The autumn stubble or six weeks turnip has 
its roots much above ground, rather large, of an 
irregular, globular shape, or in form between the 
white globe and white round, and rather soft. 
This sort arrives sooner at maturity than any of 
the others, the tankard turnips perhaps excepted ; 
and from its natural softness of texture, should 
always be sown late, and used before the severe 
frosts set in. Its names are descriptive of its 
forwardness ; and it is suited for sowing, in early 
situations, in autumn, after the corn crop has 
been removed; and is also valuable for making 
up blanks in turnip fields, where the first sowing 
may have partly failed. 
The white Dutch turnip is suitable chiefly for 
the garden, and answers there as an excellent 
early variety ; and it lias been recommended also 
for a field crop when late sowing is necessary, 
but is not by any means so well adapted for that 
purpose as the tankard varieties, or the autumn- 
stubble variety. Its root is of excelient quality 
when young; but becomes soft, spongy, ill-fla- 
voured, irregularly circular, and much flattened 
when full-grown. 
The red Dutch or early garden turnip is also 
suitable chiefly for the garden. It isan excellent 
variety, but is little known in Britain. Its foli- 
age is smaller and of a darker colour than that 
of the white Dutch turnip; and its root has a 
very similar shape to the root of that variety, 
but has a bright red colour in the part of the 
surface which is above ground. 
The white garden turnip, or early stone turnip, 
is suited exclusively to garden culture; and is 
one of the best known and most generally culti- 
vated of the garden turnips. It has stronger 
foliage and a rounder and firmer root than the 
white Dutch turnip, but is not so well adapted 
for early spring sowing, and more apt to run to 
seed; and it acquired its epithet of early, not 
from any special adaptation which it has for 
early sowing, but from the circumstance of its 
arriving soon at maturity when sown at a later 
period of the season. An improved and carefully 
‘selected subvariety of it is cultivated in some 
all sorts of animals. 
parts of England, under the name of the mouse- 
tail turnip. 
The small long white turnip is cultivated on 
the Continent under the same circumstances as 
the small long yellow turnip; and it resembles 
that variety both in the character of the foliage, 
and in the form and habit of the root, and differs 
from it principally in the colour of the root. 
The Maltese long white turnip, or the small 
very long turnip, has a general resemblance to 
the preceding; but the upper part of its root 
generally grows above the ground, and has a 
greenish colour,—and the lower part is longer, 
and tapers more gradually toward the point. 
The round black turnip claims connexion with 
the common or white turnips principally for the 
whiteness of its flesh, and for its total want of 
affinity to either the swedes or the hybrids; 
and, in common with the three other kinds which 
we shall name in this paragraph, it has a hottish 
and somewhat radish-like taste, and is suited 
exclusively to garden culture, and possesses much 
repute in some parts of the Continent for its 
sapid and antiscorbutic properties; but is not 
much known in Britain. 
small, and rather smooth; and its roots grow 
almost wholly under ground, and have a black- 
coloured and very rough skin, and are of an irre- 
gular roundish form, and often divide or fork or 
ramify into thick fangs at their lower extremity. 
—The round brown turnip differs little from the 
preceding except in the dull brown colour of its 
roots.—The long black turnip differs from the 
round black principally in the long carrot-like 
shape of its roots.—The long brown turnip bears 
the same relation to the round brown turnip 
which the long black does to the round black. 
The Teltau turnip, or small Berlin turnip, is 
the smallest of all the known varieties of turnip. 
and of course is suited exclusively to garden 
culture. Its root is oblong or carrot-shaped, 
about three inches long, seldom more than an 
inch in diameter at the thickest part, of a dull 
transparent whitish colour, or very light lead- 
colour, and has a peculiar and slightly hot taste. 
The History of Turnip Cultivation—The uses 
of both the roots and the tops of turnips were as 
well known to the ancient Romans as to any 
Its leaves are few, 
modern Kuropean farmers; and the winter-feed- | 
ing of cattle with the roots, though a not very 
old improvement in British husbandry, and justly 
regarded as one of the most important in modern © 
times, was practised among the ancient Gauls. 
“The Roman authors,” says Pliny, “ have treated 
of rapa in only a cursory way; the Greeks 
more particularly, but asa plant to be cultivated 
in gardens. If a just order were observed, it 
should be mentioned immediately after corn, at 
least after the bean; for no other plant is more 
excellent or useful, or so well adapted for food to 
The seed, particularly if 
boiled in water, is proper food for all kinds of | 
village fowls; the leaves seve to fatten quadru- 
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