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516 
thorough tillage have, with more or less success, 
been cropped with even the inferior varieties of 
white turnip; and all may, with due manage- 
ment, particularly under systems of efficient 
subsoil-draining, and skilful tillage and manur- 
ing and after-culture, be more or less profitably 
cropped with some of the varieties of hybrids. 
Turnips were long cultivated on land which 
had already borne a crop which was reaped early 
in summer, and on bare fallow which had been 
worked and cleared at a sufficiently early period 
in the season to allow the turnip crop to be sown 
and grown and removed before the time for sow- 
ing winter corn; but all turnips raised in this 
way, and technically called addish or stubble 
turnips, yield a comparatively small bulk of pro- 
duce, and serve very inferior purposes in the 
course of a rotation, and offer none of the impor- 
tant advantages which are enjoyed in the method 
of feeding off with sheep, and perform a some- 
what inefficient part in connexion with both the 
general working of the soil and the comprehen- 
sive economizing of manure. Turnips, as now cul- 
tivated, generally succeed a crop of wheat. In 
some cases, indeed, on very poor soils, the clover 
leys are broken up for turnips; and in others, ‘a 
crop of winter tares, either mown or depastured, 
is taken off between the wheat crop and the 
ploughing for turnips ;—but as a regular system, 
the former cannot be pursued, for the frequent 
recurrence of the turnip and the clover crops 
would operate injuriously, and defeat the object 
of the cultivator,—and the latter is applicable 
only to soils which are quite free from root-weeds, 
and of a superior staple, or ina very high state 
of cultivation. 
As soon as the corn crop is secured, and the 
stock has passed over the stubble, the land should 
be ploughed, in order to subject the soil to the 
ameliorating influence of the frosts of winter. 
In all cases the plough should pass below the 
couch-grass, which is usually most abundant in 
inferior soils—but seldom below the mould. In 
ordinary cases, nothing is more necessary than 
to prevent the water from standing in any part 
during the winter; and where the land is in- 
tended for swedes, an effort should be made to 
have it partly or entirely cleared of weeds before 
the winter. When the land is free from weeds, 
the cross-ploughing may be begun as soon as the 
dryness will admit of it; and, in general, it may 
take place in February with advantage, inas- 
much as it exposes a new and more extensive 
TURNIP. 
surface to the action of the frosts which gene- 
rally succeed. If the land be allowed to remain 
a month or two longer, it may be advantageously 
crossed with Finlayson’s harrow. Where the 
couch-grass, however, is abundant, it is posi-. 
tively injurious to cross-plough early, as the 
operation breaks the roots and renders the clean-_ 
ing of the land afterwards tedious and difficult; 
and, in every such case, the operation should be 
delayed until the soil is dry; or even if it should 
be delayed till the latter end of April, or the be- 
ginning of May, more will be effected by one 
ploughing in this case than by two under differ- 
ent circumstances. When the dryness admits of 
it, usually in two or three days, the land should 
be harrowed across, first with the patent or | 
hinge harrows, and subsequently with the loose 
harrows, which separate the rubbish more effec- 
tually from the soil; and then the weeds should 
be raked off,—an operation which is generally 
performed by women. As soon as the couch- 
roots, &c., are cleared off, either by carting into 
large heaps or burning into small ones, the land 
may be dragged with Vinlayson’s grubber or any 
approved drag, and the same course followed so 
long as any roots remain. When the roots and 
hard weeds cannot be raked off, they should be 
hand-gathered; and no dependence whatever 
should be placed on the destruction of any by 
the sun’s rays until the 25th of June,—a time 
when on most soils the sowing should be con- 
cluded. It is desirable that the land should lie 
a week or ten days before the last ploughing is 
given to it, in order to admit of the germination 
of such seeds of weeds as may be lying dormant 
in the soil, and also to afford favourable scope 
for the accumulation of moisture in a dry season. 
In the Scotch practice, especially, all land in- 
tended for turnips is ploughed as soon as con- 
venient after harvest; and, if even the slightest 
tendencies exist to retain wetness, it is carefully 
water-furrowed, in order to lay it completely 
dry ; and, as early in spring as the other duties 
of the farm will permit, it is subjected to the 
utmost force and diligence of the whole strength 
of the teams and the work-people, to reduce it 
to the finest tilth by repeated ploughings, har- 
rowings, and rollings, and to clean it thoroughly 
of weeds by the most careful and persevering 
grubbings, gatherings, and cartings. See the 
articles Fattow and Piovexine. 
The Manuring of Land for Turnips.—A just 
or skilful enquiry into the most efficient system 
of manuring land for turnips ought to take ac- 
count of the comparative market values of the 
several manures proposed to be employed,—of 
their influence upon the prompt and rapid early 
growth of the rising crop, such as shall enable or 
assist it to escape havoc or destruction from in- 
sect depredation,—of their effect upon the de- 
velopment and maturation of the roots, in refer- 
ence to the bulk and weight of the ultimate 
produce,—of their control over the chemical 
constitution of the roots, both with regard to 
their general feeding and fattening power upon 
live stock, and with regard to the particular 
principles which they may most abundantly re- 
turn to the land through the medium of the 
farm-yard,— of their capacity of co-operating © 
with the process of feeding-off, for producing the 
greatest and most harmonious enrichment of the 
soil,—and of their prospective adaptation to the 
uses of the succeeding crops of the rotation, their 
JR HAUT dH rt) 
