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022 
Turnip-Suicer, and either to leave the pieces 
scattered on the ground in the immediate vicinity 
of the place of growth, or to deal them out in 
feeding-troughs. The design of slicing is to pro- 
tect the teeth of hoggets and old sheep; and the 
design of using troughs is to protect the mouths 
of all sheep, but especially fattening ones, from 
the dirtiness of the land. The grand use of 
eating off turnips on the spot, whether whole or 
sliced, with troughs or without them, is to enrich 
the land with the refuse of the crop and the 
droppings of the sheep, and to work and con- 
solidate it into prime condition for the succeeding 
grain crop by the treading of the sheep’s feet and 
the recumbency of their bodies. A common 
practice, in all the varieties of this usage, is to 
place within the fold a small portable rack con- 
taining some hay, which acts as a condiment 
and corrective of the great succulency of the 
turnips. 
Other methods of consuming turnips are to 
have them carried to the farm-yard, and there 
given to cows, to store-cattle, and in some in- 
stances to horses; and in all such cases, they 
must be twisted out of the ground by the hand, 
and deprived of their leaves and tap-roots on 
the spot by the stroke of a knife or a sickle; and 
such as are not immediately or very soon to be 
used, must be stored in some one of the ways to 
be noticed in next section. The suitable time 
for taking up most of the varieties is about the 
beginning of November, or previous to the com- 
mencement of the winter frosts; and the con- 
dition of soil and weather most advantageous for 
the operation is after some little time of drought. 
The act of pulling each plant should be a sharp 
twisting motion, such as shall freely bring up 
the whole plant and disengage the soil from its 
roots; and the acts of lopping off the leaves and 
the tap-roots, technically called topping and 
tailing, should be done with as much exactness 
as possible, so as neither to leave much green or 
loose matter nor to wound the skin of the root; 
for when a portion of the leaves is left, it tends 
to make the turnip vegetate on receiving a slight 
degree of heat,—and when a wound is inflicted 
on the skin, it tends to make the turnip rot. All 
turnips used raw in the farm-yard, require to be 
sliced before being given to the cattle. 
A method of consuming the hardiest varieties 
of turnips, intermediate between feeding them 
off with sheep and storing them before winter 
for farm-yard use, is to leave them alone where 
they stand, and either to pull up occasional sup- 
plies of them in fresh weather, for the use of 
sheep in pastures or of cattle in the farm-yard in 
periods of snow or severe frost, or to take them 
up piecemeal in all sorts of weather as they are 
wanted. But when taken up during frost, they 
are often so hard and so firmly fixed to the 
ground, that they can be raised only with some 
such implement as the hoe, and not without 
great labour; nor can they be easily or suitably 
TURNIP. 
eaten, unless they be thawed by being placed for | 
a few hours in a pool or running stream, or for 
ten or twelve hours in some warm house in which 
cattle are kept.—A modification of this method, 
of such a nature as partially to combine with it 
some of the advantages of storing, is described 
as follows in the Useful Knowledge Society’s 
Treatise on British Husbandry :—“ The turnips 
are drawn by means of a two-pronged hoe or 
bent fork called ‘a grubber,’ in the months of 
November and December, and the bulbs are 
placed, with the top entire and only a small por- 
tion of the root cut off, in the centre furrow, up- 
right, making one furrow contain the plants 
which grow upon two or three ridges, and taking 
care that the bottom of each plant shall touch 
the ground. The soil is then ploughed up to 
them, covering the outer edges; and if the 
weather be very severe, a little straw or any spe- 
cies of litter is thrown over them. ‘Those that 
remain unconsumed in February are then re- 
moved to the quarter where they will be required 
for consumption, and placed as close as possible 
to each other upon grass land, having then the 
remainder of the root cut off. This plan has 
the advantage of preserving the turnips in the 
best order, alike free from exhaustion by growth 
and from decay by too much exposure, as well as 
preventing the attacks of wood- pigeons and 
crows, which commence their depredations at 
the season when their usual food begins to fail. 
The soil is also less deteriorated by this mode, 
than it would be by allowing the plant to re- 
main in the land.” 
The Storing of Turnips.—The chief reasons for 
storing turnips are the necessity, on most sys- 
tems of winter-feeding, and in all districts where 
wintry weather is severe and of long continu- 
ance, and where snow falls in large quantities 
and lies long on the ground, of having available 
supplies in constant readiness for the use of 
stock,—the expediency of clearing land, for the 
sowing of any particular crop, previous to the 
time at which it may be convenient to consume 
the turnips,—the advantage to both the land 
and the crop, in all cases where the soil or sub- 
soil is of a stiffish nature, or has any tendency 
to become retentive, of removing the turnips 
before the season when moisture becomes preva- 
lent and evaporation becomes low,—and the pre- 
servation of the bulbs of the less hardy varieties 
from the destructive actions and accidents to 
which they would be liable if allowed to remain 
in the field. 
The common method of storing turnips is to 
build them in a piled heap, of the form of a 
potato pit, in a dry and airy situation, conve- 
niently near the place where they are to be con- 
sumed; and to cover the heap with straw, and 
make it secure with ropes,—and to have all the 
turnips as clear as possible of earth, and not to use 
any in covering the heap, as it tends to induce 
heat and either vegetation or fermentation. But 
