548 
■WURSAL  OF  HORTTCULTIUIE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
Juno  19,  190 
Turnips:  Their  Enemies. 
Any  noil-agricultural  person  spending  an  hour  or  two  in 
the  dining-room  of  a  rural  hotel  after  the  ordinary  market 
about  this  time  of  year  would,  after  taking  careful  note  of  the 
opinions  expressed  by  the  experts  present,  carry  away  with 
him  the  idea  that  the  success  of  agriculture  depended  entirely 
on  the  Turnip  crop.  The  exact  acreage  which  each  farmer 
has  sown  or  has  still  to  sow,  the  presence  or  absence  of  the 
dreaded  fly,  failures  in  gemiination  from  lack  of  moisture, 
lack  of  progress  from  too  much  cold  and  wet  weather,  are 
topics  of  never  failing  and  absorbing  interest.  To  one  not 
acquainted  with  the  methods  and  details  of  farming  the 
growth  of  roots  would  be  made  to  appear  on©  of  almost 
insuperable  difficulty.  Such,  however,  is  very  far  from  the 
truth.  On  all  light  and  easily  worked  soils  there  should  never 
be  much  doubt  about  success  in  growing  Turnips. 
The  chief  cause  of  failure  is  an  unsuitable  seedbed.  If  the 
Turnip,  which  is  a  bulb  with  a  long  tap  root,  cannot  drive 
this  root,  which  at  first  is  as  fine  as  a  hair,  deeply  into  the 
soil,  there  is  produced  the  first  condition  of  an  imperfect 
plant.  Strong  land  will  produce  very  fine  and  heavy  roots, 
but  the  difficulty  lies  in  obtaining  a  plant,  strong  soils  are  so 
difficult  to  reduce  to  the  condition  which  tne  embryo  Turnip 
requires.  The  first  necessity,  therefore,  is  a  finely  divided 
seedbed,  the  second  is  that  it  shall  contain  a  sufficiency  of 
moisture  to  ensure  germination.  It  must  not  be  wet,  and  we 
should  prefer  that  there  should  be  no  more  moisture  in  the 
surface  soil  than  will  just  start  the  seed.  Then  the  young 
plant,  putting  forth  its  tap  root  and  finding  the  surface  soil 
dry,  is  attracted  by  the  moisture  which  is  to  be  found  below, 
a  strong  deep  root  is  rapidly  formed,  and  subsequent  surface 
droughts  are  successfully  defied.  If,  however,  the  seedbed 
be  unduly  wet,  and  wet  weather  prevail  for  some  time,  the 
plant,  finding  a  full  supply  of  moisture  ready  at  hand,  instead 
of  making  one  main  tap  root,  emits  a  number  of  small  rootlets 
which  remain  near  the  surface,  and  at  the  first  appearance  of 
drought  fail  to  support  the  plant,  which  for  want  of  proper 
nourishment  becomes  unhealthy  and  a  prey  to  Aphis  weevils 
or  caterpillars.  Too  much  can  hardly  be  said  on  this  par¬ 
ticular  point. 
The  insect  enemies  of  the  Turnip  do  little  harm  to  a 
healthy  plant,  which  is  only  to  be  obtained  by  drilling  the 
seed  in  a  warm  and  semi-dry  but  fine  soil.  The  common 
Turnip,  under  favourable  conditions,  will  iDUsh  through  the 
soil  in  about  ninety  hours  from  sowing.  Swedes  are  not 
often  through  before  the  sixth  or  seventh  day.  iVs  soon  as 
they  are  up  the  trials  of  the  young  plants  begin.  The  Turnip 
fly  is  the  first  and  most  general  pest.  It  does  the  most  harm 
on  land  liable  to  ci’ack  through  ch’ought.  The  fly  when  not 
consuming  the  young  leaves  takes  refuge  in  the  cracks. 
Much  greater  damage  is  done  by  the  fly  when  the  seed  has 
been  thinly  sown.  Now  labour  is  scarce,  farmers  are  anxious 
to  make  work  as  light  and  easy  as  possible,  and  therefore 
are  somewhat  afraid  of  having  too  many  young  Turnips  to 
thin  out.  Two  pounds  of  common  Turnip  seed  is  an  average 
quantity  to  sow  per  acre,  but  hundreds  of  farmers  only  sow 
lib.  It  is  not  so  much  the  wish  to  economise  seed,  though 
this  may  not  be  uncommon  in  these  difficult  times,  and  it  is 
not  that  the  plant  is  any  better  for  having  plenty  of  room  at 
first,  but  this  thin  sowing  is  almost  entirely  attributable  to 
the  labour  question.  Of  Swedes  many  farmers  only  sow 
about  l^lb,  whereas  "we  seldom  put  on  less  than  S^lb.  We 
have  in  wet  seasons  sometimes  had  difficulty  in  reducing  the 
plant  to  reasonable  dimensions,  but  during  many  years  have 
not  had  more  than  an  acre  or  two  missing  out  of  an  acreage 
varying  from  eighty  to  one  hundred.  The  Turnip  fly  only 
eats  the  first  young  leaves  of  the  plant.  Although  it  attacks 
the  second  rough  leaf  it  never  makes  much  headway  with  it, 
and  the  farmer  who  sees  his  crop  well  advanced  into  second 
leaf  may  consider  it  safe  from  the  flJ^ 
The  Diamond-back  Moth,  though,  fortunately,  of  but  rare 
occurrence,  is  most  destructive  when  it  does  attack.  It  may 
be  first  noticed  flitting  from  plant  to  plant  when  disturbed, 
and  has  made  its  visits  hitherto  during  the  month  of  July. 
The  eggs,  laid  on  the  under  side  of  the  leaves,  soon  hatch,  and 
commence  operations  by  eating  the  leaves  Avholesale,  leaving 
nothing  but  skeletons  or  stumps.  The  attack  often  occurs 
after  the  Turnips  have  been  singled,  and  is  then  the  most 
serious,  as  the  supply  of  food  being  less,  the  whole  is  sooner 
consumed.  Farmers  must  always  be  on  the  look  out  for  these 
moths,  and  directly  they  appear,  all  singling  of  Swedes  must 
at  once  be  stopped.  The  attack  does  not  last  many  days,  and 
when  it  is  over  those  plants  which  have  suffered  the  least 
injiu’y  can  be  left  to  form  the  crop.  The  Diamond-back  does 
little  harm  to  common  Turnips. 
The  Turnip  has  two  otner  deadly  enemies,  the  Finger-and- 
toe  disease  and  the  blue  Aphis.  The  former  is  common  to 
certain  soils  and  fields,  and  is  aggravated  by  growing  Turnips 
too  often.  It  is  caused  by  a  want  of  lime  in  the  soil,  for  at 
any  rate  the  application  of  lime  is  the  only  cure  except  the 
abandonment  of  Turnip  growing.  It  is  closely  connected 
with  the  four-course  system,  and  when  an  extended  and  more 
varied  rotation  is  introduced  it  soon  disappears.  Under  the 
old  system,  when  it  was  made  compulsory,  we  have  seen 
Finger-and-toe  occur  and  re-occur  every  course  in  exactly  the 
same  poi'tions  of  a  field,  and  apparently  neither  spreading 
nor  diminishing ;  so  in  applying  lime,  if  note  has  been 
previously  taken  of  the  position  of  the  affected  portions  of  a 
field,  there  is  no  absolute  necessity  that  the  other  portions  of 
the  field  be  dressed  at  all ;  but  on  land  where  Finger-and-toe 
appears,  lime  is  very  beneficial  to  the  Clover  crop.  Some 
people  use  three  or  four  tons  of  lime  per  acre,  but  we  would 
I’ather  use  two  and  repeat  the  dose  next  time  round. 
In  seasons  when  wet  conditions  during  the  early  stages  of 
growth  have  produced  a  surface  rooted  weakly  plant,  a  con¬ 
tinued  spell  of  hot  weather  early  in  Septemoer  will  so  stop 
its  growth  that  mildew  will  appear  to  be  followed  by  myriads 
of  Aphides.  They  fairlj'  smother  the  leaves,  and  are  often 
called  by  farmers  smother-fly.  Nothing  can  be  done  except 
prav  for  heavy  rain  to  wash  it  off.  A  Swede  which  has  been 
badly  attacked  by  this  Aphis  rarely  makes  much  more 
growth,  and  is  of  little  use  as  food.  The  one  thing  in  the  way 
of  manure  which  is  necessary  to  thes©  roots  is  phosphate  of 
lime  ;  this  extends  to  all  classes  of  soil.  Three  to  six  cwt. 
per  acre  of  superphosphate  should  be  applied  to  every  Turnip 
crop. 
Work  on  the  Home  Farm. 
Except  for  a  few  showers  we  have  had  a  fin©  week,  and  are 
once  more  drilling  Turnips.  We  stai'ted  on©  day  too  soon  ;  the 
surface  had  not  dried  sufficiently,  and  we  fancy  that  day’s  work 
will  bo  well  marked  throughout  the  life  of  the  crop.  The  earlier 
sown  roots  are  all  up  and  look  fairly,  but  we  have  seen  them  grow 
faster.  The  heavy  thunder  rains  soddened  the  ground,  which 
has  baked  a  little.  We  must  have  the  hors©  hoe  at  work  at  once 
to  let  air  into  the  soil.  There  is  a  good  deal  of  work  amongst 
Mangolds  now.  The  weeds  grew  very  fast,  and  although  the 
skerry  has  destroyed  the  greater  part  between  the  rows,  a  great 
many  are  left.  The  Mangolds  are  somewhat  smothered,  but  not 
yet  ready  to  single.  They  must  have  more  air,  so  they  must  be 
closely  side-hoed.  A  few  were  done  before  the  skerry  went 
through  them.  They  are  much  better  than  the  others,  and  an 
object  lesson  to  note  for  the  futui’e. 
Barley  still  looks  splendid,  a  few  patches  here  and  there  are 
swayed  over,  but  they  will  get  up  again  with  the  fine  weather. 
A  visit  to  a  friend  a  few  miles  away  revealed  his  Barley  which  is 
on  heavier  and  colder  land,  looking  decidedly  yellow.  “Too 
much  rain !”  said  he.  How  true  again  what  is  meat  for  on©  is 
poison  for  another.  A  little  observation  during  recent  journe5's 
has  revealed  a  decided  shortage  in'  the  Wheat  area  as  regards 
this  and  contiguous  districts.  No  doubt  many  Wheat  fields  have 
been  ploughed  up  and  sown  with  Barley,  which  is  very  lai'gely 
sown  this  year.  Oats  seem  to  be  no  more  than  an  average,  if 
that. 
Clover  will  soon  be  ready  to  mow,  but  alas !  many  pieces  are 
too  thin  of  plant  to  cut  up  heavy  crops.  These  being  mostly 
Rye  Grass  will  have  to  be  cut  soon.  W ell-planted  pieces  have 
done  very  well,  but  are  still  full  of  growth,  and  will  not  be  in 
flower  for  a  fortnight.  Cabbage  sown  in  mid  April  are  ready  to 
transplant,  and  the  ground  being  ready,  will  be  got  out  as  soon 
as  possible.  They  will  be  useful  for  the  ewes  in  lambing  time. 
Some  prefer  to  let  them  stand  where  they  are,  but  transplanted 
ones  grow  bigger  and  keep  better,  at  least  we  think  so.  Of 
course  they  will  be  put  well  down  in  the  soil. 
