315. For winter use many families prefer the Swedish turnip, which may either be stored or remain in the ground. The stone and the yellow are also very hardy. The sur plus of the garden crop, it may be remarked, may advan tageously be given to milch cows ; and, if the turnips be slightly boiled, no disagreeable flavour is communicated to the milk.
315. If seed is to be saved, it is of advantage that the plants be transplanted, it being thought, that frown those so transplanted a progeny having sweet and tender roots may be procured; while from the untransplanted stock turnips, larger but coarser roots may be expected. It is very important, at all events, to have the plants intended for seed-stock kept at as great a distance as possible from all others of the brassica genus. This seclusion of the seed-stock plants is often more completely accomplished by seed-farmers, than it can possibly be in private gardens.
317. The turnip-fly, or beetle, (Haltica nemorunz), is ve ry destructive to the crop when in the seed-leaf. One of the easiest remedies is to sow thick, and thus ensure a suf ficiency of plants both for the fly and the crop. Mr Archi bald Gorrie, a Scottish gardener of merit, has found, from repeated experience, that if quicklime be slightly dusted over the crop while yet in the seminal leaf, no attack will he made. A preventive is often found in sowing late, the young beetles being compelled to feed on other herbage, and disappearing before the turnip expands its leaves.
If garden turnips be carefully packed in the sto•e-house, and covered with plenty of straw, they keep in good order till March or April. Some are in the practice of cutting the top close off, but others prefer keeping vp the power of growing. In some places both the green tops and the small roots of stored turnips are entirely cut off. It may be mentioned, that when turnips are left in the ground over winter, the top leaves form tender greens very early in the spring, which are particularly good for eating with salted meat.
Arave'll 318. The A'avew or French turnip is a variety of the Brassica Natus, Lin. or Rape, which grows naturally in different parts of Britain. (Eng. Bot. t. 2146). It is the most esteemed navet of the French, (who have no appro priate name for our round turnips,) and the Steckriibcn of the Germans, in some places called Teltower The root is small, and oblong or carrot-shaped ; of excel lent flavour : 44 two of these in seasoning," says Justice, in his Scots Gardener's Director, " will give a higher relish than a dozen of other turnips." It was anciently used
throughout the south of Europe, and was more cultivated in this country a century ago than it is now. It is still in high repute in France, Germany, and Holland. It is put whole into soups, and is merely scraped, not peeled. It is remarked by Mr James Dickson, (one of the Vice-Presi dents of the London Horticultural Society, but better known as an excellent cryptogamic botanist,) that, 46 stew ed in gravy, the navew is excellent, and being white, and of the shape of a carrot, when mixed alternately with these upon a dish, it is very ornamental." In the paper alluded to, (Loud. Hort. Menz. i. 27.) Mr Dickson has given dif ferent receipts by an eminent French cook in London, for dressing the navew. It succeeds in any soil, either moist dry ; but in a dry light soil the flavour is highest. In 'strong garden soil, the roots get as large as parsnips, and resemble them considerably ; but they are coarse, and de ficient in flavour. The seed is sown in April, and the plants are thinned out to about five or six inches apart. The navew is sold in Covent Garden market, but chiefly to foreigners, who prefer it much to the turnip. For seed, some of the best plants are selected, and planted as remote from other brassicx as circumstances will permit.
Carrot.
319. The Carrot (Daucus carota, Lin. ; Pentandria Digynia ; nat. orcl. Umbellrferx) is a biennial plant. In its wild state, it is a common weed in this country, growing by the road-sides, and known by the name of bird's-nest, from the appearance of the umbel when the seeds are ripening. it is figured in English Botany, t. 1174. The root of the wild carrot is small, dry, of a white colour, and strong fla voured. The root of the cultivated variety is succulent, and commonly of a yellow or an orange colour ; it is uni versally known, and very generally relished, when cooked in various ways.