TURNIPS. Brassie-a raga. This well-known plant is cultivated for its bulbous roots both in the garden and the field. Aa a culinary root it has been prized from the earliest times, and many varieties have been cultivated for the table ; but it is those of a larger kind, cultivated in the fields, which form so important a part of the most improved systems of agriculture on all light soils, that the success of the farmer is, in general, proportioned to the quantity of turnips raised on his farm. They aro the great foundation of all the best systems of cropping, by supplying the manure required for the subsequent crop, and at the same time, clearing the land of all noxious weeds, by the numerous ploughings, stirrings, and hocings which they require.
Turnips were first raised upon land which had already borne a crop that was reaped early in summer, and on fallows which had been worked and cleared early, so as to leave a sufficient interval between the last ploughing and the time of sowing winter corn to have a tolerable crop of turnips. These turnips however, which are still cultivated by the name of stubble or eddish turnips, never grow so large as those which had been sown earlier on land well prepared and highly rnanurtd.
The regular cultivation of turnips on a large scale was originally Introduced from Flanders into Norfolk two centuries ago, and from Norfolk was carried _into the south of Scotland and the north of England about a century after. It was long confined to one or two individuals, who cultivated turnips very successfully; but at last it spread, and was greatly improved by introducing the row culture, according to Tull's system, which acquired the name of tho Northum berland mode of cultivation. The usual mode of sowing turnips both in Flanders and in Norfolk was broadcast, and, as the labourers in both countries became very expert in hoeing them out et regular distances, this mode was long preferred. All farmers however, who have any pretensions to a goal system of cultivation, now adopt the Northum berland plan. The great object on poor light lands, especially those which have lately been brought into cultivation, is to raise a crop of turnips : for when once this is obtained, and the Land has been improved by the folding of sheep upon it, there is no great difficulty in main taining the fertility thus produced by judicious management and frequent green crops. Great improvement in poor soils has been effected by the introduction of ground bones and superphosphate as a manure. It is however the beet plan to unite the regular application
of farm-yard dung with that of the bone-dust. For this purpose the best farmers prepare their land, where they intend to sow turnips, early after harvest, by giving it as complete a cultivation as they can before winter; and they put on it a good coat of manure, and plough it in. In the beginning of summer another ploughing is given, with repeated harrowings, to destroy the weeds which have sprung up. If the subsoil is dry, or the land has been thoroughly drained, the seed may be drilled in rows from 2 feet to 30 inches apart, with bones or auy equivalent artificial manure on the flat surface. The turnip-seed can scarcely fail to vegetate soon : less danger arises from dry weather than if they were on the top of a ridge, and the intervals can be readily stirred by horse-drawn tools. The manure, which has had time to incorporate with the soil and to impart to it the various products of its decomposition, is in the best state to nourish the young plant, until it can push forth its roots and feed, as it were, on the bone-dust : a more rapid growth is ensured, which is the best preservative against the fly ; and experience has proved that this is a much more certain way to insure a good crop of turnips, especially of swedes, than the old method of putting all the manure inunediately under the seed in the rows, where it often remains inert if dry weather comes on soon after the seed is sown. The quantity of manure put on in autumn, or very early in spring, depends on the means of the farm : if ten cubic yards of short dung can be afforded per acre, the crop of turnips will amply repay it, and twenty bushels of bone-dust or leas per acre will be sufficient to drill with the seed. Long fresh manure may be safely ploughed in before winter, which would be very improper iu a light soil if used in summer. This will be rotten before the turnips are sown, and all the expense of forming dunghills and turning them over is saved. There is no danger of the manure being wasted ; for what,. ever weeds may be produced will be ploughed iu and returned to the soil. All the nutritious parts of the decomposing clung will be absorbed by the earth, and none of them will evaporate. Where farm yard manure is scarce, half the above quantity may be used, and a fair crop of turnips may still be expected.