Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/697

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deep, from which, or even a greater depth, this feed will come up well ; and the other half is planted exactly over that at half an inch depth, falling in upon the earth that has co- vered the firft half. Thus planted, if the fucceeding weather be ever fo dry, the deep half of the feed will certainly come up ; and if it chance to rain much foon after the fowing, then the fhallow half will be up firft. The plants may alfo be made to come up at four fucceffive times, by mixing the feed half new and half old, for the new will be fure to come up two days, or thereabout, before the old.

Turnep-kcd fhould always be fown in this manner, in order to its efcaping the danger of the fly, which otherwife often deftroys whole fields of the young plants ; but thefe four chances fecure it; for though one coming up fuffers, another efcapes it, being often found, that the feed fown over-night has been ruined by the fly, while that fown the next morning has wholly efcaped.

When the fly is found likely to devour them, they may be horfe-hoed ; this will bury the greater! part of thofe animals ; or they may be drilled in another row, without new ploughing the land. This fly feeds only on the two firft or feed-leaves of the Turnep, which are very fweet ; the following leaves are rough, and do not fuit its tafte ; fo that if the plants efcape being eaten up while ill the feed-leaves, they efcape entirely. The mod infallible of all methods of preventing the mifchief from this fly, is to make the ground very fine, and then'roll it with a heavy roller acrofs the ridges, after it is drilled ; this method clofes up the cavities in the earth, and prevents the fly's entrance or exit to lay the eggs, hatch, or bring forth the young ones, to prey upon the Turneps. This rolling al- ways difappoints the fly ; but it fometimes alfo difappoints the owner, if he has fown the crop by hand in a fcattering man- ner. Thefe feeds, lying near the furface, are injured, and the ground, hardened by the rolling, will not let them grow well, but they become yellow, dwindle, and come to no per- fection, unlefs they have a thorough hoing, as foon as the rough leaves appear. The drilled Turneps, being in fingle rows, with fix-foot intervals, may be rolled without danger ; for, be the ground ever fo hard, the hand-hoe will eafily fin- gle them out to a proper diltance, at the expence of fix-pence an acre, or lefs, if not in harveft, and the horfe-hoe will plough in thofe wide intervals to great advantage, whether the ieafon be wet or dry. Three or four ounces of feed in the drill way, anfwers for as much land as three or four pounds in the hand-fowing ; and there is this other advantage, that the plants, all ftanding in rows, will be eafily diftinguiffled, and properly fingled out to their due diftances, while very young ; which is a thing of great advantage, as they thrive much the better for being early feparated from their ufelcfs neighbours. The fix-foot ridges, whereon Turneps are drilled in fingle rows, may be left higher than for double-rowed crops ; be- caufe there will be more earth in the intervals, as the fingle rows take up lefs.

There is no prefixed time for planting Turneps, becaufe the nature of the foil muft he confulted ; fomc land will bring them as forward when planted in Augulf, as other land will when planted in May ; but the ufual time is the middle between thefe, that is, about Midfummcr. It is a practicable fcheme, when Turneps are planted in rows, with thefe large intervals, to fow wheat between. In the latter end of September, when the Turneps are full grown, a ridge is to be ploughed in the middle of each of the intervals, taking the earth to the ridge in fuch quantity, as only to leave enough with the Turneps to keep them alive ; wheat is to be drilled on this ridge : Toward fpring the Turneps are, in this cafe, to be pulled up, and car- ried off the ground. The wheat being now left alone, the land is to be well horfe-hoed in the intervals. In Spring the wheat may be fown in treble rows, and will afford a good crop. If the Turneps fraud fo thick in thefe fingle rows as to touch one another, when half grown, provided the intervals between the rows be well horfe-hoed, they will yet attain to their full bignefs ; and they are often found to have thruft one another out of fliape, and become oval inftead of round. It is beft to give the firft hoing alternately ; that is, to hoe only every other interval ; this keeps them from being ft unted, and it proves better thus to give them their food at twice, than to do it all at once. Id. Ibid.

In horfe-hoing it is not well to come nearer than within three inches of the fides of the rows ; but where the Turneps are planted in double rows, as foon as their roots are grown as large as a finger, the prong-hoe is to be ufed between the plants; and even in that little fpace of three inches, left by the horfe-hoe, when they are in fingle rows. Four of the alter- nate hoings in the intervals are found, on trial, to be equal in ufc to four whole hoings, though they are done at half the expence; for this half- hoing furnifhes the Turneps with as much nourifhment as they require, and 'tis in vain to give more.

Dry weather is very injurious to Turneps, when fown in the common way, and only hand-hoed ; becaufe the hoe, in this cafe, does not penetrate deep enough to keep the ground moift; but in horfe-hoing the earth is cut fo deep, that it is always kept moift, and a dry ka(on does the crop no hurt. Dung and tillage will, in all cafes, do their bufinefs quicker I Suppl. Vol. II.

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than tillage alone. On this principle, Turneps have mors occafion for dung than any other plants, becaufe they have Jels time to grow.

Twelve pound weight may he efteemed the middle fize for the great Turneps, and they fometimes grow to fixtcen or nine- teen pound weight. The farmers great intereft in them is their fize ; and it feems evident that every Turuep in a field may be made to grow to its full ftandard, or the largcft fize that nature has allotted it, provided it be properly managed, and nourifhment fupplied in a due manner. The greateft in- convenience that attends Turnep hufbandry, is, that when they are to be eaten off in the Spring, which is their chief ufe, they do not leave time for bringing the land in tilth for barley; and the lofs of a crop of this is more than the gain by the Turneps ; but this is wholly remedied by the horfe-hoing hufbandry, in which the land may be almoft as well tilled be- fore the Turneps are eaten off, as afterwards. If the Turneps be fown in June, the moft experienced farmers will have only thirty plants left to a fquare perch in the hand- hoing, finding that if more are left, they ftarve one another, and the crop will be worfe ; but in drilling the rows at fix foot intervals, there will be at leaftfixty left to the perch, and thefe will thrive well, if the foil be rich, and well broken. Sixty Turneps to a fquare perch, at five'pound each, which is but a third part of the fize of (hecp-Turneps at their full growth, will make a crop of above eighty quarters to an acre.

When Turneps are planted late upon poor ground, they may be left more numerous ; becaufe they will not have the advan- tage of heat for the hoing, that would make them grow larger, when fet out at greater diftances. 1 he greateft Turnep improvement of the farmer is for his cat- tle in winter ; one acre of Turneps, at this feafon, will main- tain more than fifty of meadow or pafture land. Moft cattle will eat Turneps, and they breed milk better than any other food whatever. Sheep always refufe them at firft, and, un- lefs they have eaten them while lambs, they will be ready to ftarve before they will touch them; but as foon as hunger compels them to fall to, they are foon fattened by them. Lambs of three weeks old will eat them, fcooping them very prettily, while thofe of a year old, which are called tegs, will not touch them of three or four days, till almoft famifhed. In fome places, the greateft ufe of Turneps, except for fatten- ing oxen and ftleep, is for ews and lambs in the fpring, when natural grafs is not grown up on poor grounds. Sometimes the farmers are obliged to keep their ews and lambs upon them till April, though they were run up to feed in the mean time. Id. Ibid.

There are three manners of fpending Turneps with (heep. See the article Sheep.

1 he white and purple-rooted Turnep are the two kinds raifed for the ufe of the table in England. They thrive beft in a dry fandy foil, that is not too rich ; if the ground be too rich, they are apt to grow fticky ; but they are always the beft rafted when produced on frefli, not on worn-out lands. The com- mon time of rowing them is from the beginning of July to the middle of Auguft ; but the gardeners about London Cow them every month from March to Auguft, that they may have a conftant fupply ; thofe fown early always fucceed beft when fown on a moifter foil than the others ; for when on a dry one, they are fubjeit to great damages, and are often almoft wholly deftroyed by a fly.

Turneps muft always be fown in an open place, for if they ftand near hedges, or under flielter, they run up into tall ftalks, and do not grow at the root. Miller's Gardener's Dift. TURNESOL, a plant of conuderable ufe by the colour pre- pared from it, and known under its name. The root of thefe plants is long and white ; the leaves referable in fhape thofe of the xanthium, or lefler burdock ; they grow on long pedicles, and are of a whitifil or afh-coloured green. The flowers form a fort of duffer, and grow out of the alae of the leaves ; they are of two kinds on the fame plant, barren and fruitful, or, as botanifts exprefs it, male and female. The barren, or male flowers, occupy the top of every clufter, and are placed each in a cup, divided into five fegments, and themfelves confift each of five finall yellowifh leaves, with a bundle of ftamina in the middle. The female, or fruitful flowers, are placed at the bottom of the clufter, and are fur- rounded each by a cup, divided into ten fegments ; they are compofed of five ftamina, which furround a piftil which is furnifhed with three forked filaments. This piftil, which is fixed in the bottom of the cup, finally becomes a round fruit, of a rough furface, and green colour, its protuberances only appearing a little whitiftl. This fruit is divided into three cells, and each cf thefe contains one round feed. The whole fruit is attached to the cup by a very long pedicle, fo that when the flowers are withered, and it has arrived at its maturity, it is found hanging from the alec of the leaves, and feems to have been produced without any flower ; and this is what has led fome writers into the error of imagining, that the flowers and fruit of this plant grow on different ftalks. Some have tranflated Turnejol by the Englilli word fun-fiower, which has led many to fuppofe that the great yellow fun- 5 B flower