Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/87

 TURNIP root, but abundant stems and leaves, cultiva- ted for its foliage and its oleiferous seeds, as rape ; the other with a large, fleshy root, and comparatively little foliage, which is important in agriculture, and presents numerous subva- rieties, all included under turnip. The genus brassica, of the family cruciferca, is described and figured under another species (see MUS- TARD), and the characters of B. campestris are given under EAPK. Both forms of the species, rape and turnip, are recognized in the wild state, though there the root of the turnip is comparatively small ; when the two are sown together, they cross very freely and produce a great number of intermediate forms ; the tur- nip form is spontaneous in Armenia, Russia, and Scandinavia, and is a weed of cultivation in various countries. There are two very dis- tinct classes of turnips : 1, those with the root rounded and often broader than long, and usu- ally lobed, hairy, and rough radical leaves ; these are called common, round, and English Varieties of the Turnip. 1. Red-top Strap Leaf. 2. Cow- horn. 8. Long White French. 4. Kuta-baga. turnips, and when turnip is used by cultivators without a prefix, this kind is intended ; 2, those with larger, elongated, and more solid roots, and with the radical leaves smooth and cov- ered with a bloom, like those of the cabbage ; these are known as Swedish or Russian tur- nips (by English farmers as " Swedes "), and more generally as ruta-bagas (Sw. rota-bag- gar, root rams). There are yellow- and white- fleshed varieties in both classes, and the ex- terior is often more or less colored, from rose- purple to dark violet. All are biennials, at least in cultivation, and as their roots are not perfectly hardy, they must be stored for the winter. Turnips are cultivated as a garden and as a field crop. The early garden crop is of some of the quick-growing round kinds, such as the flat Dutch ; the seeds must be sown as early as the soil can be worked, as hot weather soon makes the roots spongy. The main crop in garden or field is sown later ; the ruta-baga sorts require a longer season, and are sown late in June or early in July, and other varieties, according to their requirements, until early in September, and in the southern states much later. In field culture, the ruta- bagas and other large kinds are sown in drills, and kept well cultivated, while the quicker growing, smaller sorts are often sown broad- cast; good crops of these are frequently ob- tained by sowing the seed broadcast among Indian corn, just before that crop is cultivated for the last time. Turnips, when just ger- minated, suffer much from the attacks of the small flea beetle (haltica), which are often "very disastrous (see TURNIP FLY) ; the only remedy is to use an abundance of seed, and to sprinkle the young plants copiously with slaked lime or ashes. These, with other roots, do not occupy the important place in our agri- culture that they do in that of England, our abundance of Indian corn rendering them less a necessity as winter food for animals; still their value as affording a variety is becoming more appreciated, and their culture is rapidly increasing. The ruta-baga sorts, though cost- ing more labor to raise, are the most nutri- tious and the best keepers ; they are preserved in cool cellars or in heaps in the open ground, the roots being stacked in pyramidal piles and covered with sufficient straw and earth to pre- vent severe freezing. Turnips are most valued as food for cattle and sheep ; they are sliced and sometimes pulped in a machine for the purpose. In England, and in some parts of this country, turnips are fed to sheep in the field ; a space is enclosed with hurdles or mov- able fences, and when the sheep have cleared off the turnips from this portion, the hurdles are removed to enclose another section ; for swine and horses they are less valued than other roots. The amount of nutritive matter in turnips is very small; the common kinds have from 90 to 92 and the ruta-bagas about 87 per cent, of water ; the albuminoids are from 1 to 1-6 per cent., and the carbohydrates vary from 5 per cent, in the common to 9 per cent, in the ruta-bagas. The leading garden sorts, besides the white Dutch already men- tioned as the earliest, are: the red-top strap- leaved, the best of the flat kinds; the cow- horn, a foot long and 3 in. through, the half which grows above ground being green also grown as a field crop ; and yellow Aberdeen, purplish above and yellow below, with a yel- low flesh. The white French, one of the ruta- baga kinds, has the root all below ground, is twice as long as thick, of medium size, and keeps well ; though called French, its origin is unknown ; it is superior to all others for the table, unless it be the sweet German, which differs only in being broader than long ; both are probably strains of the same variety, dif- fering in the shape of the root. The Teltow is a great favorite with the Germans ; the root is about 3 in. long and an inch thick, with a very piquant flavor which resides in the rind ;