There are several varieties of turnips grown for cattle; the most striking of which are, the White round Norfolk; the Red round ditto; the Green round ditto; the Tankard; the Yellow.  These varieties are nearly the same in goodness and produce:  the green and red are considered as rather more hardy than the others.  The tankard is long-rooted and stands more out of the ground, and is objected to as being more liable to the attack of early frosts.  The yellow is much esteemed in Scotland, and supposed to contain more nutriment [Footnote:  The usual season for sowing the above varieties is within a fortnight or three weeks after Midsummer.].  The Stone and Dutch turnips are grown for culinary purposes, and are also sometimes sown after the corn is cleared, as being small and of early growth; these in such cases are called stubble turnips, and often in fine autumns produce a considerable quantity of herbage.  For a further account of the culture &c. see Dickson’s Modern Husbandry, vol. ii. p. 639.

There is nothing in husbandry requiring more care than the saving seeds of most of the plants of this tribe, and in particular of the Genus Brassica.  If two sorts of turnips or cabbages are suffered to grow and bloom together, the pollen of each kind will be sufficiently mixed to impregnate each alternately, and a hybrid kind will be the produce, and in ninety-nine times out of a hundred a worse variety than either.  Although this is generally the result of an indiscriminate mixture, yet by properly adapting two different kinds to grow together, new and superior varieties are sometimes produced.  One gentleman having profited by this philosophy, has succeeded in producing some fine new varieties of fruits and vegetables, much to the honour of his own talents and his country’s benefit [Footnote:  See Mr Knight On the Apple-tree.].  It is well known to gardeners that the cabbage tribe are liable to sport thus in their progeny; and to some accidental occurrence of this nature we are indebted for the very useful plant called the

64.  ROOTA-BAGA.  Swedish turnip.—­Which is a hybrid plant par-taking of the turnip and cabbage, and what has within these few years added so much to the benefit of the grazier.  This root is much more hardy than any of the turnips; it will stand our winters without suffering injury from frosts, and is particularly ponderous and nutritious.

It is usually cultivated as the common trunip, with this difference, that it requires to be sown as early in some lands as the month of May, it being a plant which requires a longer time to come to maturity.

Every judicious farmer who depends on turnips for foddering his stock in the winter, will do well to guard against the loss sometimes occasioned by the failure of his Turnips from frost and wet.  Various ways of doing this are recommended, as stacking &c.  But if he has a portion of his best land under Swedish turnip, he will have late in the winter a valuable crop that will be his best substitute.  Another advantage is this, that it will last a fortnight longer in the spring, and consequently be valuable on this account.  The quantity of seed usually sown is the same as for the common kinds of turnip.  There are two varieties of this plant, one white and the other yellow:  the latter is the most approved.