with a garden of pots. liberty, and the pauper in the workhouse, divested of all property in external things, and without any fixed object on which to place their affections, sometimes resort to this symbol of territorial appropriation and enjoyment;-so natural it is for all to fancy they have an inherent right in the soil, and so necessary to happiness to exercise the affections, by having some object on which to place them.' *

The debtor, deprived of personal

SECOND WEEK-FRIDAY.

HORTICULTURE.-THE TURNIP.

AMONG the plants which are cultivated in the garden, as well as in the field, I have elsewhere† described two varieties of the leguminous tribe, the pea and the bean. There is another species of esculent vegetable, some varieties of which are raised by the agriculturist, and others by the gardener. I allude to the turnip, with which I shall begin my selection of horticultural produce.

The native country of this useful bulb has not been distinctly ascertained. Both in France and England, plants of the same species are found in a wild state; but till it be cultivated, it is of little value; and experiments have proved that, in this climate, the indigenous plant cannot, by any mode of culture, be so improved as to be rendered useful. There hangs a mystery, therefore, over the origin of this, as well as several other of our useful cultivated vegetables.

The turnip was familiar to the Romans, and cultivated by them with great care and success. Pliny and Columella agree in considering this esculent as next to corn in utility; and the latter recommends the extended cultivation of it, both as the food of human beings and of cattle. It is supposed that the Roman method of cultivation must have been supe* Loudon's Encyclopedia of Gardening, p. 95. + 'Spring,' p. 321-325.

rior to that of the moderns, since Pliny relates that some single bulbs weighed as much as forty pounds, a weight double of that obtained by the most skilful modern agriculturist. If this statement can be relied on, it seems to prove something more than mere agricultural skill; for the climate of Italy at present is too warm and dry to be favourable to the growth of this species of produce; and hence it may be fairly inferred, that a considerable change has taken place in the temperature of that country, a fact, indeed, which is established by more direct proof, as I have elsewhere shown.* It is well known that the turnip attains greatest perfection in regions where the climate is moderately cool and moist. Thus, in the north of England, and in Scotland, the crop is superior to that raised in the more southerly parts of the island. It cannot, however, bear a great degree of cold, and the regions bordering on the Arctic Circle are, on account of the dryness and warmth of their brief summer, and the rigour of the first part of the year, peculiarly unfavourable to its growth. Its successful cultivation, therefore, in the field, seems to be circumscribed to a comparatively narrow boundary towards the north and south; but, as a garden plant, where luxuriant growth is not required, and would indeed injure instead of improving the quality of the plant for culinary purposes, it is far more extensively raised. At Benares, in Hindostan, a latitude of about 26°, turnips, as well as several other northern vegetables, are raised in considerable quantities; and although, in that hot climate, they lose much of their peculiar flavour, are yet eaten with great relish by the European inhabitants.

The turnip is a biennial plant; but it is not permitted to attain to its second year's growth by those who cultivate it merely for food, as it becomes deteriorated in its edible qualities when it begins to produce its seed stalk. After surviving the winter, its large radical leaves having fallen off, a stem shoots up which bears flowers, having the four petals arranged in the form of a cross, and hence called cruciform.

* 'Spring-Mitigation of Seasons occasioned by Cultivation.

The

varieties, both under garden and field culture, are very numerous;* while these again differ with soil and climate, and modes of cultivation. The agriculturist seeks to obtain the greatest quantity of nourishment for his cattle in a given space, and therefore selects those kinds which are at once largest in bulk, and firmest in texture; the gardener, on the contrary, studies flavour and beauty, which he discovers to be incompatible with great size.

As an article of human food, the turnip does not appear to be held in so much request, nor to be prepared in so many ways in our own day, as in former times. In the Philosophical Transactions, we are told that during the occurrence of a dearth in England, in 1629 and 1630, very good, white, lasting, and wholesome bread, was made of boiled turnips, deprived of their moisture by pressure, and then kneaded with an equal quantity of wheaten flour. The scarcity of corn in 1693, led the poor of Essex again to have recourse to this species of bread. It could not, we are told, be distinguished by the eye from a wheaten loaf; neither did the smell much betray it, especially when cold.'†

The ancients seem to have excelled in the mode of dressing this vegetable. The 'Curiosities of Literature' record the following amusing anecdote, which shows to what extent the art of gastronomy enabled the cooks of those days to transform this article of food. The king of Bithynia, in some expedition in which he found himself, in the midst of winter,

* In the account of the turnip, published in the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, it is said that ten varieties are in common cultivation, distinguished by colour, size, time of coming to maturity, productiveness, or flavour. Among these the following are particularly noticed:-The Maltese golden turnip, of one uniform orange tinge, perfectly spherical, and of a fine flavour, sometimes introduced with the dessert instead of fruit; the Swedish, a field turnip, the most hardy of any under cultivation, but strong and harsh to human taste; the French turnip, or naveu, carrotshaped, which is much esteemed on the Continent for its flavour; and the Barbary turnip, parsnip-like, with fibrous roots, which is prized for its agreeable pungency.

+ Philosophical Transactions, Nos. 90 and 205.

at a great distance from the sea, took a violent longing for a small fish called aphy,—a pilchard, a herring, or an anchovy. The longings of monarchs at the head of victorious legions are not to be disregarded. But what was to be done? His cook, who was a master of his art, and fertile in expedients, surmounted the difficulty. He took a turnip, and cut it to a perfect resemblance of the aphy in shape. He then 'fried it in oil; and being salted and well powdered with the grains of a dozen black poppies,' his majesty's exquisite taste was so deceived by it, that he 'praised the root to his guest as an excellent fish.'*

6

Turnips do not contain so much nourishment as some other garden vegetables. Sir Humphry Davy's analysis gives only forty-two parts of nutritive matter in a thousand parts of the common turnip, and sixty-four in a thousand of the Swedish.

I have observed that Pliny's account of the growth of turnips in Italy, seemed to indicate that the soil and climate of that country in his day, was far more favourable for their cultivation than at present exists, not only in that southern latitude, but even in this country. The ordinary weight of a turnip, under British culture, is about six or seven pounds; but in favourable circumstances these bulbs frequently reach as high as sixteen, and in some rare instances, even twenty pounds. It is stated by Mr. Campbell,† that in 1758, a turnip was pulled at Tudenham, in Norfolk, which weighed twentynine pounds, and this seems to be the largest on record in modern times. Dr. Desaguliers has made a curious calculation on the rapid increase of the turnip, which affords a remarkable proof of the power of vegetation. One ounce of turnip seed was found by him to contain from fourteen to fifteen thousand single seeds; whence it follows that one seed weighs upwards of a fourteen thousandth part of an ounce; and, comparing this with the weight it acquires in growing, he calculated that, supposing the increase to be * Curiosities of Literature, vol. v. p. 88. + Political Survey, vol. ii.

always uniform, it may acquire fifteen times its own weight in a minute! By an actual experiment made on moss or peat ground, turnips have been found to increase by growth 15,990 times the weight of their seeds each day they stood upon it. 'It is not, however, only the size and weight of the root which renders this crop so productive. The number contained in a given space, with reference to their size, is very great. Some writers speak rather marvellously on this subject; but it is generally thought to be a good crop when a turnip is obtained from each square foot of ground. Mill considers an average crop to be 11,664 roots per acre, which, at six pounds each, will be 69,984 pounds."*

From these statements we may be enabled to form some estimate of the amazing power which the Creator has put into the hands of man, by subjecting the vegetable world to his skill in the arts of cultivation. The cultivator of the soil may be said to create food for himself and his dependant animals out of the earth. It is not, however, by miracle, but by making a judicious use of the powers impressed on nature by an omnipotent and paternal Hand, that such an effect is produced. This view opens a wide field of contemplation, to which we have already adverted. The varied and peculiar means by which external nature, in all its departments, is adapted to the circumstances of the human race, and calculated to call into action, and give salutary exercise to their powers and faculties, is an exhaustless theme of admiration and gratitude.

SECOND WEEK-SATURDAY.

HORTICULTURE.—BRASSICA, OR CABBAGE,

THE turnip is considered by naturalists as of the brassica class, one of the features of which is breadth of leaves, and its young sprouts are often used for culinary purposes, instead of

* Library of Entertaining Knowledge.—Vegetable Substances, p. 235.