class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">296

XLV. On the Ash, Beech, and other White-wooded Trees 302 XLVI. On Soft-wooded Forest Trees 313 —— PART VII. HOW TO GROW GOOD ORCHARDS. XLVII. On the Apple and Pear as Orchard Fruits 319 XLVIII. On the Production and Choice of Fruit Trees 328 XLIX. On the Gathering and Storing of Fruit 338 L. On Cider-making and Management 345 LI. On the Uses and Economy of Cider and Perry 351 Postscript 357

---

THE SCIENCE AND PRACTICE
OF
ROOT CULTIVATION.

---

CHAPTER I.

ON THE ORIGIN OF ROOT CROPS.

Few people who have studied the matter attentively but have arrived at the conclusion that those plants which we cultivate for their roots were not naturally endowed with the root portion of their structure either of the size or form which would now be considered as essential for a perfect crop plant. Thus the parsnip, carrot, turnip, beet, &c., as we find them in nature, have nowhere the large, fleshy, smooth appearance which belongs to their cultivated forms; and hence all the varieties of these that we meet with in cultivation must be considered as derivatives from original wild forms, obtained by cultivative processes; that is, collecting their seed, planting it in a prepared bed, stimulating the growth of the plants with manures, thinning, regulating, weeding, and such other acts as constitute farming or gardening, as the case may be.

Hence, then, it is concluded that such plants as are grown for their roots have a peculiar aptitude for laying on tissue, and thus increasing the bulk of their “descending axis,” that is, that portion of their structure which grows downwards—root. Besides this, they are remarkable for their capability of producing varieties—a fact which, united with a constancy in the maintenance of an induced form, renders it exceedingly easy to bring out new sorts which will maintain their characteristics under great diversities of climate, soil, and treatment.

The facility with which different sorts of roots may be procured can readily be understood from the many varieties, not only of turnip—which may perhaps be considered as an original species—but also of swede, which is a hybrid of the turnip and rape plant. Of the former we have more than thirty sorts grown by the farmer, and as many peculiar to the garden; whilst there are probably more than twenty well-recognized sorts of swedes. Of beets, with mangel-wurzel, we have almost as great a variety; so also of carrots. Of parsnips we have fewer varieties, to which may now be added the new form called the Student parsnip, the growth of which is so interesting that we shall here give a short history of its production, as an illustration of the origin of root crops.

In 1847 we collected some wild parsnip seed from the top of the Cotteswolds, where this is among the most frequent of weeds. This seed, after having been kept carefully during the winter, was sown in a prepared bed, in the spring of 1848, in drills about eighteen inches apart. As the plants grew they were duly thinned out, leaving for the crop, as far as it could be done, the specimens that had leaves with the broadest divisions, lightest colour, and fewest hairs. As cultivated parsnips offer a curious contrast with the wild specimens in these respects, we place the following notes, side by side, on the root-leaves of plants of the same period of growth.

1st. Wild Parsnip.				2nd. Student Parsnip.
	Ft.	in.			Ft.	in.
Whole length from the base of the petiole to the apex of the leaf	0	8		Whole length from the base of the petiole to the tip of the leaf	2	0
Breadth of leaflets	0	0	3⁄4	Breadth of leaflets	3	0	1⁄4
Length of ditto	0	1		Length of leaflets	0	6	1⁄2
Petiole and leaflets, hairy. Colour, dark green.				Petiole and leaflets without hair. Colour, light green.