The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-06-14 00:00:00

THE TURNIP DISEASE.

Under the heading "Our Agricultural Reports,"
the Morning Post has an article, from which we tak9
the following:
The subject of finger-and-toe in turnips is one that
is of very great importance to the arable farmer, and
as the disease is undoubtedly extending, any really
trustworthy knowledge on the subject is of first
importance. It is increasinr, in extent and viru-
lence every year, although not alike in all seasons.
There are few farms that are free from it, and
if it be not checked, or a cure found, it will
materially affect the value of arable land. Calcu-
lating the damage to turnips at an average of 10s.
per acre in the country, and 200,000 acres in crop,
this would amount to £lOO,OOO annually; but as
there are farms that do not produce one-fourth the
turnip crop they would otherwise do it will be seen
that it is having a bad effect in stopping the growth
of turnips to the extent that they should be grown.
Mr. Alexander Murray has just issued a very impor-
tant report on the subject, to which a short reference
might well be made. The cause of the disease has
been a mystery for many years. Mr. Murray first
thought it was a poison in the soil, and Mr. Jamieson,
at Ellon, adopted the idea, but it did not account for
its appearance in many instances. He then thought
it might arise from an insect or fungis, like the fungi
that cause the disease in the potato crop. It wes
found that an insect theory could not apply to many
cases for its appearance, and about twelve years since
Mr. Murray came to the conclusion that it must be of
vegetable action. This theory met every case where
it appeared, and about three years since Woronin,
a Russian botanist, found and described
the plant, which he named plasmodiaphora
Braseica. It is very similar in most ways to the
fungus or hair-mould that destroys the potatoes.
The seed of the fungi floats in the air and goes from
field to field. It adheres to everything, and is thus
transported with the infected soil, manure, seed,
&c., and appears and develops itself on the turnip
and wild mustard plants, as circumstances combine
and are suitable for its development. Hence, the
more frequently the turnip crop is repeated it will
increase in extent and degree. It is carried with
manure made by cattle fed on diseased turnips,
also with the seed either on the outside or in the
body of the seed, as in the potato tuber. Secondly,
as to the remedy. A great point for that object has
b (en gained by knowing exactly the cause, namely
—a fungus or species of hair-mould, like its sister
fungus that causes the potato disease. Mr. Murray
came to the conclusion several years since that it was
of vegetable origin, and not a poison or of animal
origin. From its nature and mode of propagation
and transport he believes that it will be impossible
to eradicate it out of the country. The soil gets
impregnated with it after a crop of diseased turnips.
In order to remove it from the soil the following
means have been successfully adopted: The prin-
ciple is to stir up the soil and expose it to the action
of the weather to a certain extent, and the more so
and the longer the better. For instance, after two
crops of grain in succession, or a yavel crop, or
with a grain, and followed with a potato crop, or
vice vereci., it has never been seen to fail, if sound
manure were applied. If, in a five-course shift, the
green crops be potatoes and turnips alternately, or by
a rotation making potatoes after lea, then grain, and
followed by turnips. Turnips after potatoes are suc-
cessful. The stirring up of the soil for potato crop
kills the fungi. On a farm on the estate of Boyndlie
a successful cure was made on a poor, thin gravelly
soil with an iron ore pan sub-soil, where it generally
prevails severely. This farm was formerly very sub-
ject to it. The tenant tried the plan of exposing the
soil to the air by first ploughing the stubbles, and
then immodiately after cross ploughed the land as
roughly as possible. After thus stirring the soil the
turnips were quite sound. Again, on the farm of
Protston, on the lands of Troup, of sound, deep soil
on dry, good subsoil, where the farmer, when
sowing the turnips, formed the drills, manured
and drilled the land, and sowed the turnips all on the
same day. When the field was about half done, and
a part had the drills formed but not dunged, the
operations were transferred to another field, which
the dry weather rendered fit for sowing turnips. After
a fortnight, when the field was finished, the first field
was proceeded with as already described. In the
autumn it was found that on the part that the manure
was spread and exposed to the sun, &c., for a fort-
night, the turnips were all sound, and. where the dung
was ploughed in fresh and at once the crop was much
diseased. After this result, the farmer drilled all the
turnip land ten days before manuring and sowing. and
was most successful in getting a sound crop.