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