Turnip:—The earliest turnip of good quality is the White Milan. There are several others of the white-fleshed sorts, but I have never found them equal in quality for table to the yellow sorts. Of these, Golden Ball (or Orange Jelly) is the best quality. Petrowski is a different and distinct sort, of very early maturity and of especially fine quality. If you have room for but one sort in your home garden, plant this for early, and a month later for main crop.
Do not fail to try some of this year's novelties. Half the fun of gardening is in the experimenting. But when you are testing out the new things in comparison with the old, just take a few plants of the latter and give them the same extra care and attention. Very often the reputation of a novelty is built upon the fact that in growing it on trial the gardener has given it unusual care and the best soil and location at his command. Be fair to the standards—and very often they will surprise you fully as much as the novelties.
CHAPTER XIII
INSECTS AND DISEASES AND METHODS OF FIGHTING THEM
I use the term "methods of fighting" rather than the more usual one, "remedies," because by both experience and study I am more and more convinced that so long as the commercial fields of agriculture remain in the present absolutely unorganized condition, and so long as the gardener—home or otherwise—who cares to be neglectful and thus become a breeder of all sorts of plant pests, is allowed so to do—just so long we can achieve no remedy worth the name. When speaking of a remedy in this connection we very frequently are putting the cart before the horse, and refer to some means of prevention. Prevention is not only the best, but often the only cure. This the gardener should always remember.
This subject of plant enemies has not yet received the attention from scientific investigators which other branches of horticulture have, and it is altogether somewhat complicated.
Before taking up the various insects and diseases the following analysis and list will enable the reader to get a general comprehension of the whole matter.
Plant enemies are of two kinds—(1) insects, and (2) diseases. The former are of two kinds, (a) insects which chew or eat the leaves or fruit; (b) insects which suck the juices therefrom. The diseases also are of two kinds—(a) those which result from the attack of some fungus, or germ; (b) those which attack the whole organism of the plant and are termed "constitutional." Concerning these latter practically nothing is known.
It will be seen at once, of course, that the remedy to be used must depend upon the nature of the enemy to be fought. We can therefore reduce the matter to a simple classification, as follows: