Anbury

Anbury is a disease in the turnip, which is produced by a fungus Plasmophora, belonging to the family of slime-fungi, Myxomycetes. It attacks the plant most readily when its full vigour is restricted by some unfavourable condition of growth—such as, when planted too frequently on the same land; when the soil is deficient in some necessary ingredient; or when it is in an unsuitable mechanical condition, the result frequently of improper or unseasonable cultivation. It is identical with club-root in cabbages, but is quite distinct from finger-and-toe in turnips, with which it is very frequently confounded. Finger-and-toe (dactylorhiza) is more a degeneration of the plant than disease; the bulb branching out into a number of tap-roots, while the skin remains smooth and unbroken. Both affections may exist on the same plant, and both cause the failure of the crop; but anbury differs from finger-and-toe in producing a scabbed and broken condition of the skin, and tubercular growths or enlargements on the roots and at the base of the bulb. In some cases maggots are found in the affected parts, but they are only attracted by the degenerate structure, and have nothing to do with the disease. It is accompanied with an offensive smell, resulting from the decay of the injured parts. Anbury may be noticed at a distance by the drooping and unhealthy appearance of the leaves during sunshine. There is no cure, but preventive means may be successfully employed; such as planting turnips on the same land only after long intervals; avoiding treading of the land while wet; working the soil and planting good seed at the proper season; supplying manures sufficient to make good the soil's deficiencies; avoiding the consumption by cattle of roots on land which is soon to grow turnips; also dressing land with lime or gas-lime while preparing it for the turnip crop. The first dressing is not always efficacious, but a second application at the same period of the rotation when it comes round again is usually successful. The workings of the disease are yet so far mysterious: although the fungus is known, the actual conditions which encourage its development are not fully understood. For instance, in some districts (parts of Gloucester, and East Barns, Dunbar) turnips can be grown year after year on the same land, and yet not take the disease; while in other places (light soils particularly), to repeat the crop oftener than once in five or six years is most dangerous.