KETOKT ON THE CULTIVATION OF MANGOLD WTJRZEL. 149 



Climate. — Mangolds grow within a wide range of latitude. 

 Large crops are raised at St Helena at 16° south lat, and they 

 are erown with success in Scotland at 56° north lat. 



Soil. — A deep friable loam, abounding in organic matter, is 

 the most suitable ; but they are grown in all varieties of soils, 

 even in those of the most opposite descriptions. A light-land 

 farmer says, " We always sow our mangolds on our lightest land, 

 where it is too light for potatoes ;" and a heavy-land farmer says, 

 " My mangolds are invariably grown on the stiffest land, where 

 it's no use growing swedes." They are sometimes grown year 

 after year on the same soil. The Eev. E. W. Whitaker, in Lan- 

 cashire, has grown them for nearly twenty years consecutively 

 on the same ground — a clay soil. The crop has raised from 27 

 to 32 tons per acre. He manures with farmyard dung, salt, and 

 a mixture of sulphate of ammonia and superphosphate of lime, 

 in the proportion of one of the former to ten of the latter. The 

 late Eev. Mr Hall, near Derby, grew them year after year, for 

 upwards of thirty years, without diminishing in yield. 



Varieties. — There are the reds, yellows, oranges, and whites, 

 which are subdivided into long, globe, oval, or olive-shaped. 

 The long red is deservedly a general favourite. The oval yel- 

 low is a good sort too. "When compared with the long red when 

 growing, it may not appear so bulky a crop ; but when an equal 

 breadth of each is weighed, they are generally discovered to be 

 more nearly alike than at first supposed. That sub-variety of the 

 long red, the oxhorn, although a good cropper, is justly objected 

 to, both on account of its straggling across the drills, and thus 

 preventing much sooner than usual the working of the horse-hoe, 

 and likewise because of its leaves being less securely covered 

 from frost than all others. The long varieties seem best adapted 

 for deep or heavy soils, and the globes for those which are shal- 

 low or light. 



Place in the Rotation and Cultivation. — The mangold occupies 

 the same place in the rotation as the swede, and the well-known 

 mode of cultivation adapted for that root is equally adapted for 

 the mangold. The latter, however, will even better repay deep 

 cultivation than the former. 



Distances apart of Drills and Bulbs. — "Which are the best 

 distances'?" is a question which has been often asked, much dis- 

 cussed, but not yet satisfactorily answered. In Dv Voelcker's " Ex- 

 periments on Swedes" (" Eoyal Agricultural Society's Journal," 

 vol. xxii.), we find the following : — " If the soil is shallow and poor, 

 the drills should be at least 26 inches apart, and the plants 

 singled out rather wide ; for the roots in that case will extend 

 their feeding fibres on the surface, and require a larger space 

 than in a deep, well-pulverised, loamy soil." This opinion is 

 entertained by not a few; but do not almost all practical farmers 



