254 PROSPECTS OP AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



own severe climate we have to keep them in pits or cellars. We 

 get our seed largely from England, and sow the English improved 

 varieties. 



Twenty-nine years ago I was walking with Mr. Lawes in a tur- 

 nip field at Rothamstead. We came to a part of the field where, 

 up to a certain row on the right hand, the turnips were much bet- 

 ter and larger than on the left hand. "What is the reason?" I 

 asked. "Has one part of the field been dressed with superphos- 

 phate, or manured more heavily than the other part?" " No, both 

 were treated alike, but this fine crop is 'Skirving's Improved 

 Purple-top Swede,' while the other is a common variety which has 

 been grown for some years in this neighborhood. And I wish," 

 said Mr. Lawes, "you would take a sample from both and analyze 

 them." I did so, and we found the 'improvement' consisted prin- 

 cipally of water. The English seed growers have for years made 

 great efforts to improve the varieties of turnips and mangels. 

 They have bred for size and shape, and they have attained won- 

 derful success. But the increased size is to a large extent merely 

 an increase of water. They have got varieties so much improved 

 that they can grow 84 tons per acre, nearly 80 tons of which is 

 water. 



Now, in this country we do not wish to pull up, top, draw home, 

 pit and slice up 80 tons of water to get four tons of food. We 

 can pump water far cheaper with a wind mill. And turnips and 

 mangels will never be generally grown in this country till we 

 begin to breed for quality rather than for size. When we can get 

 mangel wurzel that contains but little more water than fresh grass 

 or fresh clover, we shall then be able to gather, store away, cut 

 and feed out the crop at one-third the expense, and the roots 

 would keep better. We should then be able to grow them for 

 winter and early spring use as a substitute for grass. But as long 

 as we are caught by size and sound : as long as we select varie- 

 ties such as 'Norbiton Giant,' because it grows big and has a big 

 name, we shall find little profit in root culture. I am in great 

 hopes, now tliat there is a prospect of having experimental sta- 

 tions as fast as the means and men can be obtained to establish 

 them, that American seed growers will breed for quality rather 

 than for size. It is a comparatively easy matter to 'improve' a 

 variety the wrong way ; it is easy to take a sugar-beet and breed 

 it back to a mangel wurzel. The reverse process may not be so 

 easy, but it can be done. Our roots seldom grow so large or so 



