THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



327 



Hunts, and Cambridgeshire. The crop of swedes was not only 

 now blasted, by a great variety of insects, by the very frequent 

 occurrence of the disease called an-berry, or the fiuger-and toe 

 disease, but also by a complaint similar to the potato murrain ; 

 the bulb decaying most near the root, aud at other times it 

 would commence at the very heart of the turnip. Nor was the 

 disease at all confined to certain uukiud lands for turnips, but 

 on the best couvertible soib, and those under the very best 

 management. Our farmers could no longer depend upon any 

 part of those crops to draw off for stall feeding ; but sufficient 

 could not be grown even to furnish manure for the succeeding 

 crop of barley, where all the turnips were fed upon the land. 

 It was that circumstance which rendered Mr. Baker's able 

 paper so much the more valuable, for it \vas a startling fact 

 that while they had rarely known a more wretched crop of tur- 

 nips, the mangold had proved this year splendid almost be- 

 yond precedent. Mr. Baker's remarks on the culture for 

 mangold were very judicious : his practice in some respects 

 was very similar to bis (Mr. Bennett's). His own plan was to 

 plough deep in the autumn, often two furrows deep, or plough 

 one good deep furrow, the subsoil-plough following ; but where 

 the subsoil was at all strong and good, he preferred ploughing 

 two furrows deep, throwing the lower soil at top, for the 

 action of the atmosphere. For his own part he preferred 

 getting the land ultimately into Northumberland ridges, al- 

 though he knew on the strong lands of Essex and part of Suf- 

 folk our best farmers succeeded in growing admirable crops 

 on the flat surface, by one deep autumnal ploughing (cheers). 

 The great superiority of mangel wurzel over most other roots 

 was, first, that it might be grown on land unkind for the 

 growth of turnips ; secondly, such lands would bear a much 

 heavier crop ; thirdly, it was far more easily extracted from the 

 soil; fourthh', it might be kept much later in the season; and 

 last, though not least, if fed judiciously with other food, it was 

 equal if not superior in its fattening qualities to the best kind 

 of turnips (Hear, hear). The cultivation of mangold had 

 iu fact opened a new era in clay land farming. There were 

 many farms iu his native county, on the northern side of it, 

 where decent flocks of sheep were kept in summer ; but not 

 being at all adapted for turnips, the flock had to be disposed 

 of, in the winter, except a few half-starved ewes, which ran over 

 the grass land in the day time, and browsed the bean-straw at 

 night. By the cultivation of mangold, however, in these modern 

 times, fine flocks of ewes were now kept where scarcely 

 any could be kept before. Also on fen land, which was ad- 

 mirably adapted for the growth of mangold to the extent of 

 30 to 40 tons per acre, this root was now grown extensively, 

 and although not equal in quality to that grown on high land, it 

 was by no means depreciated in the same degree as were turnips 

 on this kind of land. On all soils salt greatly improved the 

 quality of mangold, and he felt confident on none so much as 

 peaty fen land. 



Mr. Thomas (Lidlington, Beds) said that Mr. Baker had not 

 alluded to a circumstance with which he ( Mr. Tnomas ) had some 

 slight acquaintance, viz., to the seeds being wrapped in capsules, 

 each of which contained three or four seeds. He should like to 

 know whether Mr. Baker had ever tried the experiment of 

 breaking up the capsules (Hear, hear). He (Mr. Thomas) had 

 done so on a small scale in his garden, he had crushed the out- 

 ward coat through a bean-mil), and he had found, in conse- 

 quence, that the plants came to the hoe in one half the time 

 that those did which were dibbled in the capsules. One re- 

 mark which Mr. Baker had made was susceptible of correctiou. 

 That gentleman had stated that there was this difficulty with 

 regard to mangold-wuitze), that it could not be fed off the 

 land in the same manner as the swede turnip. He (Mr, 



Thomas) begged to assure him that so far was that from being 

 the caae that in Bedfordshire it was becoming a very common 

 practice indeed to eat it off the land. 



Mr. B.\KER : You could not produce a heavy crop, then? 



Mr. Thomas begged pardon ; he had seen very heavy crops 

 of mangold on light lands. He had seen this on sandhills 

 which had become sick and tired of growing swede turnip?. 

 Mangold- wurtzel could be eaten off the land about the months 

 of March and April, and he believed it was more forcing and 

 nutritious than the swede itself at that time of the year. 



Mr. Stagg (Grafton, Wilts) said that, like Mr. Thomas, he 

 could not agree with Mr. Baker in all the views he had 

 enunciated on this subject. Iu the first place, with regard to 

 mangold-wurtzel not being a proper food far ewes, lambs, and 

 pigs he himself had fed his flecks of ewes and sows for many 

 years past, from the month of November to the month of May, 

 upon that description of root, and he had had quite as good 

 lambs as any of his neighbours who had fed their flocks upon 

 turuips. His tegs also had fed upon aud done well thereon ; 

 so likewise had his sows to a great extent, and he should not 

 be afraid to show them against those of any gentleman iu Bed- 

 fordshire, They had had very good farrows, from ten to thirteen 

 at a time ; during the whole of last winter he never lost a pig, 

 and he believed he had about a hundred now. With regard 

 to storing of mangold, his practice was to store in heaps of 

 about a cart-load each, first cuttiug off the greens or tops 

 which are left on the land, and fed by ewes. About two- 

 thirds of the roots are then fed on the land by sheep, the re- 

 maining one-third (more or less as required) carted off when 

 convenient, and given to cattle or pigs in the farm-yards, The 

 only objection he ever found was the difficulty in preventing 

 servants over feeding with this root. The store-heaps are 

 covered with straw in the same manner as potatoes. He had a 

 large field now in store of, he believed, fully 40 tons per acre, and 

 had never had a wheelbarrow-full of rotton mangold tbroughout 

 the whole of his experience. 



Mr. Williams : You don't cut them near the crown ? 



Mr. Stagg : No, not so near as to run the risk of injur- 

 ing the crown. With regard to mangel wurzel as a root 

 crop, he considered it most valuable for the farm. On one 

 part of his farm he had gi'own turnips, but those were 

 to a great e-\tent club-footed, and were what had not in- 

 aptly been termed fingers and toes (Hear, hear). Upon 

 heavy clay soils and upon sandy soils that would not grow 

 turnips, it was, in his opinion, quite a godsend to have man- 

 gel wurzel to resort to ; and he would repeat that he consi- 

 dered it a most beneficial crop for the farm. He had kept 

 GOO sheep for the last 1.5 years, on tlie average, although 

 they had scarcely any other kind of roots than mangel from 

 November to March (Hear, hear). 



A Member : W^hat sort of a farm is yours.' 



Mr. Stagg : A store and corn farm. 



The Member : And what kind of mangel wurzel do )-ou 

 prefer ? 



Mr. Stagg : The red globes ( Hear, hear). In conclusion, 

 he would merely observe that there was no more difHculty 

 in feeding off mangel than swedes (Hear, hear). 



Mr. Grav (Courteen-hall, Northampton) did not presume 

 to set his production of mangel wurzel in competition with 

 that of Mr. Baker, but having had some years' experience in 

 the growth of this root, he would take the libertj' of making 

 a few rimarks with regard to the system he had pursued. 

 Of course, he grew it after his white grain crop. After 

 harvest, if the land wanted cleaning, he did what he could 

 to accomplish that object. He then manured with from 10 

 to 12 tons of dung per acre, leaving it spread upon the land 



