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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



late years, and has deeply deplored it. The main sub- 

 stitute for it has been the mangold wurtzel crop. A 

 farmer ought to possess a most abundant stock of 

 common sense and sound judgment : no class of men 

 find these truly excellent qualities to be in greater 

 requisition. What to grow and how to grow it — what 

 to sow and how to sow it ; matters of this kind often 

 trouble one. Farmers are now in great perplexity rela- 

 tive to the Swedish turnip crop : how to sow, how to 

 grow, and how to preserve it. For my own part, I am 

 determined to try it again, and one of the principal rea- 

 sons which has led me to this decision is the abundant 

 rainfall of the season. It is not for a plain practical 

 farmer like myself to define a variety of reasons for the 

 failure of this crop; this I know, that it has lamentably 

 failed, and I further know that it has become worse and 

 worse during the late years of short rainfall. I am not 

 to suppose it is to be a total failure any more than I may 

 suppose the same of the potato crop. That crop is 

 gradually recovering, and so, undoubtedly, will the 

 Swedish crop be restored ; and for aught I know, 

 this very season — so wet, so humid — may be the safe 

 restorer ; be that as it may, I am resolved to risk it, and 

 I make bold to advise my fellow-farmers to make the 

 experiment too. Who is prepared to deny that the 

 absence of the chemical ingredients conveyed to the soil 

 by rain water may not be the sole cause of failure ? 



It is well known that almost all the early- 

 sown crops are attacked with mildew, and in- 

 variably suffer much, occasionally to utter annihi- 

 lation. It would be well, then, to avoid early sowing ; 

 get the land into a fair state for sowing, not too fine, 

 lest heavy rains spoil all your work ; but it should be in 

 a semi-chequery state, so as to be easily reduced to a 

 fine tilth. Have ready a nicely-mixed compost of arti- 

 ficial manure, well-known to suit the soil and force early 

 vegetation— none better than \^ to 2^ cwt. of super- 

 phosphate to forty bushels of twitch or similar ashes, 

 to be drilled in with five pounds of seed per acre, upon 

 ridges twenty-six inches apart, and well manured with 

 foldyard dung, at the rate of not less than twelve two- 

 horse cart-loads per acre. This, in ordinary seasons, 

 will ensure a good plant, and the subsequent horse and 

 hand hoeings will not fail to produce a satisfactory crop. 

 In the autumn it will be for every farmer to adopt that 

 course respecting the future disposition and consumption 

 of the crop which seems to him best. My own practice 

 is to secure one-half in small heaps or graves, and leave 

 the remainder standing out; this my experience has 

 proved best in my own occupation. We take about 

 twenty-four ridges, throw them into heaps about twenty 

 yards apart, round them up, and cover them with soil 

 about six inches thick : the alternate twenty-four ridges 

 arc left standing. The sheep are regularly folded over 

 the whole; the foldings are drawn back as the heaps are 

 consumed. In fine open winter this is preferable, and 

 less loss is experienced. It is a very difficult thing to 

 make the heaps properly safe. If they are covered too 

 thickly they ferment and rot ; if too thinly, rains will 

 get through, op, what is worse, the frost will penetrate, 

 and often fatally. These contingencies have led me to 

 adopt the middle course, and I have not repented it yet. 

 It has this further advantage : you always have a store 

 in grave so that, however frozen and hard those exposed 

 maybe, you have a resort in this grave. The year 

 before last I had a serious loss in the graves, owing to 

 the unusually warm weather in March causing them to 

 vegetate and ferment before we were fully aware of the 

 extent of the injury. They were speedily uncovered, 

 but too late. 



The few words which I desire to say about mangolds 

 IS with the view of guarding the cultivators against im- 

 proper management in this peculiar season. The land 



is now saturated with moisture. Mangolds revel and 

 grow most luxuriantly in warm seasons, Upon a finely 

 pulverized soil, warm and slightly moistened ; but in 

 cold wet seasons like the present, they require great care 

 and good management. In the first place, the finely 

 pulverized soil is just now for the most part converted 

 into one general semi-pulp from end to end ; ;,it would 

 therefore be highly injudicious to either horse,-hoe or 

 hand-hoe it in that state. It is decidedly the best course 

 to wait a more favourable time : stirring it in a pulpy 

 state, only makes it into small pellets, which will dry 

 into little hard lumps, almost impenetrable to either the 

 sun or rain, and is of no further value for the rootlets as 

 affording receptacle s for food. The fields may look 

 slovenly, and denote bad farming ; but it is better to 

 permit the weeds to grow, than by hasty measures to 

 spoil the crop. By all means get on with other work 

 in readiness to bring all the force of the farm to bear 

 upon this clearing as soon as the state of the soil will 

 permit it. This every farmer's judgment will readily 

 decide upon, consistent with what I have said above. 

 It is an ascertained fact also that the mangold crop does 

 best in comparatively dry seasons, and on lands not 

 much imbued with moisture ; it certainly does badly on 

 wet soils or saturated ridges. It would be well in this 

 rainy season to keep the ridges as high as possible, by 

 no means to pull them down with the hoe as is usual. 

 The higher and dryer they lie in a wet season the better : 

 it keeps the plant warmer, the rootlets find more con- 

 genial food, and more of it in the semi-moist soil 

 around them, and a more vigorous growth is thus en- 

 sured. 



I am aware these remarks are contrary to the general 

 and tolerably correct practice^i. c, to drill upon high 

 ridges, and pull them down as the crop progresses, upon 

 the principle that the root will continue to strike fur- 

 ther and further down in search of food; while the 

 upper part is fructified by that process and the atmo- 

 spheric aid derived through the abundant foliage of 

 leaves. I am only advocating this deviation owing to 

 the exceeedingly moist season through which v/e are 

 now passing, and, upon the principle named above, that 

 the mangold crop does not progress well in or delight in 

 wet weather. The great thing the grower has to mind 

 is to let it alone when wet, and use every exertion to 

 clean it, and stir it when dry. Every stirring in a dry 

 and proper state docs much to promote its rapid pro- 

 gress. In this state it opens pores and crevices for the 

 young rootlets to enter and extract their nutriment ; 

 but if these stirrings take place while in a v/et state, it is 

 manifest that these very pores and crevices will by the 

 operation be pressed together, and closed up like the 

 working or kneading of a brick for the moulder. I am 

 offering no remarks about the culture and preparation of 

 the soil for these crops : ray aim is to prevent injury to 

 them by the subsequent management simply, in this very 

 stormy and peculiarly rainy season. I would, however, 

 venture one remark, which I commend to those who have 

 not yet completed their sowings. I would recommend 

 them not to reduce their lands to such a fine tilth as 

 usual, but to be content to put in their crops upon a 

 less pulverized soil. It will not so readily run together 

 in case of a tremendous rain as a fine tilth, and if the 

 season turns out favourable the roller will ultimately 

 reduce it all to powder ; and in reference to the Swedish 

 crop, without the slightest injury to the plants, I have 

 frequently rolled — with a heavy roller too — Swedish tur- 

 nip plants whei'i full six inches high. Mangolds are far 

 more tender ; I should hesitate to roll them ; but if a 

 full plant, no great danger need be apprelicndcd. The 

 season and state of the soil must of course be the rule 

 for adopting this course ; no one would roll plants when 

 the surface is dry and cloddy. t'. F. 



