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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



weigbt, while his roots had the most weight, being 10 cwt. 2 

 qrs. 241bs. heavier than Mr. Robert Rand's and 19 cwt. 221b8. 

 heavier than Mr. Joseph Rand's, putting the blades out of 

 consideration. They weighed Mr. Robert Rand's before and 

 Mr, Josepl Rand's after the frost. The reason why the Judges 

 considered Mr. Gurdou's beet the most worthy of a prize was 

 because they were grown on samiy land, and the roots they 

 thought had a more fattening quality for stock and would keep 

 longer into the summer than those grown on heavy-bottomed 

 land ; beet of the quality of Mr. Joseph Rand's, though it was 

 a magnificent piece and stood very high, as high as sheep- 

 hurdles almost, would not keep so late as Mr, Gurdon's, nor 

 was there the same fattening quality in it. At Mr. Gurdou's 

 they thought if they had not been so far apart in the rows and 

 a little wider from beet to beet he would have had a still 

 heavier crop. As to swedes, they first went to Mr. Robert 

 Sheldrake's, of Kersey. The average number of roots to the 

 rod was 174 ; these they weighed with the tops, but cleaned 

 them as they did the maugolds, and they were quite ready for 

 stock to eat. The weight was 23 tons 1 cwt. 1 qr, 201b8. 

 They were sown broadcast and were a splendid piece, but Mr. 

 Sheldrake had scruples that there were not two acres of them, 

 and finding an eighth short he withdrew from competition, 

 though there was no other piece equal to them. At Mr. J. 

 G. Stow's there were 191 roots to the rod, the weight 17 tons 

 4 cwt. 1 qr. 41b3. per acre : they were a nice piece of swedes, 

 clean, singled out well, but too thick in the plant, though on 

 heavy lands it would not do to have them too thin. From his 

 experience, having gone round many years, he should say that 

 where beets were too thick they would not be likely to carry 

 otf prizes. He found this year, on weighing two rods from 

 the same field, that in one instance there were 11 beet less to 

 the rod and over lOOlbs. more in weight. It would not do to 

 have them too thick if they wanted weight, and this remark 

 applied, though not so strongly, perhaps, to swedes. Mr. 

 Joseph Rand's, which took the prize, were drilled 26 inches 

 apart: there were 119 roots to the rod; it was a beautiful 

 piece, very clean, and a good stock apparently. There were 

 19 tons 15 cwt. 2 qrs. 241b3. They were well farmed with 

 good farmyard manure, and were worthy the prize. They 

 were drilled, and were not so many plants to the rod as Mr. 

 Sheldrake's by 72 ; and he thought that this was how 4 tons 

 difference in weight was to be accounted for. At Mr. Grim- 

 wade'a they only measured one rod ; they faucied they were 

 sown rather too early or too late, and were not a good stock 

 but bad-bred ones, a great many appearing a good deal like 

 coleworts : the weight 18 tons 17 cwt. 161bs. per acre. 

 For white turnips there were only two entries — Mr. Stow's 

 and Mr. Robert Rand's. Mr. Stow's, like his swedes, were 

 rather too thick in the plant ; they were a beautiful piece, in 

 full growth at the time the Judges saw them, and if the weather 

 had held open he dated say they would have been splendid. 

 There were 184 roots to the rod, the weight 21 tons 2 cwt. IGlbs. 

 The next piece was Mr. Robert Rand's ; it was a very fine piece 

 quite fit to feed off at thetime the Judges saw them, a very full 

 plant and vtry clean, the average 161 roots to the rod ; the 

 weight 26 tons 5 cwt. 2 qrs. 241bs. per acre.— Officers and 

 BO on were appointed for the ensuing year on the conclusion 

 of Mr. Partridge's speech.— Mr. J.G. Stow'proposed that next 

 year a prize should be offered for Suffolk Down sheep instead 

 of for ordinary Soutbdowns. The Suffolkdowns, Mr. Stow 

 described as a cross between the blackfaced Norfolk and the 

 Down sheep, which had not been exhibited at the Society's 

 meetings for some years.— Mr. Sheldrake, in seconding the 

 proposition of Mr. Stow, said, when ewes made over SOs. per 

 head, they were generally Suffolkdowns. Mr. T. Hawkins 

 recommended that an extra prize should be given to the 

 Suffolk sheep ; but deprecated the exclusion of Southdowns. 

 Mr. Sheldrake had spokeu of the ewes making an extraor- 

 dinary price, but it was merely because the Norfolk sheep 

 were always characterized as great breeders and little mutton 

 makers ; the cross gave them a little more mutton, and con- 

 sequently they were more in repute for breeding purposes, 

 Mr. Sheldrake should remember at the same time that the 

 wether lambs sold for Ss. or 4s. less than Southdowns. Mr. 

 Dobito told him last year at the meeting of the Suffolk So- 

 ciety that Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, who gave lectures on 

 extinct animals, said that Southdowns would soon have to be 

 included amongst them, but he himself was inclined to think 

 the Suffolkdowns would go first. He spoke very disdainfully 

 of the characteriitics of the male Suffolkdowne, and thought 



that if a prize were offered to that class, it should not be taken 

 away from another by a cross with which it was produced. 

 He would undertske to show five Southdowns against five of 

 Mr. Sheldrake's Suffolkdowns for five sovereigns at their next 

 meeting. — Mr. Sheldrake declined the challenge. — The' propo- 

 sition of Mr. Stow was not pressed, but left for the decision of 

 the committee. — Mr. Gurdon entered upon some explanations 

 with regard to the transplantation of mangold, a matter in 

 respect to which he had made experiments. The seeds, he 

 stated, were raised in a box. The number of pknts put in 

 was 398, and some few failed, as they always would. The va- 

 cancies thus occasioned were not supplied with very great care, 

 but still they were filled up, and the result he held in his hand, 

 viz., 398 roots put in and 398 taken up ; therefore he had no 

 hesitation in saying that they might have every root on an acre if 

 they liked to attend to it, and, he thought, without any unreason- 

 able expense or trouble. — Mr. Garnham was so anxious about 

 his row of roots that he would not even let his best hoer hoe 

 them, but would do it himself; and he was so nervous at the 

 end that he hoed up one of the roots, and, certainly, one day 

 after dinner he did go down with a bottle of liquid manure, 

 and tried to raise one in its place, but he never succeeded in get- 

 ting it much bigger than his fiat. This showed that merely 

 taking a root out with a spud was not the same thing as 

 transplanting in the way he had done. He remembered telling 

 the meeting last year that the great secret was to preserve 

 every fibre. He did not say it was at all necessary to grow 

 the plants in boxes, but let them put some boards on the top 

 of a muck heap, and then four or five inches of earth on the 

 boaids, and so raise the plants ; and when they wanted roots 

 to transplant, let them not take them up, but turn them over, 

 and they would thus get the plant with every fibre on it. Such 

 was the experiment he had tried, and the account was that the 

 twenty heaviest weighed211 lbs., above 101b. each; the twenty 

 lightest 72 lbs. ; of the remaining roots, of 337 the average 

 was nearly 71bs. each. He would be candid towards Mr. 

 Rand, who had said that if they were grown in a field with a 

 row on each side there would be a difference, and he should have 

 the benefit of this, for be would state that his roots last year 

 were were all about 71bs. on an average ; this year they averaged 

 about 6lbs., the whole weight of the 398 roots being 168 st. 

 121b3. If they would take 398 roots at 13 in. apart he thought 

 they would extend ea near as possible to 4 rods of ground. 

 They might take it, for all ordinary calculations, at 4 rods 

 of ground ; and he thought that would give about 42 tons 

 to the acre. Therefore, unless the judges had made a very 

 bad shot in the 2 rods of ground they selected when in- 

 specting the acres, the transplanted mangold beat the rest 

 of the field ; but it was a most diilicult thing to go into a 

 field of 8 or 9 acres, and select a fair average couple of rods. 

 He had in his pocket also an account of another 4 rods. He 

 had from these 4 rods 477 roots, which was as nearly as 

 possible 119 roots to the rod ; and the weight was 180 cwt. 

 131b., or at the rate of 45 tons per acre. This was the first 

 4 rods he came to. He walked into the field, made no 

 choice at all, told his men to take it up, had the produce 

 weighed ; and they now had heard what he obtained. He 

 made the transplanted roots to come to rather better than 

 42 tons per acre. The judges had stated the weight of the 

 roots they took up ; but whether he had taken ofif the tops 

 and tails quite so close as Mr. Partridge bad done, was a 

 question ; and this might give a little more weight. Whe- 

 ther they drilled or whether they dibbled, the mangold crop 

 was certainly a very important one ; and it was most im- 

 portant to get as regular a crop as they could, Mr. Par- 

 tridge has said the plants were set rather wide— at 30 

 inches ; but, if he recollected aright, Mr. Rand's, last year, 

 were set at 32 inches. Mr. Gurdon next dwelt on the im- 

 portance of farmers knowing what weight of roots they 

 grew. He tht ught the mangold a very valuable crop ; and 

 he hoped his would supply some of the loss which he, in 

 common with others, had suff'ered in stock. There had 

 doubtless been enormous losses in stock this year ; and, in his 

 own case, he looked to his field of mangolds to bring in ad- 

 ditional £100 or £200 to make up his losses; and he stated 

 he should be sorry to sell the produce of his field now for 

 less than £40 an acre. He hoped, if he lived another year, 

 still further to carrj' on his experiment, and should be very 

 glad, if Mr. Rand would like, to compete with him. He 

 did not want to cook up two acres, but fairly to take that 

 quantity ; and Mr. Rand might take two acres, drilled. 



