u 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



Swede turnips he would not on any account sow before 

 the end of May. He would put 20 yards of farm-yard 

 manure, which he would charge on the land at 3s. per 

 yard ; he would put 2 cwt. of guano ; he would horse- 

 hoe and other hoe at £1 per acre, and, taking into ac- 

 count rent and taxes, he had no doubt his crop would 

 cost him nearly £\0 per acre. Mr. Bond, no doubt, 

 grew superior crops of turnips to his own, but he would 

 be glad to hear from him what was the expense which 

 he incurred. He believed that last year the cost to 

 himself was not less than £\\ per acre, and at that ex- 

 pense he was on the whole rather a loser— growing, as he 

 did, 31 tons of mangel per acre. As regarded the period 

 of sowing, he might observe that he had himself sown a 

 good deal in April, but that in that case a great quantity 

 of the roots had always run to seed ; on the other hand, 

 when he had sown in the middle of May he had always 

 been fortunate in his crop. 



Mr. Bond said he had expressly stated that his ex- 

 pense was 7s. per ton. He did not mention the expense 

 per acre, because he did not think that mode of putting 

 the matter desirable. He did not think mangel could 

 be grown for less than 7s. per ton, and, taking the pro- 

 duction at 30 tons per acre, 10 guineas fairly repre- 

 sented the cost.per acre. He did not think the cost of 

 preparation was as great in the case of swedes as that of 

 mangel wurzel ; but on the other hand, they did not get so 

 heavy a crop, and the quality of the mangel wurzel grown 

 in the eastern counties was greatly superior to that of 

 the swede. He particularly urged the growing of man- 

 gel wurzel on heavy land, because what they wanted was 

 a heavy crop. He would much rather have one acre with 

 40 tons than two acres with 20 tons each. (Hear, hear.) 



Mr. Smithies inquired whether Mr. Bond meant 

 that he considered a ton of mangel-wurzel of more value 

 than a ton of swedes ? 



Mr. Bond continued : Yes, because it contained more 

 saccharine matter ; and his experience was that beasts 

 did better upon it. His animals got on very well upon 

 mangel-wurzel, provided it were mixed with a large pro- 

 portion of chaff; but without this admixture it was too 

 laxative in its effects. He believed that with a wet 

 climate swedes were the best, while with a dry one like 

 his own county mangel-wurzel were the best. 



Mr, Wood (of Ockley, Sussex) said he farmed a 

 fctiff, heavy, clay land, and was nearly always behind 

 with it ; and though he should be very happy to carry 

 out Mr. Bond's system, if that were practicable, he 

 had not hitherto had strength enough at his disposal 

 for that purpose. Such was his sense of the advantages 

 of autumn cultivation, that he doubted whether it would 

 not answer his purpose even to purchase horses expressly 

 for it (Hear, hear). As regarded the application of 

 steam power, he should be very glud to see it carried 

 out in practice to the extent that his sanguine friend, 

 Mr. Williams — if he would excuse that designation — 

 appeared to anticipate ; but he confessed that he was 

 somewhat sceptical on that point. He would like to 

 find himself mistaken, for no one would benefit by steam 

 power more than himself. He concurred in the opinion 

 that the comparative advantages of different root crops 



depended very much on situation and climate. In feed- 

 ing his animals, he found it advantageous to amalga- 

 mate difTerent kinds of food. He cut his hay, and 

 mixed it with half its bulk of chaff. As regarded oil- 

 cake, it was his practice to give a bullock of one hundred 

 stone weight not more than two cakes of two pounds 

 each per day, besides corn. He always obtained his cake 

 from France, believing that it was not adulterated 

 like that which was generally offered for sale in England. 

 He would not like to use salt on his clay land ; he had 

 tried the experiment of using it, and the result was not 

 at all satisfactory. When old grass land was broken up, 

 salt might be very useful in checking a tendency to ex- 

 cessive luxuriance ; but in the case of stiff, heavy, clay 

 lands like his own, he could not conceive how any 

 benefit was to arise from an application of salt. 



Mr, G. Sidney Harbison (of Clifton, Hampden) 

 said the question under discussion appeared to have 

 turned to a consideration of the relative value of mangel- 

 wurzel and swedes, owing to the saccharine matter of 

 the former. On that question some light might be 

 thrown by the practice of the distillers with regard to 

 the beetroot, of which they were, in fact, very extensive 

 consumers. It appeared that when the root was useful 

 to farmers, it was useless to distillers. The distillers 

 commonly used it from October to March or April, 

 after which period no sugar could be extracted, therefore 

 its value was not dependent on that account. 



Mr. Robertson (of the Botley Club) said he had 

 found that year that the effect of sowing mangel-wurzel 

 very early was that the seed lay too long in the 

 ground, and became a prey to insects ; and he did not 

 obtain so good a plant as he had done when he had 

 sown later. He had seen mangel-wurzel used to a very 

 great extent, and with great advantage, in the fattening 

 of pigs and beasts ; they began to use it even in October. 

 It was always out a day before it was given to the animals, 

 and was sprinkled with as much barley-meal as was re- 

 quired to cover it. A ton and a-half of mangel-wurzel 

 thus given was found to be equal to two tons of swedes. 



The Chairman said he was sure they would all agree 

 with him that they were very much indebted to Mr. 

 Bond for the very able paper which he had read. A 

 more interesting, or a more practical paper he had never 

 heard in that room, or elsewhere ; and he would not take 

 up the time of the meeting by repeating anything which 

 it contained. With regard to the difference between the 

 quality of the swedes grown in different districts, he 

 would observe that there was no comparison between the 

 swedes of the North of England and Shropshire, where 

 the climate was moist, and the swedes of the eastern 

 counties, and even the midland counties. It was im- 

 possible that such good animals could be pi'oduced by 

 means of roots alone in the latter districts as in the for- 

 mer ; and it was easy, therefore, to understand why 

 more cake was used in the one case than in the other. 

 This should be borne in mind in considering the question 

 of relative value. Again, with regard to mangold 

 wurzel, he could easily comprehend why it should be 

 much better with a dry climate than with a moist one, 

 the great objection to mangold wurzel being the large 



