THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



25 



thin, the plant did not come to much weight. They were 

 very good roots — the largest, in fact, that the judges saw; 

 but they weighed only 10 tons 3 cwt. per acre; this was 

 certainly owing to their being so very thin in plant. The 

 next were Mr. Gurdon's— 11 tons 13 cwt, with their tops. 

 The next, which won the prize, were Mr. Jas. Norman's, 

 they weighing 19 tons 13 cwt. They were not very well 

 hoed out, and in an ordinary season the judges would not 

 have thought of giving them a prize at all, as they were no 

 great weight ; but when the}' came to consider that they 

 weighed nearly three times as much as the first, aud that 

 the season had been so very adverse to the growth of roots, 

 they thought the prize ought not to be withheld from him, 

 therefore they gave it to him for his Swedish turnips. He 

 now came to " other kinds of turnips." The first on the 

 list was a piece of Mr. Tiffen'a : they were called the Scotch 

 pudding turnip, and were put iu very late, and had not had 

 time to make much growth, and their weight was only 15 

 tons. The next were Mr. Gordon's ; they came to 20 tons 

 13 cwt. He should tell them that these turnips were grown 

 after mown tares, and the judges thought there was a great 

 deal of credit due to the manager of that estate for getting 

 so good a piece of turnips in such a seasou as this after 

 mown tares. The next were Messrs. Rand's, at Peyton- 

 hall — 24 tons 5 cwt. The next Messrs. Raud's, Layhara — 

 24 tons 10 cwt. — and these took the prize. They were of 

 the bell decanter kind (Mr. Thos. Hawkins' stock), of ex- 

 cellent quality, and full of growth : no doubt by this time 

 they weighed three or four tons more than they did when 

 the judges saw them, for they were then growing well on 

 the land and were in fine condition. 



The Chairman said that, from what Mr. Postans said, 

 it seemed the judges were most astonished at the roots after 

 mown tares; perhaps, therefore, Judge Gurdon would ex- 

 plain his mode of cultivation. 



Mr. GuKDON thought he must ask the indulgence of the 

 meeting to be allowed to call on Mr. Garnham, his bailiff, 

 to make the statement, for he himself had so little expected, 

 under any circumstances, to be the winner of a prize that 

 evening, that he was not exactly prepared with the particu- 

 lars, and Mr. Garnham could state them much more accu- 

 rately than he could. He did not think Mr. Garnham had 

 put him to any great expense : he would tell them now what 

 he did for the tares, which was the first thing. 



Mr. Garnham was afraid that he should be unable to 

 give them very much explanation as to the treatment for 

 turnips. He thought the tares were first ploughed for in 

 September, with a coat of farmyard manure— about twenty 

 loads per acre. They were mown off early for horses, and 

 many of them cut into chaff with rye. Afterwards the land 

 was broken up, subsoiled, and scarified, and about 2 cwt. 

 per acre of superphosphate sown, and the turnips put in. 

 Tliis was all that was done with them. As to the mangolds, 

 he broke up the land as soon as he had done wheat-seeding, 

 It was then late in the spring. He then put in 13 or 14 

 bushels of lime per acre, with the "manna " taken oft' the 

 bank spread on the field. It was crossed and subsoiled in 

 between the ridges, then ploughed in, and about 12 loads of 

 London manure put in per acre without any artificial. 



Mr. Gurdon would add a few words respecting the man- 

 golds, as this root had been rather his hobby-horse for the 

 last two years. He did not hesitate to say that he had 

 always considered it a most valuable crop. Though, as the 

 chairman had said, he (Mr. Gurdon) was a very young 

 farmer, he believed that many old farmers were beginning 

 to think that he was not very much wrong iu that respect ; 



he believed that some of the beat farmers in the present day 

 were still more anxious than ever to try to grow a good crop 

 of mangold. They had met with many difficulties, and a 

 young farmer might be excused if he could not surmount 

 them; but he would say to them, "get up early, and don't 

 be behindhand." He had a very good bid for his last year's 

 mangolds, and they went oft' to Scotland, and he did not 

 know that this circumstance did not do a little harm, as the 

 boat which came down with the London manure came just 

 at the time the mangolds went off, and they had to load the 

 one and unload the other with rain on them, and they were 

 fairly three weeks too late. That was the secret, he thought, 

 why the judges had found his mangolds growing with an 

 enormous quantity of top, such as they ought not to have 

 had at that time of year, if they were ripe enough to take 

 up. He believed, if there had been a month's more season, 

 that the mangold might have gone on, and though it would 

 not have reached the weight of last year (for that could not 

 be expected with such a season), he had no doubt that with 

 warm weather, such as they usually had |in this kingdom 

 in autumn, with a temperature up to 60 degrees, he should 

 have had a considerable increase on the 25 tons. With re- 

 spect to the transplanting, he might mention that last year 

 soma of the members of the club did him the kindness to go 

 over to Brantham, to see with their own eyes the effect of it, 

 Mr. Rand freely admitted to him, when he saw his man- 

 golds, that they certainly were far beyond his expectations. 

 Let them not mistake him by supposing that he had ever 

 advocated the idea of growing a whole crop by transplanta- 

 tion ; what he wanted to ascertain waa whether they could 

 transplant a root, keep it of good quality, and make it of 

 good size and weight. This year only satisfied him that 

 he was more and more correct in his conviction that it 

 could be done. He was satisfied that transplanted man- 

 golds might be grown to advantage, profitably, and to a 

 very considerable size. He had tried the experiment now 

 for three years, and he saw little reason to doubt, at any 

 rate after such a season as we had had, that transplanted 

 mangolds might be grown almost the same weight as those 

 which had been shown. Mr. Postans had said that the 

 judges weighed the transplanted against the sown ones; 

 he wished Mr. Postans would tell them whether he consi- 

 dered he took one rod out of the transplanted and one out 

 of the dibbled. 



Mr. PosTAXS said tliey took three rods altogether, two 

 out of the dibbled, and one only out of the transplanted. 



Blr. GuKDOx said he unfortunately was not at home when 

 the judges came, but on examining one of the spots where 

 they had been, he observed in one row they had taken a 

 square rod, and they had taken two rows out of about six or 

 seven of transplanted ones. Withrespect to the transplanted 

 ones, ]\Ir. Postans would see that there were altogether as 

 nearly as possible an acre, but he had not good plants for 

 more than a quarter of an acre, Mr. Garnham was anxious, 

 having got some plants raised in tlie field, to use them. 

 They were not raised as they should have been, with proper 

 mould. He went on planting, but the plants consequently 

 were faulty, and were filled up subsequently after an inter- 

 val of a fortnight or three weeks. Thus they got about sis 

 weeks too late ; so this year should not be taken as a speci- 

 men of what could be done by transplanting. Let any gen- 

 tleman who had any doubt about it try for himself, and 

 next year get some nice loose mould mixed with vegetable- 

 mould. It v/as necessary, if they wanted a root for trans- 

 planting, to plant it in a loose soil, as they threw out a great 

 quantity of fibrous roots, Don't break any of these, as if they 



