26 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



did they would not go on well. But if they were grown in 

 a stiff loamy mould, whatever muck they put under it forced 

 it, and it would be only a puny thing with a single tail; 

 break otf the end of that, and then there was no other ab- 

 sorbent to take the nourishment up. Many of his plants 

 this year were of that character, which arose from the gar- 

 dener taking the soil of the field — a stiff loam, almost clay. 

 It would not do to raise the plants in that. Then, as the 

 judges saw, his field was in a wretched state. It only 

 showed the advantage of good over bad farming. He had 

 no hesitation in saying that in a slight degi'ee Mr. Garnham 

 failed ; but it was a very badly-farmed field this year, as full 

 of water as it could hold. As they knew, the field sloped 

 down to the river; near the house the soil was of a very 

 porous character, sand, into which, when there was water, it 

 easily filtered. A portion of that field was like a vocano of 

 running lava almost, running down with the water which 

 forced itself out of the top of the hill, and it was almost im- 

 possible that anything could grow on that. He was really 

 ashamed to take the sovereign which had been awarded to 

 him, and he therefore begged to return it to Mr. Grimwade, 

 and hoped next year some one would receive it who de- 

 served it much better than he did. 



Mr. PosTANS understood from Mr. Gurdon diat the judges 

 had made a mistake, and in talcing the transplanted man- 

 golds had only taken two rows from the transplanted 

 ones. They went where they were directed, but if they had 

 taken five rows of those gi'own after being dibbled, and only 

 two of the others, of course they ought not to have made the 

 comparison. 



Mr. Joseph Eand said the President had asked him to 

 make a statement how he produced his white turnips, He 

 did not know how he could state anything beyond the usual 

 culture for them as near as he could judge. He made a 

 good fallow by the usual ploughing ; he ploughed up early 

 after harvest — it was after barley. Then he gave it a 

 ploughing as soon as he could in the proper season. After 

 an interval he gave two crossings, and then only stetched 

 it up once. Before he stetched it up he gave it farmyard 

 manure — by no means a heavy coat, only seven tons per 

 acre of well-made farmyard manure ; but he attributed the 

 result quite as much to its being a good stock of turnips as 

 to the cultivation. For quality he never saw better ; and he 

 never found his sheep thriving more than at the present 

 time. He had named at these meetings, three or four 

 years in succession, that his description of turnip was the 

 very best one to grow for early feeding, both for quality and 

 quantity : the " bell decanter " he thought was the proper 

 name. He believed for the introduction of that stock he 

 was indebted to this society, who recommended him to 

 grow it. The advice to try it came from Mr. Thomas Haw- 

 kins, who furnished him with his first seed, and he had 

 kept the stock ever since, now 13 or 14 years. As he had 

 said before, they were very valuable for early feeding, and 

 for ten out of twelve years these turnips had taken the 

 prize both for acres and half-dozens ; therefore he recom- 

 mended gentlemen who wanted early feed for stock by all 

 means to try it. With regard to mangolds, Mr. Postans had 

 said Mr. Gurdon and himself (Mr. Hand) had come very 

 near indeed as to weights, when the tops were included. 

 Some one had said that the tops were of very little value. 

 Now he himself set much greater store on them than many 

 people did, and he thought it rather lucky for him that his 

 land produced a large quantity. Where he produced the 

 mangolds to compete this year the land had been in man- 

 gold three years in succession (Hear, hear). All he did to 



the land this year was to stamp the leaves in (there were 

 twelve tons an acre, according to the judges last year), and 

 he fed some sheep on it. He fed his sheep with other food 

 besides leaves, but he did not carry a handful of manure for 

 this last crop : he congratulated himself that the leaves were 

 very good and rich manure, particularly if mangold wurzel 

 was grown after. The mangold leaves returned back to the 

 mangold exactly what the mangold plant required, and he 

 believed them to be productive of a considerable portion of 

 the weight he obtained this season. There was another 

 tiling. Going to judge mangolds as he did five or sis weeks 

 since, he would state that where there were plenty of leaves 

 on the mangolds, if there was open weather, the more crop 

 they would get. If they watched the crop as he had done, 

 after he had set on t for the half-dozens, and took a string 

 and meaaured one which had the great«st quantity of leaves, 

 that would be the mangold to increase most in open weather ; 

 he believed he had tons and tons more per acre now, six 

 weeks afterwards, than when the judges inspected them. 

 He was reading a letter in the Times a short time ago from 

 an eminent chemist (Voelcker, he thought), who made a 

 statement that mangold leaves might be preserved with 

 great advantage by salt — in fact, a regular pickling ; a layer- 

 of mangold leaves salted down with a layer of salt would 

 prevent decay ; they might cut it up with other food for cat- 

 tle, and it would be found very useful. Whether it was so 

 he could not say, and he only gave his statement : the Pro- 

 fessor added his reasons and proofs ; he must mention that 

 he finished his letter by saying it was a question whether it 

 would repay the labour. He (Mr. Rand) must say that no 

 doubt it would be a great expense to take them up, clean, 

 and preserve them. If it was so, perhaps he should find the 

 leaves of more value yet than he had hitherto done; there- 

 fore he himself thought even with twelve tons of leaves 

 found in his piece last year he could not complain, 



Mr. EoBERT Hawkins asked Mr. Rand what he fed upon 

 his land to produce his beautiful crop of mangold — whether 

 there was no cake used on the field or any part of the pre- 

 vious mangolds used on the land, as he could not account 

 for tops only producing such a crop ? 



Mr. Rand said it was perfectly true that he fed with cake 

 and tops too, and nearly half the mangold produced the 

 year before (Laughter). 



Mr. Hawkins : And a capital preparation too. 



The Chaieman asked Mr. Sheldrake how he cultivated 

 his land to produce such excellent cattle-cabbage as he had 

 shown that day. He himself had grown some, but they 

 were small in comparison. What time did Mr. Sheldrake 

 plant them, and how did he cultivate for them ? 



Mr. Sheldrake said, in taking the prize for cabbages 

 that day, he must say he had done what he had never done 

 before, but it was a legitimate proceeding — that was, he 

 cultivated in a garden. He had several rods of ground in 

 his garden, and he planted something like five or six score 

 of cabbage-plants, and gave them plenty of good farm-yard 

 manure; and once, about the month of June, he watered 

 them with liquid manure. He did not know any other pre- 

 paration than that, or that any other was required. If any- 

 one had had any good ones there, he thought he should not 

 have had the prize, as his cabbages weighed only 901bs., and 

 he thought it somewhat disgraceful to show a half-dozen not 

 weighing more than that. He could only sum up all by 

 saying they could not farm against seasons. 



Mr. Geimwade read a letter from Mr. Robert Cobbold 

 Perry, who had entered some roots, but in consequence of 

 his bailiff being very much engaged, he could not send 



