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Xiy. — On tlie Cultivation of Mangold-icurtzel. By 

 Charles Paget. 



No one can have cultivated turnips for many years, in the 

 Midland and Eastern Counties, without discovering that not- 

 withstanding our improved appliances, the crop has become more 

 precarious and less abundant. Hence it is desirable to find a 

 substitute for the swede, in feeding our cattle and sheep, which 

 will not deprive the soil of the constituents which are necessary 

 for the healthy growth of that root. This substitute is found in 

 the mangold-wurtzel, or beet. 



The statistical returns of agriculture show how small a space 

 this valuable root holds in our rotations ; and as I think its 

 culture must be greatly extended when its value is properly 

 appreciated, I will proceed to state some of its advantages, and 

 the mode of culture which has secured for me a very satisfactory 

 degree of success. 



First then, as to the amount of produce. I can reckon upon 

 30 tons of beet per acre, quite as securely as upon 20 of swedes, 

 upon good turnip land ; where there is a large proportion of clay 

 in the soil, the comparison is still more favourable to the beet. 

 Then, the nutritive quality of the beet is, after Christmas, fully 

 equal to that of the swede ; after March it is superior. 



Store cattle will thrive better upon 50 lbs. of beet in addition 

 to their wheat straw than upon 4 lbs. of oil-cake. Suckling ewes 

 and feeding sheep will consume 14 lbs. daily very profitably. It 

 is, however, for the milking and feeding beasts that 1 find its 

 chief value, and after January 1 give these animals 80 lbs. daily, 

 in addition to their hay, chaff, and 4 or G lbs. of corn or cake. In 

 the later months of the winter I give each horse in my cart-stable 

 8 lbs. of beet daily. 



A great advantage which the beet possesses over the turnip is 

 its early maturity. On those clayey soils in which it produces the 

 heaviest crops, carting, in wet weather, is a very expensive and 

 a very injurious operation ; but the Ijeet being ready for harvesting 

 in the second week of October, it may generally be got home 

 without injury to the land. 1 have, this 27th of October, secured 

 upwards of 800 loads from 22 acres, and left the land, with the 

 tops scattered over it, in good order to be ploughed for wlieat ; 

 and it is very seldom that we have experienced a wetter October. 

 Notwithstanding the large produce derived from this crop, the 

 succeeding wheat or barley will generally l)e very good, if the 

 tops are equally distributed over the land and ploughed in. For 

 many years 1 have had an average of G quarters of wheat to the 



