10 PREFACE 



cultivation of mangels, and so affect 

 the farmers in many indirect ways which 

 were not apparent at first. Another 

 difficult point to contend with is the 

 belief in many counties that the farmers 

 may expect anything from 35 to 70 tons 

 of mangels per acre. We even once met 

 a farmer who had just grown mangels 

 about the size of a man's fist, and he 

 swore that he got 35 tons per acre. We 

 know that he probably meant 35 small 

 cart loads, transformed into tons in the 

 heat of discussion ; but so long as such 

 fanciful figures are rooted firmly in the 

 minds of those interested in agriculture, 

 it is, of course, hopeless to try to lay the 

 mangel ghost by any manner of means. 



But in the same way as the yield of 

 sugar beet on the Continent is taken on 

 an average of four million acres, we 

 think it wise to tackle the mangel ghost 

 on the average yield in England. 



From the figures given by the Board 

 of Agriculture it is shown that the average 

 area returned as under mangels in 

 England for the ten years 1900-1909 was 



