ROOT CROPS. 331 



grow in bunches together and are not thinned, and that the land 

 is generally only cultivated to a slight depth, the produce is much 

 less than it is where they have a proper depth of soil, and stand 

 singly so that each plant may grow to its full size. One carrot, 

 two inches in diameter at the top and fifteen inches long, contains 

 a great deal more substance than do four carrots an inch in diam- 

 eter and only five inches long. 



The variety of carrot that it is best to raise, taking into view 

 both its quality for feeding and the effect of its coloring matter on 

 the product of the dairy, is the Long Orange. The White Bel- 

 gian produces more largely, but is inferior for use ; while the 

 Crecy, the Horn, and the Altringham, though richer and excel- 

 lent for the table, yield less. 



MANGEL-WURZELS. 



The mangel is the king of the root crops. The yield per 

 acre is larger, under favorable circumstances, than that of any 

 other root ; the quality is much better than that of the common 

 turnip, and quite as good as that of carrots or rutabagas. It is 

 only exceeded in richness by the potato and the Jerusalem arti- 

 choke. The amount that it is possible to produce from an acre 

 of land has probably never been definitely ascertained, for there 

 has never been an acre grown on which all of the plants were so 

 large and perfect as individual plants frequently are. 



If I had land exactly suited to the cultivation of this root, and 

 were so circumstanced that I could give it as much manure as it 

 could make profitable use of, and could give the land and the 

 plants in all respects the fullest opportunity to do their best, the 

 limit of my modest ambition would be two thousand bushels per 

 acre, or fifty tons of roots. 



To descend from the possible to the actual, instances are nu- 

 merous of the production of from ten to thirteen hundred bushels 

 per acre ; and there is no crop that is grown which, in proportion 

 to the amount of labor required for its production, is so profitable 

 as this. Three hundred and forty-one pounds of mangels are 



