166 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER 



Remarks on the Cultivation of Beet and Mangel-wurzel. 



T FOUND the best farmers in all the south of England, and 

 * throughout Ireland, where the soils were at all stiff, increasing 

 their crops of these roots. For the production of milk they are, 

 undoubtedly, a more valuable crop than turnips or ruta-bagas, 

 though it is asserted that the milk is more thin and watery. 

 Some thought them equal, and even superior, weight for weight, 

 for fattening cattle. I think it is certain that, in such soils, a 

 larger amount of nutriment can be obtained from a crop of them 

 on an equal measure of ground. Donaldson says the beet yields 

 a larger weight per acre, both in roots and leaves, than any other 

 root crop known. I have heard of crops of from fifteen to thirty- 

 five tons an acre ; and in one instance, near New York, at the 

 rate of forty-four tons an acre, from one quarter of an acre. 

 Chemical analyses and practical experiments in feeding, to ascer- 

 tain their value as compared with other roots, or with hay, differ 

 so very greatly, that nothing can be said with any certainty about 

 it. The climate of the United States, like that of France, is 

 much better adapted to the beet, and much less favorable to the 

 ruta-baga, than that of England. The beet is much less liable 

 to be injured by insects or worms than the turnip or ruta-baga, 



