170 FARMING ON FACTORY LINES 



more likely to get into the first or second week of 

 May before the mangel break is ready for planting. 

 Anticipating th's, it is better to put in mangel plants 

 rather than sow seed for the crop. 



The plants should be grown in a frame, the seed 

 being put down about the 1st of March. Then about 

 a month later, or as soon as the young plants have 

 become fairly strong, they should be hardened off 

 by removing the top frame, only covering them up in 

 the early stages of the hardening-up process at night- 

 time. 



The mangels are dibbled in exactly the same way 

 as cabbage, but the greatest care should be taken with 

 them, to see that the tap-root is straightened out 

 when planting, for otherwise the plant will fail. 

 The root should also be dipped in liquid manure. 



As soon as the plants are in, unless the land is too 

 wet, the drills should be rolled with an ordinary iron 

 one-horse roller. This firms the land and presses the 

 plants down in the manure. 



Now, this method of transplanting mangels is very 

 important. For three years running the writer has 

 had an increased yield of 10 tons to the statute acre 

 from mangel plants put down in the first and 

 second weeks of May, compared with the quantity 

 obtained from seed sown at the same time. 



MANGEL-PLANTING 



Many farmers would imagine that mangel-planting 

 is not likely to be successful. They base their opinion 

 on the fact that often in thinning out mangels, and 

 where they have come across a gap, they have 

 transplanted a mangel and it has either died off or 

 made very little growth. It is quite easy to under- 



