On the culture of Mangel Wurtzel 153 



ridging them up as high as can be well done, with a man 

 shovelling between the drills, right and left, smoothing 

 the surface of the dung, which will leave the ridge about 

 a space of ten or tweive inches broad. 



This complete method of following, will repay the 

 trouble of shovelling, by raising a full proportion of earth 

 under the roots. When the ground is thus completely 

 prepared, two boys or girls can sow from two to three 

 acres per day. After sowing, it should be well rolled, 

 which completes the whole process. 



The crop is afterwards to be treated the same as tur- 

 nips or potatoes, by putting to, and taking off, mould, &c. 

 After the roots have been raised, the ground is in re- 

 markably fine order for wheat, or any other crop. 



I subjoin, for your complete satisfaction, the following 

 letter to the editor of " The Irish Farmers' Journal." 



" Sir, notwithstanding the multiplicity of communica- 

 tions respecting Mangel Wurtzel, for the last two months, 

 I cannot resist sending you a statement of an intelligent 

 practical man, corroborative of the wholesomeness of the 

 plant, and instructive as to the use of the tops or stems, 

 which some able agriculturists have hitherto considered 

 of no value; whereas they have been applied by him as 

 food for cattle, and have proved as efficacious in fatten- 

 ing, as either leaf or root. 



u 1813. I put in a very poor cow, and for some time 

 fed her upon Mangel Wurtzel tops. When the frost 

 came, she was fed with roots, of which she ate seven and 

 a half stone per day, with eight pounds of hay. She was 

 flit in three months from the time she got the roots. 

 When put in, her value was seven pounds. She had 

 eighty-one pounds of tallow, and never appeared, from 



2E 



