MANGEL WURZEL. 



MANGEL WURZEL. 



adopted by myself in the west of England in 

 the cultivation of mangold wurzel, which has 

 been attended with complete success. 



" By this table, it is apparent that equal 

 quantities of Swedish turnip, orange-globe, and 

 mangold wurzel contain very different propor- 

 tions of nutritive matter, the latter more than 

 doubling the former in quantity; and should 

 the mangold wurzel be of equally easy culture 

 with the Swedish turnip, it seems almost unac- 

 countable that it should not yet have come into 

 more general cultivation. I have grown the 

 common red sort for six, the sugar beet for four, 

 and the orange-globe for three years ; these 

 kinds have regularly come into course with 

 Swedes upon light land ; the product has al- 

 ways been equal, in most cases far heavier. 

 The Swedish turnip has enemies innumerable; 

 I have never observed the mangold wurzel 

 attacked either by fly, slug, or wireworm. 

 Equally a cleansing crop with the Swede, it 

 stores better, and lasts good for a longer period. 

 In the summer of this year I was using sugar 

 beet with stall-fed cattle, which cut perfectly 

 good and crisp in August. The mode of cul- 

 ture I adopt, up to depositing the seed in the 

 ground, is the same as that adopted in North- 

 umberland for ridging the Swede; great care, 

 however, must be taken that the seed of the 

 mangold wurzel is not buried too deep, or it 

 will not vegetate. Dibbling, as you never can 

 insure an equal depth, does not answer; nor does 

 the seed drill well, if properly prepared by steep- 

 ing, which I should recommend, for at least 24 

 hours before planting. To insure, therefore, 

 a proper depth, I have been in the habit of 

 using an iron wheel, round the outer circum- 

 ference of which, 18 inches apart, iron points 

 'project, broad at the base and tapering towards 

 the point, about 2 inches long ; this is wheeled 

 upon the top of the ridge, the man walking in 

 the furrow, and thus holes are formed which 

 can never run into the excess of great depth, and 

 into which the seeds are deposited by women 

 and boys following the wheel, and generally 

 covering the seed by drawing the foot as they 

 advance at right angles with the ridge over the 

 holes; the roller follows, and thus the sowing 

 terminates. One man with the wheel will 

 keep six persons well employed in depositing 

 the seed after him. This system was recom- 

 mended me by my friend Mr. Webb Hall, and 

 since I have adopted it my crop has never 

 failed. 



"The after-culture and the storing is similar 

 to that of the Swede; great care, however, 

 should be taken in never permitting two plants 

 to grow in the same spot, which will be the 

 case frequently, should only one capsule even 

 be deposited in each hole, as every capsule 

 768 



' contains many seeds. Should the tops remain 

 uncut, the plant will stand a considerable de- 

 | gree of frost; it should, however, be stored 

 early in November; the best and cheapest 

 method is to build it up against some high wall 

 contiguous to your beast sheds, not more than 

 7 or 8 feet deep, carried up square to a certain 

 height, and then tapering in a roof to the top 

 of the wall ; protect the sides with thatched 

 hurdles, leaving an interval between the roots 

 and the hurdles, which fill up with dry stub- 

 ble ; cover the roof with about a foot of the 

 same, and then thatch it, so as to conduct all 

 moisture well over the hurdles placed as a 

 protection to the sides. In pulling the plants 

 care should be taken that as little injury be 

 inflicted upon them as possible ; cleansing 

 with a knife should on no account be permit- 

 ted, and it is safer to leave some of the leaf on 

 than by cutting it too close to impair the crown 

 of the root. The drier the season is for stor- 

 ing the better, although I have never found the 

 roots decayed in the heap by the earth, which 

 in wet weather has been brought from the field, 

 adhering to them. As to the productiveness 

 of the different sorts, in one year I have grown 

 a larger quantity of sugar beet per acre, in an- 

 other of mangold wurzel; both these, however, 

 I consider exhaust the land in a greater degree 

 than the Swede; but I have formed a very high 

 opinion of the orange-globe, though not so large 

 a producer generally as the two other sorts ; it 

 appears always to throw at least two-thirds of 

 its weight above ground, neither -is its tap-root 

 larger nor its fibrous roots greater than those 

 of the Swede turnip. Care should be taken in 

 giving cattle every species of this root, as if 

 taken in excess it is apt to scour; indeed, from 

 the avidity with which cattle eat the sugar beet, 

 and from its viscous properties when quite fresh 

 from the ground, it should be stored so as to 

 come into consumption the last of the roots. 



"In feeding store cattle I should commence 

 with Swede turnip, proceed with the orange- 

 globe, then with mangold wurzel, and finish off 

 with the sugar beet; thus not only frequently 

 varying the food, but using them in the order 

 corresponding exactly with the nutritive mattei 1 

 contained in each description of plant. I have 

 found, indeed, equally with Lord Spencer, that 

 it will not do to return from any sort of man- 

 gold wurzel to Swede turnips, as even beasts 

 in the straw-yard have for two or three days 

 refused such a change. I may add that the 

 earlier in April your mangold wurzel is sown 

 the better, the deeper the Tilth the greater pro- 

 bability of a heavy crop, but that although both 

 the mangold wurzel and sugar beet require a 

 deeper and stronger land than the Swede 

 turnip, yet that the orange-globe will flourish 

 wherever the latter will succeed." 



Mangel wurzel may be grown on stiffer soils 

 than those adapted for the turnip, and it is bet- 

 ter food for milch cows, as it does not, like tur- 

 nips, give to the milk a taint. It cannot bear 

 the cold, however, so well as the Swedish 

 turnip, and hence is more cultivated in the 

 southern portions of England than in Scotland. 



Mr. W. Lester (Quar. Journ. of Agr. vol. iii. 

 p, 365) describes a method of making ale from 

 this root. 



