214 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mat 



For Vic New Eni^hinil Furmer, 



C5ULTURE OP THE MANGOLD -WUIITZEL. 



BY HENRY F. FRENCH. 



Value of the MangoUl — Fed to Cows in the City of London— Cul- 

 ture in Lincolnshire, England — Culture in Ireland — Letter 

 from Mr. Boj-le, Farmer at the Albert Model Farm. 



In no single point did ray opinions meet with 

 a more decided change, in my wanderings last 

 summer in Europe, than with respect to the value 

 of the mangold wurtzel. My belief now is, 

 that we can cultivate no other root for stock so 

 profitably as this, and I hope the readers of the 

 Farmer will give it a fair trial the coming season. 



The results of careful inquiry in many places 

 in England and Ireland, and of observations in 

 Belgium and France, where the climate is hot and 

 dry in summer, may be given in a few lines. 

 The mangold is more easily cultivated and yields 

 a greater weight than any other. It is in gener- 

 al of about the value, bushel for bushel, with 

 Swede turnips, for all horned cattle. It is valu- 

 able for sheep, for horses and for swine. Many 

 English farmers consider the mangold equal in 

 value to carrots, bushel for bushel, for cows. 

 Swine, they say, will thrive well on them raw in 

 the spring and summer, and there is nothing so 

 profitable to raise for milch cows. All agree that 

 they should not be fed out until after Christmas. 

 Many say they are actually poisonous to cattle 

 in the fall. They doubtless undergo some rip- 

 ening process, like winter apples, after they are 

 taken from the ground, or some fermentation, 

 which adapts them to the wants of animals. — 

 Twenty-five or thirty tons of 2240 lbs. is a com- 

 mon crop to the acre in England. I think three 

 or four tons of them can be raised with the same 

 labor as one ton of carrots. There is nothing 

 that will stand a drought like the mangold. They 

 have been known frequently to strike to the bot- 

 tom of a four feet drain, and so have a good 

 chance to find all the water that is going. The 

 beet, of which the mangold is a huge variety, 

 thrives well in France, as is well known, and is 

 extensively cultivated for sugar. I observed 

 through both France and Belgium that the beet 

 endured drought better than Indian corn. In 

 our hot, dry summers, it must be our surest root 

 crop. I had always supposed it easily produced, 

 but not to be of much value. My attention was 

 first called to it in London, a strange place to 

 study the culture of root crops. 



In the midst of the fashion at the West End 

 in London, a sensitive and discriminating nose 

 may detect the rural flavor of the cow-house, I 

 soon found a stable near my boardin"--house of 

 three hundred and fifty cows. Visitino- them of- 

 ten, I took careful notes of the mode of keepin"-, 

 the structure of the stables, quantity of milk and 

 breed of animals, which I will advert to when 



there is room in the paper. All I wish to say 

 now, is, that I never saw a better collection of 

 cows, and that then, in the month of June, each 

 cow received three pecks daily of mangolds. 

 My inference is that if it is profitable to feed this 

 root to cows, in the city of London, in the sum- 

 mer, it must be profitable for farmers in the coun- 

 try to use it. 



Everywhere I heard the same opinion, and 

 made it a subject of conversation often, that I 

 might not mistake the opinion of a few for pub- 

 lic sentiment. In July, I passed a week Avith 

 Ralph Lowe, Esq., of Brauncewell Manor, in 

 Lincolnshire, and found that he and all the other 

 good farmers of one of the best farmed districts 

 in England thought very highly of the mangold. 

 So after dinner one day, I took my pen and note- 

 book, and asked him to give me careful direc- 

 tions how to cultivate the crop in his country. 

 Mr. Lowe is as reliable as any man in England, 

 and his mode is correct for his district, and a lit- 

 tle Yankee shrewdness may adapt it to America. 

 I give the directions almost verbatim, as I re- 

 corded them that pleasant summer evening, in 

 "Merrie England." 



"Take dry land, well drained, — not clay, — that 

 will work fine, say after wheat. Manure with 

 twelve tons of good manure to the acre, at least, 

 and the more the better. Plow it in six inches, 

 and leave it till spring ; then when dry enough, 

 harrow deep, roll and work fine with plow and 

 harrow. Sow broadcast at least 560 lbs. of salt, 

 twice the quantity is better. Throw into ridges 

 twenty-seven inches apart with a common plow. 

 Soak the seed eighteen hours in water, and lay 

 on a dry cloth twenty-four hours. Drill with a 

 hand-drill three to six pounds of seed to the acre. 

 Examine and see if the seed is sound or has been 

 eaten by an insect. Drill 100 lbs. of super- 

 phosphate with ashes, the more the better, with 

 the seed on the ridge, the ridge having been first 

 rolled lightly to flatten it. Sow one inch deep, 

 by hand, drop the seed six inches apart. Hoe as 

 soon as up — thin out to one foot apart. Horse 

 hoe and keep clean. Look over and be sure to 

 have but one plant in a place. 



In October or November gather without break- 

 ing the skin, cut or twist ofi' the top an inch 

 above the root, remove the earth with a dull in- 

 strument, so as not to cut the root. They are 

 usually stacked and covered with straw and earth 

 in England, but will probably (says Mr. Lowe,) 

 keep like potatoes anywhere. Average crop, 26 

 to 30 tons of 2240 lbs. to the acre. Spread the 

 leaves evenly over the ground, and plow in. By 

 no means remove them from the land. Do not 

 feed out till February, because the mangold is 

 poisonous early in the season, and will scour the 

 cattle and do them no good." 



