318 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



APRIL 17, 1833. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 17, 1R33. 



FARMER'S AND GARDENER'S WORK 



Mangel TVurtzel or F^eld Beet. The species of 

 beet called IMangel Wurtzel is probably one of the 

 best, if not absolutely the most valuable root for 

 field cultivation which modern husbandry has ap- 

 plied to the feeding of cattle. Among its reputed 

 excellences are numbered that of its being a very 

 sure crop, as the plant will endure the driest 

 weather with less injury than most plants, its af- 

 fording not only a greater quantity of produce, but 

 more nourishment in proportion to its weight than 

 any known root, excepting the potato, and some 

 other varieties of the beet, which do not grow so 

 large nor yield so much to the acre. 



The field beet is sometimes called the root of 

 scarcity, but Loudon says it is incorrect to give it 

 that name. " It is supposed by ProfessorTliaer to 

 be a mongrel between the red and white beet. It 

 has a much larger bulb than either, and that bulb, 

 in some varieties, grows in great part above 

 ground. It has been a good deal cultivated in 

 Germany and Switzerland, both for its leaves and 

 roots ; the leaves are either used as spinach or 

 given to cattle ; and the roots are either given to 

 cattle, used in distillation, or for extracting sugar 

 The variety preferred in Germany is one slightly aftejwards.^ 

 tinged with red for cattle, and the pale yellow va- 

 riety for the distillery and sugar mauufacturc. 

 The seed must not exceed a year old, and great 

 care should be taken that the seed of the common 

 red and white beet are not mixed with it. The 

 seed of every variety of beet is very apt to degen- 

 erate." 



Soil. The soil in which this root thrives best is 

 a deep, rich loam, inclining to clay. The more 

 the land is manured and cultivated, the better the 

 plants. The soil should be made fine to a good 

 depth. 



(Quantity of seed, and its preparation for sowing. 

 The quantity of seed, according to English writers, 

 is four pounds to an acre. This is said to be rath- 

 er a large, allowance. Some cultivators recom- 

 mend to prepare the seed for sowing by soaking 

 it for six hours in soft water. This may not be 

 necessary except the land is very dry, at the time 

 of sowing. 



Time and manner of solving. For field crops 

 the following methods and times have been adopt 



from Southbridge, Conn, in giving an account ot a 

 crop' of Mangel Wurtzelj which he raised in 1829, 

 says " the ground, one fourth of an acre, was 

 ploughed three times last spring, once rather deep- 

 er than usual, harrowed and rolled, then furrowed 

 three feet apart ; but it ought to have been but 

 two; and about ten loads of compost manure put 

 in the furrow, which was composed of about equal 

 parts of argillaceous [clayey] cleanings of ditches, 

 barn yard and barn window dung, heaped and fer. 

 inented together. The manure was then covered 

 by ploughing back furrows on the same, leaving 

 the land in high ridges. I then passed a heavy 

 ox roller over the ridges cross-wise, which laid 

 them in gentle swells, and compressed the soil 

 and manure together. (The roller can hardly be 

 dispensed with if you wish your soil reduced to 

 tine tilth, and you cannot reasonably expect to 

 succeed without.) About the 12th of May the 

 land was planted in the following manner — first a 

 wheel made to fit the place of a common wheel- 

 barrow wheel, with pegs, in its circumference 

 about 2i inches long was run upon the ridges, 

 making holes about four inches apart; and one 

 capsule or berry was dropped in each, and the 

 earth pressed upon them. At the second hoeing, 

 the plants were thinned, and left about eight 

 inches apart in the rows, and were hoed but once 



Sugar Beet. A writer for the New England 

 Farmer, with the signature E. B. whose connnu- 

 nication is dated Concord, Mass, Jan. 23,1830, pre- 

 fers the Sugar Beet to the genuine mangel wurtzel, 

 and recommends it as "aflx)rding a bountiful croj) 

 of large sound roots, which, if not so large as the 

 mangel wurtzel, I think are heavier, and will keep 

 better. Their use as food by my cows has pro- 

 duced a decided improvement in the quality of 

 their milk, which has been perceptible to all my 

 family, in two days after I began to feed them out 

 to my cows."t 



John Trincc, Esq. of Roxbury, has had much 

 experience in cultivating both the mangel wurtzel 

 and sugar beet, and we believe prefers the latter. 

 Its crop is not so bulky, but is not only sweeter 

 and more nutritive but may be preserved with 

 more facility from decay or deterioration. 



Dandelion. We believe that this well known 

 vegetable might be ameliorated by cultivation, and 

 be made a valuable product of our gardens. Tlie 

 Hon. H. A. S.Dearborn, some years since, in 31ay, 



ed by successful cultivators. Mr. Gideon Foster ^^^^ out two rows of dandelions, which were taken 

 in giving an account of his premium crop, raised "P "'^^^^ >" 1''°°"' <'°'" ^™^ "^ ^'"'^ *° ^° '' ''*'- 

 1830, says "Early in Jlay there was spread on an | '""i'^' P'''"^«'l '' ''""^ apait, and the rows two feet 



asunder, and about one hundred feet in length. 

 "The leaves all perished, but having hoed the 

 earth upon the roots, others sprung up in a few 

 days, and continued to grow luxuriantly until au- 

 tumn, and covered all the space between the 

 plants. Just before the ground froze, straw was 



spread over them. In February they were open- 

 ed, and my table has been supplied with abun- 

 dance of greens and salads since. They have been 

 cut four times [previous to May 7,] and some of 

 them five. The rapidity with wliich the leaves 

 shoot out after cutting, is greater than in any plant 

 I have ever seen. Some of them were covered with 

 flower pots, after the fourth cutting, to blanch the 

 leaves for salad, and they are nearly or quite equal 

 to endive. In five days after the pots were put 

 over, the leaves, which had previously been cut 

 close to the crown of the root, shot up five inches in 

 height. 



" I kei)t the ground, which is very rich, hoed 

 and raked between the plants, during the last sea- 

 son and the present." 



" Thus, at little trouble and expense, can a fam- 

 ily be supplied with greens and salad from Februa- 

 ry until sea-kale and asparagus come in." 



They may be set out, at any time after the 

 frost is out of the ground; but the present, [May 

 7,] answers perfectly well. I would recommend 

 that the rows be three feet asunder, and the plants 

 two feet apart hi the rows ; for I find mine are 

 too crowded, as each plant, last autumn, covered 

 an area of from fifteen to seventeen inches in di- 

 ameter." 



The culture of the dandelion is desirable on ac- 

 count of its medical as well as its esculent proper- 

 ties. A writer for the National Intelligencer, who 

 appears to be a medical man, observes that " Dan- 

 delions have always been considered peculiarly 

 useful in visceral obstructions, particularly those 

 of the liver, when eaten either as greens, salads, or 

 taken as ptisans. — They seem calculated from their 

 stimulant deobstruent powers to promote bilious 

 discharges, and from long experience have been 

 found highly efficacious in all biliary affections of 

 the liver. They are also good to keep the body 

 open and are diuretic and attenuant. In the drop- 

 sy, tlie dandelion has been known for ages to be 

 of great utility. The ancients, says Willich, were 

 better acquainted with the properties of this excel- 

 lent vegetable than those modern practitioners who 

 appear to be more anxious to intro<luce exotics, im- 

 ported from distant countries, than to ascertain the 

 qualities of those numerous medical plants, which 

 grow in our own climate. I advise all who are 

 troubled with bile, flatulencies, fulness of blood, 

 and who are fearful of dropsy, vertigo, &c. to 

 make free use of this precious gift of nature the 

 dandelion." 



acre of ground about eight cords of compost ma- 

 nure, and ploughed in to the depth of eight inches, 

 and harrowed in the usual way. About the 12th 



of May, 1 sowed the seed in rows by hand twenty 



two inches apart."* 



A writer with the signature E. D. A. who dates 



*See N. E. Farmer, vol. ix. p. aS4. 



*See N. E. Farmer, vol. viii. p. 138. 

 t Ibid. p. 222. 



RHODE ISLAND CLASSICAL, AGRICULTU- 

 RAL AND MECHANICAL SCHOOL. 



In another part of this day's paper we have giv- 

 en a Prospectus of the Manual Labor School, ahoM 

 to be established in Rhode Island. We here beg 

 leave to express our high opinion of the system on 

 which the proposed institution will be founded, 

 and our best wishes as well as confident hopes of 

 its success, A sound body, as well as a sound 

 mind, is necessary to constitute that "worth 



