NO. 19. 



THE FARMERS CABINET. 



301 



Mangel Wiirtzel or Field Beet. 



A few remarks on the culture of this crop, 

 now the season has arrived for commencing it, 

 may not be unacceptable. 



THE SOIL 



Is best when a clayey loam ; but any soil 

 if ploughed deep and well manured will pro- 

 duce good crops, as the principal requisite is 

 depth and fertility. 



THE SOWING 



Should be done in the early part of May, 

 although it is frequently performed later. 

 Where the ground is very moist it should be 

 sown upon ridges; but in ordinary cases, it 

 succeeds best when planted in drills without 

 ridging. T. and II. Little, of Newbury Mass. 

 who raised upwards of thirty-three tons toone 

 acre, prepared the ground and sowed in the 

 follovvingmanner:— After one deep ploughing, 

 the ground was furrowed two and a half feet 

 apart, and the manure put into the furrows, 

 and covered with the plough ; a roller was 

 then passed on the top of the ridirethus formed, 

 to pulverize the lumps, level the surface, and 

 press the soil and manure together. The 

 seed were then dibbled with the finger over 

 the manure, about six or eight inches apart. 

 John Hare Povvel sowed his crop thus: — 

 " The holes for the seeds were made by a 

 wheel, containing pegs in its circumference, 

 which penetrated the ground about an inch, 

 leaving intervals of four inches ; the rows 

 were made two feet asunder; two capsules 

 [or berries] were dropped in each hole ; the 

 wheel of a common barrow was then passed 

 over them, thus compressing the earth, and 

 leaving a slight rut for the retention of mois- 

 ture." 



THE QUANTITY OF SEED 



Per acre should be about four pounds; for 

 although this is a large allowance, the ex- 

 pense is small when compared with the in- 

 surance of an even crop. Great care should 

 be taken that the seed of the common red 

 and white beet is not mixed with it. Unless 

 the ground be very moist, the seed, before 

 sowing, should be soaked about 48 hours in 

 soft water. After the plants have come up, 

 they should be thinned to about eight inches 

 distance from each other in the rows. 



THE AFTER CULTURE 



Consists principally in a free use of the cul- 

 tivator, and in keeping the land perfectly clear 

 of weeds. Col. Povvel ascribes his success in 

 the culture of this crop, to deep and thorough 

 ploughing; to the use of cultivators, which 

 complete the production of fine tilth ; to the 

 destruction of weeds on their first appearance; 

 to leaving the smallest space upon which a 

 Lorse can walk between the rows ; and above 



all, to planting the seeds of a proper kind 

 upon u surface which is kept perfectly fat. 

 (jideon B. !SiiiilhofIiultimor(},iii 1892, planted 

 one-sixtli of an acn; which had been intended 

 for early corn, and had been manured the pre- 

 vious year. The seed were sown in drills 

 two feet asunder, and eight inches apart in 

 the drills, and covered as corn. When the 

 plants were up, a weeding hoe was passed over 

 the field, and afterwards a small plough run 

 through it twice, clearing out the weeds witii 

 a hoe. This was all the cultivation it had; 

 and the whole labor, including the original 

 preparation of the ground, did not exceed two 

 full days work for one man. The crop was 

 upwards of seventy five bushels; and might 

 have been much larger, as there were many 

 vacant places of six or eight feet length in tiie 

 rows; and other places whore the roots were 

 injured by being crowded. The soil was a fair 

 medium mould, a mixture of clay, sand, and 

 vegetable matter.* 



THE PRODUCE PER ACRE, 



Under ordinary culture, may be estimated 

 at from six hundred to a thousand bushels. 

 Where, however, the ground is ploughed very 

 deep, well manured, and well cultivated, much 

 larger crops havebeenobtained,of which a few 

 instances are here given. 



Gideon Foster, of Charleston, Middlesex 

 county, Mass., raised forty-three tons to the 

 acre. 



The premium crop of Tristram and Henry 

 Little of Newbury,Mass., was 33 tons, lUcwt. 

 and 14 lbs. to an acre, or more than fourteen 

 hundred bushels. 



Col. Powel inclosed certificates to the 

 President of ihe Pennsylvania Agricultural 

 Society, showing that sixteen hundred and 

 thirty four bushels of mangel wurtzel, weigh- 

 ing seventy-eight thousand four hundred and 

 forty-eight pounds, were produced upon an 

 acre and fourteen perches ; and a part of the 

 same field containinir thirteen contitruons 

 rows, produced at the rate of two thousand 

 and sixty five bushels per acre, weighing 44 

 tons, 5 cwt. and 27 lbs, 



Henry Thompson of Baltimore, raised in 

 1833, on less than one-eleventh of an acre, 5 

 tons, 14 cwt. and 3 qrs., or at the rate af about 

 sixty tuns to the acre. 



In good land, single roots of the mangel 

 wurtzel often weigh nine or ten pounds, and 

 sometimes even fourteen or fifteen pounds 

 each; and J. A. Kcnrick of Newtown, Mass., 

 raised in 1833, a single root weighing no less 

 than thirty-six pounds.\ 



USES. 



This root is admirably adapted for feeding 

 nearly all domestic animals. It is the best of 

 known food for store swine ; and swine fatten 



*Am. far. vol, 15, p. 35. } N. £. Farmer. 



