No. 12. 



Potatoes, Beets, Carrots, Parsnips 



373 



a ridge, passes down in the furrow with a 

 miner, that he may loosen and deepen it. A 

 miner is simply the colter of a plousfh, with- 

 out the mould-board. He speaks of this as 

 being attended with great advantage. No 

 machine has yet been invented which may 

 be safely trusted to drop the seed. A wheel 

 with pegs of about two inches in length, 

 and six inches apart, upon the outside of the 

 wheel, which shall make holes in the ground 

 as the wheel revolves, handles like those of 

 a wheel-barrow being attached to it, is used 

 to dibble the land, into which children, who 

 follow, drop the seed, one being sufficient in 

 each hole, as every capsule in fact contains 

 four seeds. The seeds are then covered with 

 the head of a rake or with the hand. The 

 land between the rows should be kept loose 

 by ploughing, and thrown upon the rows, 

 but not upon the plants, whose nature it is 

 to gfrow much out of ground. In the latter 

 part of the season, the under leaves may be 

 gathered and fed to milch cows, or sheep, or 

 swine, with great advantage to the consumer, 

 and where the crown is left unbroken and 

 only the lower leaves taken, without injury 

 to the producer. 



Reports have been furnished me of crops 

 of fifly-eight tons per acre, and in other 

 cases, of forty-eight tons, and fifty-six tons, 

 per acre ; this, of course, after they were 

 topped and cleaned. These, however, are 

 very extraordinary crops, the common yield 

 being about thirty tons. They are much 

 valued for milch cows, and for fatting cattle. 

 Experiments have been made to test the 

 value of mangel-wurzel compared with 

 Swede turnips in the fattening of cattle. 

 The experiments which have come under 

 my knowledge — the estimate of the increase 

 of weight of the animals experimented upon 

 having been made from external measure- 

 ment, and not in scales — do not appear to 

 me decisive, but only indicative of consider- 

 able superiority in fattening properties of the 

 mangel-wurzel over the Swedes. The yield 

 of mangel-wurzel, per acre, under good cul- 

 tivation, is considerably greater. Caution is 

 to be used in giving them to milch cows, as 

 they are apt to produce scouring. IVom 

 this effect I have suffered in the free use of 

 them with my own cows. It is strongly ad- 

 vised, likewise, not to use them until the 

 spring or late in the winter; and I have 

 known farmers to keep them sound and fresh 

 into August. They are considered as not 

 unfavourable to wheat, which may be sowed 

 after them. The seed of the beet should be 

 well soaked before sowing; and it is advised, 

 in the event of transplanting them to fill up 

 vacancies, not to place the plant lower in 

 the ground than it formerly stood, as other- 



wise, if planted to the top, it will send out 

 shoots from the top, and become scraggy or 

 forked. 



Carrots are cultivated to some extent, and 

 much valued. There is nothing, however, 

 peculiar in the cultivation. The land should 

 be deeply ploughed and highly manured. 

 They are u.sually cultivated on a flat sur- 

 face ; but I am satisfied that the ridge culti- 

 vation at a distance of two feet, so as to 

 plough between them, would be far prefer- 

 able. The seed should be sprouted befbre 

 sowing and mixed with sand, in order to 

 avoid its being sown too thickly. If sowed 

 on ridges, they will be much more easily 

 cultivated and kept clean; and they should 

 be thinned out to the distance of six inches 

 apart. The Belgian white carrot has come 

 greatly into favour in England. A distin- 

 guished farmer, in whose authority I place 

 the utmost confidence, pronounces it as thir- 

 ty per cent, more productive than the com- 

 mon carrots; and I met with an eminent 

 farmer who had grown thirty-one tons se- 

 venteen hundred weight upon an acre, and 

 whose crops averaged twenty-four tons per 

 acre. Another farmer informed me, that he 

 usually obtained twenty-five tons per acre. 

 A farmer, at Birkenhead, near Liverpool, 

 who is laying the foundation of one of the 

 most splendid agricultural establishments in 

 England, and whom I had the pleasure of 

 visiting, obtained a crop of a hundred tons 

 from three acres. Much of this was due to 

 the liberal application of guano. Another 

 farmer reports having grown upon four acres 

 four thousand eight hundred bushels of the 

 white carrot, or twelve hundred bushels per 

 acre, which he fed to his horses, ten pounds 

 each per day, and to his neat cattle, with 

 very great advantage. A strong prejudice 

 exists against the use of white carrots for 

 horses, as injuring their eyes; and the farmer 

 first mentioned above thinks it not without 

 foundation, believing that his own horses 

 had sufl^ered from that cause. 

 I With respect to the common red beet, or 

 [the sugar beet, and the parsnip, I have not 

 seen them under field cultivation in Eng- 

 land, though the parsnip is said to be largely 

 'cultivated, as feed for stock, in the channel 

 [islands. The sugar beet is reported to yield 

 abundantly, and to furnish a more nutritious 

 I food, better for fattening, and for milch cows, 

 jthan the mangel-wurzel; yet the former has 

 jnot supplanted the latter. The Jerusalem 

 artichoke is often served at table, and is ap- 

 ! proved by many as food for stock, but is not 

 'so palatable or so nutritious as the potatoe. 

 I It grows, however, without much care, and 

 jin almost any ground, besides continuing it- 

 jself in the ground from year to year. Un- 



