•284 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



March 23, 1831. 



ina-isiLys'iirai'awajiSa 



REPORTS 



AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY IN 1830. 

 ConlinueJ frora page 261. 



MANGEL WURTZEL. 



5. The committee take pleasure iu recommeud- 

 ins the premium of §20 to be paid to Mr Gideon 

 Foster, of Charlestown, Middlesex County, for 

 his admirable crop of mangel wurtzel. If so 

 large a quantity of tliis valuable vegetable has been 

 raised by any one in this country, on an acre, it 

 has escaped the notice of the committee. The 

 largest amount that has been presented on any 

 former occasion, was it is believed by Messrs T. 

 and H. Little, of Newbury, which fell a little short 

 of 1000 bushels. It will be seen by Mr Foster's 

 well prepared statement, that, measurinsr by cart 

 loads, he had 1413 bushels, — tliat weighing 

 by the cart load, and taking the standard weight 

 of 56 lbs. the bushel, he had 1542 bushels, or 

 86,455 pounds, upwards of 43 net tons. — For 

 this premium there has been no other claimant but 

 the comimittee hope and believe, that it is not hence 

 to be inferred that our farmers do not generally 

 raise more or less of the mangel wurtzel. On the 

 contrary they are led to think,that if ag regards most 

 of those vegetables for cattle, a half acre had been 

 proposed insteadof a whole one, there would have 

 been niimerous competitors. It may be thought 

 advisable, another year, not to insist on an acre 

 and to have several premiujns for the same article. 

 Considering the length of our winters in this 

 northern climate, — that oin- stock must be fed 

 from the barn from the middle of November to 

 the middle of May, six months, — how important 

 and desirable is it that we should feed our cattle 

 oa something besidcsdry fodder — some food which 

 is, at the same time, succulent and nutritious. No 

 climate is better adapted than ours for mangel 

 wurtzel, sugar beets, (the most nutritious of the 

 two, and about equally productive,) ruta baga, 

 common turnips, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, — and 

 of all these,^;a'.tle are very fond, and most, if not 

 allof tl'.em, f^rw the most wholesome and favorite 

 food of sheep and swine. Consider the value 

 of those crops, too, by the acre, compared with 

 hay, and that any season good for hay will be 

 good for them. Perhaps it may be truly said, that 

 there is as little uncertainty of a good crop of 

 corn and potatoes as of hay. From the claims 

 exhibited in this report, it will be found that of 

 mangel wurtzel there has been produced 43 tons 

 to the acre, of ruta baga 25, of potatoes nearly 18 

 tons. Of sugar beets, carrots and turnips, it is pre- 

 sumed the same quantities can be raised as of 

 potatoes or ruta baga: of parsnips not so much ; 

 but this last vegetable is the sweetest of all. These 

 ere prodigious crops, such as may not, in common 

 seasons, be generally or often realized ; but sup- 

 posing one half, or one third as much can be pro- 

 duced, what stronger inducement can be offered 

 to every fiirmer to turn his aitenlion to these 

 things? On our farms, v/e rarely have more than 

 a ton and a half or two tons of hay on an acre, 

 and though it is not pretended that more labor is 

 not wanted to raise vegetables than hay, and more 

 manure and particular care, yet as a preparation of 

 the ground for hay, and as forming a most grateful 

 variety in the food of animals, and considering 

 the prodigious difference in weight of erop,who can 

 possibly doubt its being better to put a small 



portion of our grounds into this kind of culture.' 

 We have generally, it it believed, had the iilea that 

 much more labor and skill are necessary in culti- 

 vating mangel wurtzel, sugar beets, and ruta baga, 

 than for corn and potatoes. This notion is natural 

 enough, because we have attended to the latter 

 much more than the former. But we have, in 

 this report, as we had in the report of the last 

 year, the testimony of a practical and nice ob- 

 server, Mr Colman, who, in speaking this year of 

 ruta baga, says — ' The whole, from the sowing to 

 the gathering, was not two thirds of the labor usu- 

 ally bestowed on planting, cultivating and gath- 

 ering an acre of potatoes.' E. IT. Derby, Esq. a 

 man of experience in these things, says, in 1825, 

 that ' cabbages, turnips, mangel wurtzel, sugar 

 beets, are all raised at as little expense as potatoes.' 

 If all this be true of potatoes, it certaiidy may 

 witli truth, be said of Indian corn. We have the 

 opinion of Mr Colman, which is worthy of notice, 

 as to the value of ruta baga for fatting or for store 

 cattle. 



The following is an account of the culture and product 

 of one acre of Mangel Wurtzel raised by Gideon 

 Foster, of Charlestown in the County of Middlesex, 

 Massachuseits. 



The .soil is a black loam with a clay bottom, in- 

 clining six degrees to the northeast. In 1829, 

 three fourths of the same was planted with pota- 

 toes, with a moderate supply of manure in the 

 hills and yielded an ordinary crop ; the residue 

 was in mangel wurtzel and grass. Early in the 

 month of May of the present year, there was 

 spread on said land about eight cords of compost 

 manure, and ploughed to the depth of eight inch- 

 es, and harrowed in the usual way. About the 

 12th of May, 1 sowed the seed iu rows by hand, 

 twentytwo inches apart. I thinned them from 8 

 to 12 inches apart in the rows, when they became 

 the size of .1 goose quill. I should have preferred 

 an earlier period for this part of the cultivation 

 had it not been for the threatened destruction by 

 the wire worms, which were then numerous. 

 Nothing more was necessary in point of cultiva- 

 tion to perfect the crop, but to keep the soil loose 

 about the roots, and the laml clear of weeds, 

 which was ])rincipally done with scufHing hoes, 

 e.xcept frequent cropping of the under leaves, by 

 which I obtained treble benefit. 1st, by obtaining 

 an excellent food for swine and horneil cattle ; 

 2d, by admitting tlie sun and air to the roots ; 3d, 

 by removing them near to the crown, about the 

 middle of September, which gave tiiem time to 

 heal, so that on harvesting they are found to be in 

 a sound and healthy state for preserving them 

 through the winter. 



They were harvested in the 3d week of Octo- 

 ber. The roots were measured in a wagon body 

 that held twentythree bushels by accvirate meas- 

 urement. This measure was filled 61 times, and 

 there were 10 bushels over. The wagon body 

 was then placed on its wheels and twice filled (<.o 

 the judgment of those of us present) as formerly, 

 and weighed at the patent scales of D. Devens, 

 Esq. of this town. The average weight of which 

 was as per tickets annexed, 141 5.V lbs. m aking 

 1433 bushels or 86,961 lbs. or 43 tons, 961 lbs. 



It was observed by agriculturists vvlio inspected 

 the fielil, that much of its beauty consisted in the 

 uniformity of the size of the roots, none of them 

 being so large as have been raised by other.s, while 

 very few of them were small. The largest that 

 I have known to have been measured, being 2.5.i 

 inches. in circumference. 



The actual expense of raising said crop, I esti- 

 mate to be 35 dollai-s. Gideon Foster. 

 Charkstown, Abu. 30, 1830. 



RDTABAOA. 



6. Rev. Henry Colman, whose farm is in Lynn, 

 Essex County, is entitled to the premium of $20 

 for his fine crop of ruta baga — 741 bushels on an 

 acre, weighing 68^ lbs. a bushel, being about 25 

 tons and a half. 



To ihe Commitiee nf tlic Massachuseits Asriculuiral Socicly 

 on Agricultural t^xperiiiieiits-. 



Ge.ntleme.v — Accompanying this you have the 

 certificates of a crop of Ruta Baga raised this 

 year on my farm in Lynn. From these it wilt 

 ap[)ear that on an acre, measured by a sworn 

 surveyor, on one side of the field, there were 

 gathered 741 baskets full ; and that forty baskets 

 of the above named, weighed at the town scales' 

 2750 lbs. net weight. This, allowing 56 lbs. to a 

 bushel, the standard weight assumed by the Soci- 

 ety, would give a crop of 903 bushels to the acre. 



Tlie turnips were planted on the 29th of June 

 and 2d of July ; about one pound and a half of 

 seed was used for the acre ; and they were gather- 

 ed and stored in cellars and in the barn iu the last 

 part of November. 



The ground on which they grew is a good soil . 

 neitlier wet nor dry, and bore the last year an 

 abundant crop of onions, and corn the year pre- 

 ceding the last. It was well manured at l>oth 

 times and in fine tilth. It was manured with at 

 least six cords to the acre of barn manure the 

 last spring and sowed again to onions ; but the 

 seed entirely failing, it was ploughed, harrowed, 

 furrows struck out, and about eight cords of barn 

 manure spread in the furrows ; ploughed again 

 so as by aback furrow to form a ridge over the 

 manure, and the seed sown with a small drill 

 harrow on the ridges, making the rows about 

 twenty inches asunder. As soon as the plants 

 were of sufficient size, a drill harrow, with smalt 

 shares fixed to it, to cut off all tlie weeds was pas- 

 sed through the rows ; and the plants thinned 

 with a small weeding hoe to the distance of about 

 eight inches apart, and the vacant places filled up 

 by transplanting from the supernumerary plants. 

 They were once more harrowed and cleaned, 

 which was a very small labor ; and owing to the 

 very unpropitious weather, were not harvested 

 until very late. Some of them were very large ; 

 one weighed 15 lbs. and many were nearly as 

 large. The exact expense of cultivating the acre 

 cannot be estimated, as it was intermixed with 

 other farm work ; but the whole from the sowing 

 to the gathering, was not two thirds of the labor 

 usually bestowed on planting, cultivating, and 

 ga;hering an acre of potatoes. 



My Swedish Turnips the last year, of which I 

 raised considerable quantities, were fed off to my 

 oxen, dry cows, young stock, and fatting slieep. 

 To the cattle they were of very great advantage; 

 and for feeding sheep, they proved the last year, 

 by an accurate account, worth from ten to twelve 

 and half cents per bushel. The man who bali I 

 the care of my stock considers them as among the | 

 most profitable feed, which can be given either to 

 fatting or to store cattle. Three years' experi- 

 ment has increased their value very much for 

 these purposes in my own estimation. 



I am, gentlemen, very respectfully yours, 



H^BY Colman. 



Salem, Dec. 1st, 1830. 



i\ 



