42 CARROTS, MANGOLDS AND SUGAR UEETS. 



ive quantity of rich dung is the comparatively large amount 

 of ammonial and nitrogenous constituents in the dung; for 

 numerous field experiments have shown that the peculiar ten- 

 dency of ammonia salts, and of readily available nitrogenous 

 substances is to induce luxuriant leaf-development and vig- 

 orous and prolonged growth, which results frequently in a 

 more or less immature condition of the roots. There is thus 

 danger of over-manuring crops ; and the desire to produce 

 heavy crops of Mangolds not unfrequently leads practical 

 men not to appreciate sufficiently this danger. It is quite 

 true Mangolds are very greedy feeders, and no doubt some 

 soils will swallow up almost any amount of dung ; but at the 

 same time it has to be borne in mind that all land is not 

 alike, and that there are many naturally rich clay loams con- 

 taining immense stores of plant food, which requires only to 

 be brought into play by good cultivation in order to become 

 available to plants. I am much inclined to think that it is a 

 mistake to manure soils of the latter description too liberally 

 with dung, even for Mangolds, and that in many cases a 

 more economical result, and certainly a Letter quality of 

 Mangolds, although not so heavy a crop, would be given, if, 

 instead of all the enormous dressings of dung which are 

 often applied to that crop, the land were manured in Autumn 

 with only half the quantity of dung, and the seed drilled in 

 with three to four cwt. of superphosphate or dissolved bones, 

 which manures, as we shall see presently have a tendency to 

 produce early maturity in roots. We frequently hear of 

 complaints that Mangolds scour, or do not keep well. Com- 

 plaints of this kind are only the expressions in other words 

 for the immature condition of the roots, and in many cases 

 the cause of this undesirable condition has to be sought in 

 the excessive amount of ammonial or nitrogenous constitu- 

 ents which are applied to the Mangolds in the shape of 

 heavy dressings of dung. The same remarks apply with 



