THE MANGOLD CROP. 207 



favorable, they grow very rapidly, and do not require more 

 than two weedings. They soon cover the ground with their 

 tops, and then there is no further trouble. This root is very 

 sensitive to freezing, and should not be left out to be touched 

 with frost. It is a good plan to pull them and wring the tops 

 off. A knife should never be used in topping them, but the 

 tops should be wrung off by hand, and the beets laid in a pile 

 in the field. Cover them up with the tops a few days, to dry 

 them a little, and then they may be put into the root-cellar. 

 They keep remarkably well, and they are very valuable for 

 feeding. I will tell you one fact in regard to mangolds, that, 

 perhaps, many of you know. You may feed them, uncooked, 

 to store-hogs, such as breeding-sows, etc., all winter long, 

 giving them nothing else, and they will grow and thrive well, 

 and be in good condition in the spring. I have myself, for 

 years, given them nothing else, except the slops from the 

 house. If you get fifty tons to the acre, or even if you do 

 not get more than thirty, you are getting a vast amount of 

 food from a little land. It is a crop, too, that will always sell 

 readily in the market. We are selling them for from $10 to 

 $13 a ton. They bring a better price than carrots, and do 

 not require half the labor to raise them. It is a very valuable 

 crop, but I do not think mangolds are worth $13 a ton to 

 farmers to feed out, and when you can get that for them, you 

 had better sell them. I suppose if you farmers should all go 

 to raising them, I should not be able to sell any more. I 

 would recommend green manure for this vegetable, but not 

 for others. 



Question. How applied? 



Mr. Ware. Spread on and ploughed in. 



Dr. Wakefield. How thick do you plant them? 



Mr. Ware. In rows, twenty-two inches apart, and leave 

 them in the rows, when thinned out, eight or ten inches 

 apart. 



Mr. Cheever. Don't you find it rather difficult to sow 

 beet-seed with that brush seed-sower ? It troubles me more 

 than any other machine. 



Mr. Ware. Not at all. I will go on now to the cabbage 

 crop. I hold in my hand a very good specimen of the Stone- 

 Mason cabbage. It is not a large specimen, by any means; 



