AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 261 



these roots at each time, together with four pounds of hay or 

 chopped straw, will give as much and as good milk as in 

 summer, and they will be kept in the best possible stute. 



' " Oxen fed with forty weight of these roots per day, with 

 ten pounds of hay, for one month, and after that with fifty 

 weight per day of the roots alone, will be fat enough for sale 

 in two months more. 



' " Any person disposed may, from the facts above stated, 

 calculate how many cattle will be supported by a single acre 

 of land on which this plant is cultivated. 



*" Man can eat this vegetable throughout the year; it is 

 agreeable and healthy. No insect attacks it, and it suffers 

 but little from the variety of the seasons. The leaves of 

 this plant form alone an excellent food for every species of 

 domestic quadruped, during four months in the year. Tur- 

 nips and other vegetables are, besides, liable to be destroyed 

 by insects, whereas this beet is not. The roots can be pre- 

 served eight months in a sound state, while turnips are of 

 little value after March. In some soils turnips will not grow, 

 particularly in those which are very stiff or strong. The 

 root of scarcity grows everywhere. The milk of cows fed 

 on turnips has a bad taste ; that of those fed on this plant 

 is excellent, as is also the butter made from it. This forage 

 on green fodder comes also at the hot seasons, when almost 

 all other green food is scarce, and sometimes not to be pro- 

 cured. Cattle never get tired of it. In many parts of Ger- 

 many, where it is raised with success, they prefer it to every 

 thing else to fatten those large herds of cattle which they 

 annually export to France. In feeding cattle with beets, the 

 same dry food must be given which is usually given with 

 turnips," 



' Colonel Powel observes, " My neat cattle prefer mangel- 

 wurtzel to any roots which I have offered to them. I have 

 found its effects in producing large secretions oi good milk 

 very great. I selected, in November, two heifers of the 

 same breed, and very nearly of the same age, and in similar 

 condition ; they were fed in adjoining stalls, and have been 

 fed regularly three times a day, by the same man. One of 

 them has had three pecks of mangel-wurtzel and four quarts 

 of corn-meal daily ; the other, four and a half pecks of 

 mangel-wurtzel. The last, which has had mangel-wurtzel 

 alone, is in the condition of good beef; the other is not more 

 than what graziers call half fat. 



* " The application of mangel-wurtzel as food for sheep is 



