184 MANGEL WURZEL. 



To have the benefit of transplanting, without sus- 

 taining any loss, its proper use is merely to fill any 

 blanks that may occur and for this purpose a 

 small bed should be sown a week earlier than the 

 main crop. 



For the principal sowing, let the ground be dug 

 or ploughed with manure before winter; for this 

 plant, like radish, carrot, or red beet, does not agree 

 with dung newly deposited. Let the soil be deeply 

 stirred up in spring, and, if too shallow, drawn into 

 high drills two feet apart. In plough management, 

 first make a set of drills, and then reverse them. 

 This double operation is only equal to one plough- 

 ing, but it leaves the ground in drills, and every 

 inch has been turned and loosened. In the dryest 

 weather as near the beginning of April as may be, 

 slightly rake or smooth with the harrow the tops of 

 the drills, on the summit of which sow thin and 

 regular, in small ruts two inches deep; the drills 

 to be afterwards thinned out to the distance of one 

 foot or fifteen inches, according to the strength of 

 the soil. In preparing seedlings for transplanting, 

 they may be cropped as to the leaves; but the tap- 

 root must not be touched, but let down at full 

 length, leaving the upper part of the roof a little 

 above the surface of the ground, according to the 

 natural growth of the plant. The fittest season 

 is in showery weather, and when the seedlings are 

 the thickness of a writing quill. From this crop 

 a profusion of leaves may be gathered for cows in 

 the course of the summer without injury to the 

 growing plants. 



