CHAP. in. MANURES FOR MANGEL. 1021 



per acre being used, while on soils containing a sufficiency of lime, 8 

 to 5 cwt. per acre of superphosphate may be applied, the manure in 

 either case being added at the time of drilling preferably with or 

 immediately under the seed. 



When plenty of dung has been used, turnips do not as a rule pay for 

 artificial nitrogenous manuring, but when only a half dressing of dung 

 has been given, 1 cwt. of nitrate of soda per acre may be thrown along 

 between the rows just after hoeing out or " singling." 



MANGEL. Mangel will not pay for phosphatic manure as turnips do, 

 and on good soils, when a heavy dressing of dung has been applied, 

 phosphates are probably superfluous. When, however, only 10 or 12 

 tons of dung have been used, or less, phosphatic manure should be 

 applied. On land containing plenty of lime, 3 cwt. per acre of super- 

 phosphate or dissolved bone compound will suffice, or on land poor in 

 lime 5 or 6 cwt. of basic slag, or 3 to 4 cwt. of phosphatic Peruvian 

 guano or fine bone-meal. 



But in all cases plenty of nitrogenous manure should be used, the 

 best form being nitrate of soda. Mangel is much more responsive to 

 the action of nitrate of soda than is generally supposed, and as much 

 as 3 or 4 cwt. per acre may be advantageously applied to this crop, in 

 conjunction with dung and other artificials. If a very heavy dressing 

 of dung is put on for mangel, probably 2 cwt. of nitrate per acre will 

 be sufficient to increase the crop to a maximum. With a moderate 

 dressing of dung 4 cwt. of nitrate may be applied. We are aware that 

 a dressing of 4 cwt. of nitrate of soda for a root crop will be regarded 

 as suspiciously high by many who have not tried its effects, on the 

 ground that it will cause " bolting," or an over-growth of top, or that, 

 even if this does not occur, the growth of an unusually heavy mangel 

 crop by its use will leave the land impoverished for the next crop. 

 The first objection is entirely got over if the nitrate is put on in 

 successive doses and not all at once 1 cwt. being sown before the 

 seed, 1 cwt. at the time of singling out, and the remaining 2 cwt. in 

 two more applications a month apart, the nitrate being simply thrown 

 along by hand between the rows. In this way the crop is supplied 

 with several instalments of concentrated food, and its growth is pro- 

 longed and healthily encouraged. 



The objection that a heavy root crop thus grown is unduly 

 exhaustive, has been experimentally met with a direct negative. For 

 several years past in Essex mangel has been grown with varying 

 dressings of nitrate and guano, and carted off the field, which has 

 next year been sown with oats grown without any manure at all. 

 Each plot of oats has been, like the preceding roots, carefully weighed, 

 and when the results were compared, it was almost invariably found 

 that the plots on which the mangel has been most heavily manured 

 (with what are very erroneously called "stimulating" manures), and 

 where the heaviest roots were consequently grown, were just the 

 plots which in the following year, without further manure, produced 

 the heaviest oat crops, as regards both grain and straw. So far 



