192 THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 



whether it is good policy killing them so young, and 

 I have no time just now for an extended calculation. 

 It is a mode of consumption co-ordinate anyhow with 

 the genial Mr. Mechi's chopping up his beans green, as 

 fodder. My remark as to my milking-cows enjojdng 

 the leaves plucked from the growing mangold-wurzel, 

 has drawn upon me a long letter from a kind-hearted 

 and shrewd friend, one who knew well old Tommy 

 Bates. He cautions me against the plan, inasmuch as 

 he has proved the mangold leaves to be conducive to 

 abortion. He writes, " Now, as I know from my own 

 experience, as well as from that of others, that mangold 

 leaves and the roots also, if given before Christmas, are 

 dangerous food for in-calf cows or sows in-pig, as being 

 liable to produce abortion, I hasten to drop you a line. 

 You may give a word of warning to your friends. 

 If they be so hard up as to use them at all, let 

 them be passed through the chaff-cutter, and largely 

 mixed with dry food of some kind, to counteract their 

 cold watery nature and purging quality. I have for a 

 long time ceased to use them for stock of any kind, 

 and now spread them equally over the land, and plough 

 them in." Of course they are full of nitrogen, and, 

 therefore, excellent manure. Mangold roots can, how- 

 ever, be used, if commenced with cautiously, before 

 Christmas without harm, if the precaution be taken of 

 throwing them, a few bulbs together, to wither in 

 a corner of a dry barn. A neighbour of mine tells me 

 that he has failed to get his cows and sows to breed 

 when they have been fed on mangold. It is no doubt 

 like tobacco, a dangerous plant if used to excess. 

 Medio tutissimus ibis, as one used to read in the Eton 

 Latin Grammar. " If you want keep," my friend adds, 



