CULTIVATION AT HOME AND ABROAD. 415 



to meet the known requirements of that which is to 

 follow. 



The mangold crop has already assumed a very impor- 

 tant place in the farm rotations of the southern and mid- 

 land counties of England, and also of Ireland. In the 

 northern counties and in Scotland it has not yet made 

 such progress, owing no doubt, in a great measure, to the 

 climate being relatively more favourable to turnip growth, 

 thus reducing the superiority of the mangold crop, so 

 generally recognized in the south. On the Continent it 

 is much more extensively cultivated than in this country, 

 as there it forms the basis of an enormous and important 

 industry the manufacture of sugar which has given to 

 the crop a great economic value, and has obtained for it 

 the attention of scientific men, whose object has been, of 

 course, to increase the gross produce of the crop, and 

 also the proportion of its valuable constituents. Now, 

 although our object in growing it is somewhat different 

 from theirs (with us it is merely as an article of food 

 with them its sugar is its chief value), we may derive 

 much valuable information from their experience, both as 

 regards the general increase of the crop, and also as to the 

 development of its more desirable constituents. The 

 general increase is, of course, determined by the mode cf 

 cultivation followed and the manure used; and this is a 

 point which ought to be considered before we proceed 

 further with the preparation of the soil for the reception 

 of the crop. 



In all root crops it is desirable that the soil should 

 be as finely divided as possible, and quite free from 

 any obstacles that might obstruct the roots of the young 

 plants, and induce either a distorted growth of the main 

 root, or a growth of lateral roots, which always diminish 

 the bulk and value of the crop. Stones, and broken 

 materials, frequently carried on with the manure, will 



