DISTANCES IN THE DRILL AND IN THE ROWS. 425 



always more advantageous that the crop should be made 

 up of large, sound, and well-developed roots, than that it 

 should consist of a greater number of smaller roots, even 

 though the gross produce be the same in weight per acre. 

 The latter cost more to lift at harvest time, and lose more 

 in trimming, while, owing to the greater proportion of 

 outside and other comparatively valueless portions, their 

 feeding value is considerably diminished. The only atten- 

 tion the crop requires during its growth is in regard to 

 the weeds, which, on soils and in districts suitable for 

 mangold, generally display great vigour of growth, and 

 require to be as vigorously attacked. Later in the season, 

 even when the plants have well advanced in growth and 

 the weeds have been destroyed, it is a good practice, 

 should the surface be very dry and parched, to move and 

 pulverize the soil between the rows, so that it may absorb 

 moisture from the dews and night air, for the use of the 

 plants. If proper care be taken, this may be done without 

 injuring crop up to a late period of growth. About the 

 middle of October the plants have reached their maximum 

 growth, and the leaves begin to show, by their incipient 

 decay, that the time for harvesting the roots has arrived. 

 Before, however, we proceed further, let us see how far 

 the continental practices differ from our own in the cul- 

 tivation of this important crop. We find that in Belgium, 

 France, and Germany, it is very much the practice to 

 grow the plants in a seed-bed, in the manner described in 

 the cultivation of the kohl-rabi and cabbage (p. 372), and 

 then to remove them to the field. By this method, in the 

 northern parts of Germany, and in Russia, where the plant 

 is largely grown for sugar purposes, and where the seasons 

 are more rigorous than with us, they are enabled to ac- 

 celerate the time of harvest by fully a month or six 

 weeks, a matter of great importance to the preservation of 

 a root so susceptible of injury from frost as the mangold. 



