428 THE MAtfGOLD-WURZEL CROP. 



crop, by bestowing upon it the care and attention that in 

 the hands of M. de Gasparin led to such desirable results. 

 The produce of our mangold crop is rapidly increasing 

 at home, as we become better acquainted with the con- 

 ditions suitable to its development. A few years back 

 20 to 30 tons were considered a good average return; 

 now we hear of crops of 40 to 50 tons per acre on 

 suitable soils, and last year reaching as high as 60 tons 

 per acre. 1 On the Continent we find also that, by atten- 

 tion to cultivation, the returns are greatly increasing. M. 

 Koechlin, who each year grows a large extent of beet at 

 Homburg (Haut Rhin), states that while his average 

 produce by the ordinary mode of cultivation was from 

 80,000 to 90,000 kilogrammes per hectare 2 in round 

 numbers, from 32 to 36 tons per acre English it has 

 now, by an improved cultivation, increased to an average 

 of 120,000 to 150,000 per hectare = 48 to 60 tons to the 

 English acre. 3 



One of the inducements offered to the cultivators of 

 mangold is the advantage it is asserted by some to possess 

 of furnishing a double crop of leaves and roots the leaves 

 being removed from the plant during the later periods of 

 its growth, and affording a supply of food to the stock at 

 an important period of the year, without affecting the root 



1 At Rainham, 64 tons per acre, in Agri. Gaz., 1859, p. 976; at Eynsham 

 Hall, 67 tons 13 cwts. per acre, Agri. Gaz., 1859, p. 915. 



2 The kilogramme = 2 Ibs. 3J oz.; hectare -=2 acres 1 rood 31 poles. 



3 We have had occasion before (p. 135) to refer to the fine specimens of farm 

 produce of the New World, and we now give an extract from the Report of 

 the Exhibition of the California State Horticultural Society, held at San 

 Francisco, Sept. 7 of last year. " Perhaps the most wonderful article in the 

 fair is the ' Monster Red Beet,' weighing 115 Ibs. It beats all. It is two 

 years old, and after having been exhibited last fall by Mr. John Llewellyn, 

 when it weighed 42 Ibs., it was stuck in the ground a second time to produce 

 seed, and in twelve months it has gained 175 per cent, in weight without 

 attaining that object. If the owner should pursue the same policy for several 

 years more, and it should grow in the same proportion, it would weigh 315 Ibs. 

 in Sept. 1860, 855 Ibs. in 1861, 2300 Ibs. in 1862, and so on. It is now about 

 4 feet long, and nearly a foot through. California beets the world ! ! I" 



