82 Plant-life of the Oxford District 



phytic, as shallow-rooting, and making less demands on the soil. It produces 

 seed in a much shorter season, and can hence be grown where Wheat fails, 

 and farther north, or on poor land. It is commonly sown in the spring, 

 without special manure, and vegetates 3 months (May-July). 1 The yield is 

 about 33 bushels per acre. Oats (Avena sativa) receive little special care, 

 but may be winter-sown hoping to avoid the fly. The average yield is 40 

 bushels. Beans are commonly winter-sown at 18 in. ; they may be hoed 

 when young, but are commonly neglected in later stages. Bean-fields give 

 usually the finest weed-display of any crop (especially tall red Poppies, 

 yellow Charlock, and white Radish). Hence Wheat following Beans is more 

 likely to be full of weeds, as well as of ' voluntary ' Bean. The crop averages 

 30 bushels per acre. 



As an example of a root- crop, presenting a distinct habit of growth and 

 mode of cultivation, the Mangel illustrates the problem of obtaining late 

 feeding-material for cattle and for all kinds of stock, when other foods are 

 poor in quality, rather than for immediate human consumption. 



The Mangel* (Beta vulgaris) is an artificially selected form of Beta mari- 

 tima^ a halophyte of the sea-coast, withstanding great exposure and summer 

 heat, so long as it has a deep source of water ; enduring salt soil, and hence 

 useful as a salt-storer, and taking any quantity of manure. 



From the wild type which is indigenous, the cultivated form differs in the 

 biennial habit, the erect inflorescence-axis (3 ft.), and tendency to store food- 

 reserves in a greatly distended hypocotyl (showing above the soil) and the upper 

 portion of the root. Small greenish flowers are borne in sessile cymose 

 clusters of typically 3 (1-5), on the panicled inflorescence-axes. The single 

 seed of each flower is sclerosed up with the adjacent ovaries of the triad, to 

 a dispersal-unit thus containing 3 seeds. These are sown in drills 2 ft. apart, 

 at the beginning of May, and the seedlings singled out to distances of i ft. apart. 

 Under summer sun and heat, in well-drained ground with bottom water-supply, 

 growth is rapid, and the crop is matured in autumn; the roots being pulled 

 before severe frosts. The plant is thus given a working period of 6 months, 

 following the general scheme of indigenous vegetation from May to October. 

 The plants are spaced well apart, the vegetative habit being that of a basal 

 rosette, only making close canopy over the soil when growth is particularly 

 luxuriant. The rows may be kept perfectly clean by weeding ; but a new crop 

 of weeds begins to grow at any time after rain, the more in dry seasons when the 

 crop is stunted. Neglected fields may give a conspicuous weed-flora in autumn. 

 The average yield for Oxfordshire is 20 tons per acre of ' Yellow Globe '. 



Turnips and potatoes as essentially * root crops ', growing in wide rows 

 which may be hoed and weeded throughout the early summer, and are matured 

 late in the season, follow essentially the same general lines ; and weeds may 

 follow abundantly as soon as weeding is checked. In gardens and allotments 

 potatoes will grow 3 ft. high, and flower, in dense canopy which cannot be 

 hand-weeded after Midsummer; but the growth is so dense that few weeds 

 can endure beneath it. Open fields are conspicuously foul. Neglected turnip- 

 fields in autumn may give a wide range of casual weed-flora, and are often 

 gay with blossoms. Turnips should give 1 3 tons per acre, potatoes 5 tons. 3 

 It may be noted that the cereals and beans as standing crops take from 

 the soil large amounts of nitrogenous compounds, phosphates and potash, 

 for the production of seed-reserves, and return nothing. On the other hand, 



1 Orr (1916), Agriculture in Oxfordshire, p. 198. 



Plot (1705), p. 155, records for Oxfordshire a special strain of Rathe-ripe Barley which was 

 sown and harvested within 9-10 weeks. 



The harvesting of the wheat is generally done with a self-binder using twine, which is estimated 

 to do the work of 10 men old-style : Plot describes the use of the smooth-edged reaping hook ; but 

 the sickle has been employed within living memory, or to about 1850. Oats have been seen cut with 

 a ' hook and a stick' (1922). 



2 Percival (1910), Agricultural Botany, p. 360. 



3 Orr (1916), loc. cit., p. 204. 



