No. 133.] 227 



as much again. Mangel- xvurzel is generally raised for stock, ai- 

 though they are all good, but this perhaps is easiest raised — 

 more obtained from an acre — all require the best of tillage. 

 Mangel-wurzel may be grown on stiffer soil than some other 

 kinds, and more so than the Swedish Tuvnip. The beet fattens 

 cattle quicker than the turnip ; it has been several times tried in 

 England, considerably to the advantage of the beet. The latter 

 has been found to be better for milch cows on many accounts ; 

 the beet it is also said are never injured by insects, while the turnip 

 is continually subject, when first planted, to be laid waste by them, 

 and often more than once the same season — another important 

 advantage. The turnip, it is said, will stand the cold better, but 

 the beet is not what may be called a tender plant, and this diffi- 

 culty may be easily guarded against, by a little earlier gathering 

 and housing of the beet. Should the tops remain uncut, the plant 

 will stand considerable frost. On old pasture ground trenched 

 up, enormous crops of mangel-wairzel have been raised. The 

 ordinary yield on good land, well tilled, is from 20 to 30 tons per 

 acre. When the Regents Park was forming in London, a part of 

 - it was trenched, the mangel-wurzel sown thick upon it, and such 

 was the produce, that it was sold at auction ; cow keepers in the 

 neighborhood bought it at the enormous price of c£80 per acre. 

 It is said, if cows are fed too freely on them, they get too fat and 

 will not give as much milk. 



Prof. Mapes, has not furnished the secretary with his notes, 

 and therefore what he said will not be fully reported. He re- 

 marked that Judge Van Wyck had given a good account of the 

 beet. The Romans named it Beta from the resemblance of the 

 seed to tlie letter B. That we have seven varieties of the sugar 



I beet. That it is an exceedingly exhausting crop to the soil. The 

 bassano beet (by Charles Dow'ning,) has its concentric rings 



I white in the centre; that it is entirely superior as a table beet. 



1 The long, smooth, finfe, colored beet, commonly grown, is by 

 some called the Lazy Man^s Beet. Of the mangel wurzel, Mr. 



' Rennie of Jersey, has raised seventeen tons and a half on an acre. 



I I have raisfcu seventeen tons on an acre. Seaweed is a good 



1 manure for beet. I am on the edge of the salt grass, and I use 



I j that an(l muck from tlic same, freely and v.ith great profit. The 



