1864. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



201 



ters and has a rugged appearance, somewhat like 

 the Duchess d'Angouleme. The mature fruit of 

 tMs year was very well spoken o-f by Hon. Mar- 

 shall P. Wilder, Mr. Downing, of Newburg, N. 

 Y., Mr. Brill, of Newark, N. J., and Mr. F. R. 

 Elliot, of Cleveland, Ohio. The latter gentleman 

 took from the exhibition of the Pomological So- 

 ciety a specimen, which he ripened, and speaks of 

 it in a letter of March, 1864, as follows: 



"On my arrival in Washington, about one week 

 thereafter, I found on examining my specimens of 

 fruit, which I had in my valise, that this " Wheil- 

 don" was just in condition, and then and there I 

 cut it, and made a drawing and description, and 

 remember very distinctly that, as compared with 

 quite a number of other sorts at the same time, it 

 w;>.s very superior in quality: juicy, buttery, 

 sprightly, aromatic, pleasantly sweet, and, accord- 

 ing to pomological rules, 'best.' I have been 

 looking for my drawings, but having moved since 

 that time, my book has got mislaid, and just now 

 I cannot find it." 



In 1863, the tree bore another full crop of fruit, 

 and the accompanying engraving, which is an accu- 

 rate drawing of one of the specimens, sufficiently 

 indicates the continued improvement of the fruit. 

 The produce of this year was generally handsome 

 in size and form, and was approved as a pear of 

 fine character, and as possessing qualities which 

 will render it desirable for cultivation and give it 

 a high rank among our hardy native varieties. 



The pear is light green in color, becoming yel- 

 lowish in ripening, flecked with russet and pink ; 

 flesh dull white ; very sweet anl buttery, with a 

 peculiar aromatic flavor. [A more full descrip- 

 tion will be given from the fruit of the present 

 season.] 



THE MANGOLD WURTZEIi. 



The practice of raising roots as winter feed for 

 stock has been growing in favor with many farm- 

 ers for several years. Those who have tried it — 

 and have been tolerably successful in producing 

 crops — would be unwilling to go back to dry fod- 

 der as the entire winter feed. Many years ago, 

 potatoes were considered as nearly indispensable, 

 by good farmers, for a portion of their stock, — 

 but since the prevalence of the "rot" among them, 

 and a gradual decrease in the amount of crop, 

 their culture has been so limited as to afford 

 scarcely more than a supply for the table, with a 

 portion of inferior ones for swine. 



Since the falling off in the potato crop, the car- 

 rot has been introduced and large quantities raised 

 for cattle, horses and swine. Its cultivation, how- 

 ever, is more nice and expensive than the potato 

 or mangold, so that it is not produced much be- 

 yond what is required for horses, — for whom it 

 is found to be healthful and better, as a part of 

 the feed, than an equal money value expended 

 entirely in grain. Many stable-keepers prefer 



fifty pounds of carrots and fifty pounds of grain, 

 to one hundred pounds of the grain alone. 



The cultivation of mangold is easy and cheap. 

 The soil should be a generous one, well drained 

 and thrown up lightly with the plow. After it 

 has been harrowed, furrow out a moderate trench, 

 scatter fine manure, into it, cover the manure 

 slightly with fresh soil and drop the seed. The 

 seed should be eight or ten inches apart, as a sin- 

 gle seed will sometimes throw out three or four 

 shoots ; cover them half an inch if the soil is 

 quite moist, and a little deep, if rather dry. 

 Some cultivators turn two furrow slices together 

 over the manure, and sow upon the ridge. This 

 is not necessary, unless the season is a wet one, 

 or the soil is naturally quite moist. The plants 

 should stand ten or twelve inches apart, and the 

 rows two and a half to three feet, and if all things 

 are favorable, their leaves will cover the whole 

 ground. Cultivation should be thorough through 

 all the early stages of their growth, so that the 

 soil shall be light, and have no weeds upon it, af- 

 ter the leaves have grown to be a foot in length, 

 as the horse and implement used would be likely 

 to injure them afterward. 



As they grow principally out of the ground, 

 and reach a large size, they are easily harvested 

 and put away for winter use. A half bushel of 

 them per day for a cow, run through a cutting 

 machine, is as economical as any fodder that can 

 be used. Sow during the first ten days in June. 



BEET SUGAR IK" THE WEST. 



At Chattsworth, near the Chicago Branch of 

 the Illinois Central Railroad, experiments have 

 been in progress to which Western men, inter- 

 ested in the highest development of the agricul- 

 tural resources of those great prairies, have looked 

 with no little anxiety, and much hopefulness, for 

 results. Some circumstances occurred in experi- 

 menting, in the state of the weather, or the want 

 of proper machinery, that prevented the manufac- 

 ture of a large crop of beets produced on the 

 Chattsworth farm. At length, difficulties were 

 overcome, and all concerned were delighted to find 

 that the beets raised there abound in saccharine 

 juices, and that the results obtained are in every 

 respect encouraging. The editor of the Prairie 

 Farmer saw the process, which is, briefly, as fol- 

 lows : 



.The beets are washed, topped, decayed parts 

 cut away, or the whole discarded, if imperfect. A 

 toothed cylinder, two feet in diameter, driven at 

 a high rate of speed, is used as a grater. The 

 beets are fed up to it by a pair of plungers. The 

 pulp and juice fall below in an iron tank, fine and 

 white as snow. Two hundred pounds of the pulp 

 is put in a centrifugal machine at once, and the 

 juice separated from it by centrifugal force in a 

 few moments. The juice goes thence into clari- 

 fying tanks where it is clarified preparatory to 



