38 



REPORT — 1860. 



It is tolerably well known that this valuable crop was introduced into 

 cultivation with the hope that it would yield a valuable supply of food in the 

 shape of leaves, whilst at the same time it was supposed to be capable of 

 fully developing its growth of roots, the leaves then being employed for 

 summer and autumn food, whilst the roots were to be stored for winter use ; 

 however, we were early struck with the fact, that using the leaves to any 

 extent, would prejudice the crop of the roots, and we therefore twice before 

 the last year instituted experiments upon this matter with a result that may 

 be generally stated as follows. 



The Mangel Wurzel, stripped of its outer leaves from two to three times 

 during their period of growth, do not produce half the iveight of root of those 

 left intact. 



And herein we thought that we had established the law, that as long as a 

 leaf of Mangel was sufficiently sound to be useful as food for any animal, so 

 long was it of use in aiding the proper development of the plant; but this 

 statement has been controverted by the result of some experiments made at 

 the Albert Agricultural Model Farm, Ireland, where it is stated that the 

 result of taking the enormous quantity of 5 to?is of leaves from the acre of a 

 growing Mangel crop, was to increase the xceight of roots at the rate of nearly 

 5k tons. Now, under these circumstances we determined upon repeating the 

 experiments upon a larger variety of Mangels this year. 



1st. A set of experiments made with nine sorts of Mangel Wurzel planted 

 with burnt ashes, duly thinned and tended as usual; the plots being 2^ 

 yards square. 



2nd. Nine plots of the same sorts transplanted. 



The outer leaves of all these plots were taken off on the two following 

 dates, September 4 and September 21. 



On the 12th of November the whole crops topped and tailed, consisting of 

 twenty-four roots to each bed, half of which had been stripped of their outer 

 leaves ; thus twelve roots each, stripped and uustripped, gave the following 

 results for both the untransplanted and the transplanted plots : — 



Untransplanted Plots. 



Transplanted Plots. 



Names. 



Entire. Stripped. 



Entire. 



Transplanted. 



lbs. oz. 



1. Elvethan 8-10 



2. Yellow Globe 9-0 



Red Globe I 8- 2 



New Olive-shaped Red Globe ! 11-13 



New Olive-shaped Yellow Globe 

 Sutton's New Orange Globe 



Improved Long Yellow 



New Long "White 



Silver Beet 



16-13 

 9- 5 

 19- 

 15- 

 16-15 



lbs. oz. 

 5- 4 

 5- 2 

 612 

 7- 6 

 12- 3 

 312 

 9-11 

 7- 8 

 5- 9 



lbs. oz. 

 14-10 

 13- 

 15- 4 

 12- 4 

 11-14 

 10- 2 

 15-10 

 12-11 

 15-13 



lbs. oz. 

 5-10 

 6- 

 7- 

 5- 

 7- 

 5- 

 11- 



•14 

 3 

 6 

 •10 

 9 

 1 



7- 6 

 611 



Total . 



114-10 



63- 3 



121- 4 



63- 6 



Here then we take these results from so many sorts as conclusive evidence 

 upon this point, only remarking that, in all probability, had the season been 

 one of an ordinary kind, the discrepancy would have been even greater, as 

 this year the tendency of growth has been in favour of leaf development. 



The same experiments were tried with Kohl Rabbi, and with the like results ; 

 and it should be mentioned, with regard to all of them, that the seed was 

 obtained from the Messrs. Sutton of Reading, and that it was true to sort. 



