296 



On the Drainacje of Land. 



of wet land would be left undrained of the ten millions which 

 are supposed to stand in need of that improvement in this coun- 

 try. But, although alive to the increased value which it would 

 impart to the soil, yet the undertaking is sometimes impeded by 

 disagreements between landlord and tenant, both regarding the 

 cost of drainage and the terms of lease ; as well as by difficulties 

 occasioned by the settlement of many entailed estates, which 

 render the life-tenants disinclined to incur the charge. This, 

 however, will be partly remedied by a late enactment of the legis- 

 lature, enabling the owners to defray the expense of draining by 

 way of mortgage. 



XXVI. — On the Comparative Feeding Properties of Mangold- 

 Wurzel and Sivedish Turnips. By the Right Hon. Earl 

 Spencer. 



To Ph. Pusey, Esq., M.P. 



My dear Sir, — You expressed a wish that I should again publish 

 the results of an experiment which I made fifteen or sixteen 

 years ago on the comparative feeding properties of Swedish turnips 

 and mangold-wurzel. It was published in the ' Farmer s Journal' 

 of that day, but I believe it is now very little if at all remembered ; 

 and I agree with you in thinking that it may be more interesting 

 now, when men's minds are more turned to this sort of investi- 

 gations. 



The mode of ascertaining the nutritious properties of different 

 kinds of vegetable food by chemical analysis, which was adopted 

 by Sinclair and other scientific men, gives a reasonable probability 

 of their relative value ; but we knov/ so little of the processes of 

 nature in converting food into the flesh of the animal that con- 

 sumes it, that this mode has never appeared to me quite satis- 

 factory. Although, therefore, I believed that mangold-wurzel 

 contained more saccharine matter than Swedish turnips, and 

 ought consequently to be the more nourishing root of the two, I 

 determined to try practically whether an ox fed upon mangold- 

 wurzel increased in weight more than one fed upon Swedish 

 turnips, in proportion to the quantity of each consumed. In 

 order to have rendered my experiment perfectly accurate, I ought 

 to have ascertained the weight of hay consumed by each beast 

 during the progress of the trial, but I did not do this, although t 

 am pretty confident that the quantity consumed by each was nearly 

 the same. I selected two steers, tolerably and at least equally 

 well-bred: No. 1 calved March 29, 1823, and No. 2 calved 

 May 6 of the same year; and on the 24th of December, 1825, I 



