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On the Cultivation of Mangold- Wurzel. 



the sides with thatched hurdles^ leaving an interval between the 

 roots and' the hurdles, which fill up with dry stubble, cover the 

 roof with about a foot of the same, and then thatch it, so as to 

 conduct all moisture well over the hurdles placed as a protection 

 to the sides. In pulling the plants care should be taken that as 

 little injury be inflicted upon them as possible ; cleansing with a 

 knife should on no account be permitted, and it is safer to leave 

 some of the leaf on than by cutting it too close to impair the 

 crown of the root. The drier the season is for storing the better, 

 although I have never found the roots decayed in the heap by the 

 earth, which in wet weather has been brought from the field, ad- 

 hering to them. As to the productiveness of the different sorts, 

 in one year I have grown a larger quantity of sugar-beet per acre, 

 in another of mangold -wurzel ; both these, however, I consider 

 exhaust the land in a greater degree than the swede ; but I have 

 formed a very high opinion of the orange-globe, though not so 

 large a producer generally as the two other sorts; it appears 

 always to throw at least two-thirds of its weight above ground, 

 neither is its tap-root larger nor its fibrous roots greater than those 

 of the swede turnip. Care should be taken in giving cattle every 

 species of this root, as if taken in excess it is apt to scour ; indeed, 

 from the avidity with which cattle eat the sugar-beet, and frorn 

 its viscous properties when quite fresh from the ground, it should 

 be stored so as to come into consumption the last of the roots. 



In feeding store cattle I should commence with swede turnip, 

 proceed with the orange-globe, then with mangold-wurzel, and 

 finish off with the sugar-beet ; thus not only frequently varying 

 the food, but using them in the order corresponding exactly with 

 the nutritive matter contained in each description of plant. I have 

 found indeed equally with Lord Spencer, that it will not do to 

 return from any sort of mangold-wurzel to swede turnips, as even 

 beasts in the straw-yard have for two or three days refused such a 

 change. I may add that the earlier in April your mangold- 

 wurzel is sown the better, the deeper the tilth the greater proba- 

 bility of a heavy crop, but that although both the mangold-wurzel 

 and sugar-beet require a deeper and stronger land than the swede 

 turnip, yet that the orange-globe vv^ill flourish wherever the latter 

 will succeed. 



These are the details of the system I adopt as regards this root, 

 and I shall be glad if I should prevail upon those who have not 

 yet tried the culture of it to grow a small quantity, assured as I 

 am that for certainty of crop and feeding properties the mangold- 

 wurzel will not deceive expectation. Yours truly, 



W". Miles. 



Kingsweston^ Nov. 1, 1841. 



