266 On the Growth of Mangolds, Cabbages, &c. 
Acres 
Grain cropg 1,169,358 
Root and green crops 112,975 
Rotation grasses and clovers .... 19,874 
Potatoes, carrots and sundries .... 78,306 
Total , . , . . 1,380,513 
The increase in the acreage of mangolds is a veiy large one, 
amounting to 52,130, or about 14 per cent. ; nor has this 
increase in cultivation been limited to the period under review, 
as the compiler of the Agricultural Returns for 1871 made the 
following statement : — "The extended cultivation of mangolds 
in Great Britain is strikingly marked by the increase in five 
years from 1867 to 1871 of 102,000 acres, or nearly 40 per cent." 
The mangold has been termed the " root of scarcity " because 
stores of it come so serviceable in cold, backward springs, when 
turnips and swedes are all consumed and the grass refuses to 
grow. But this is not the sole cause of its increasing favour, 
the fact being that the great risk of being able to calculate on 
growing swedes and turnips successfully throughout the southern 
half of the kingdom, so largely dependent as it is on the non- 
occurrence of a season of prolonged drought, leads many farmers 
to turn their attention to something on which they can more 
certainly rely, although at a little more expenditure in manurial 
outlay. 
Occasionally, as in 1885, the mangold suffers in common with 
swedes and turnips from an adverse season. In that year the 
unnatural coldness caused all roots in common to be very 
small, but in general, owing to the planting of mangolds taking 
place in April or the early part of May, not only does the seed 
stand every chance of germinating so as to afford what is termed 
" a good plant," but the young plants themselves have ample 
time to get deep-rooted ere any scorching atmospheric influences 
are experienced. In Scotland and a few of the northernmost 
English counties, as well as on all mountainous tracts where 
the summer climate is humid, the swede turnip can likewise be 
cultivated early, and its success in consequence be made almost 
as certain as that of mangolds further south. But throughout a 
large portion of the southern half of England, seeding the land 
for swedes is deferred until the middle of June, and in some 
cases close up to midsummer, solely to obviate the ruinous 
mildew which is said always to blight the crop in an arid 
summer, if the seed be put in earlier. But too frequently, in en- 
deavouring to escape from this evil, the cultivator encounters a 
far more formidable one ; for should the weather be very dry at 
the sowing season and continue so for a month or six weeks sub- 
