264 
Farming of Hampsliire. 
He exliiblted at the Reading Farmers' Club some of the roots, 
measuring 18 and 19 inches in girth, stating, as a notable fact, 
that the seed and the produce from it were both grown in the 
same year. 
Mr. Boxall rightly thinks that subsoiling should follow draining, 
in order to break up the old pan, pounded by the horses' feet time 
out of mind, and so let the surface-water down to the pipes. He 
has accordingly, during the seven years of his occupation, sub- 
soiled to the depth of 14 or 15 inches seven-eighths of his land, 
preparatory to the root-crop. He is so satisfied with the result, 
that he intends going a little deeper as the land comes round 
for roots again. 
His manuring for mangold or cabbages (which can hardly be 
overdone) is 12 two-horse cartloads of farmyard dung, ploughed 
in ; 1^ cwt. of Peruvian guano, mixed with 4 cwt. of salt, broad- 
casted just before sowing ; 2 cwt. of superphosphate, with 20 
bushels of burnt ashes (wood ashes, if possible ; above all, beech- 
wood ashes, which have been proved to be the strongest of all) 
drilled in : for swedes or turnips the same dressing, omitting 
the guano and the salt. Mangold are getting into favour with 
Mr. Boxall for these reasons : 1, they are a more certain crop to 
get than swedes ; 2, with equal manuring, they produce 10 tons 
more per acre ; 3, after Lady-day, they are more fattening both 
to sheep and cattle. If eaten alone, mangold, grown on this 
strong ground, cause a looseness in the bowels of all stock : 
fatting sheep, though supplied with good hay-chaff and beans, 
have been thus affected ; and mangold are not therefore given by 
themselves, but together with swedes in the early spring, or with 
Italian ryegrass and trifolium in May. 
I saw Mr. Boxall's mangold crop on the ground at its maturity, 
and although he said that, from bad seed, the plant was too thin, 
and the crop not an average, yet it was not much, if anything, 
under 30 tons per acre. He once grew 43 here. Half the man- 
gold are hauled to the yard, half pitted on the spot in a trench 
made by the plough, which also helps to cover them with the 
mould obtained by furrows on each side.* A very little pro- 
tection is sufficient against frosts, and the less the covering the 
quicker the vegetation in the spring. 
* Eight rows are buried together, the leaves having been first cut off with 
fagging-hooks as they stand: the two middle rows are then dug up with a dung- 
foik and tossed aside; where these rows stood, a double furrow is thrown out by 
the plough ; the mangold are then dug up with a dung-fork and tossed into this 
trench ; four deep furrows are then ploughed back on each side towards the man- 
gold in the trench ; of these, the two outermost are thrown with a shovel over 
the mangold, which, however, will have been nearly covered by the first furrow, 
unless the crop is over 40 tons per acre. For the manual labour in doing this, 
10s. per acre is paid. 
It is better to twist off the leaves than to cut them with steel. — P. H. F. 
