54 
Cultivation of Mangold-Wurzcl. 
On tlie Cultivation of Mangold-Wurssel. 
BY WILLIAM MILES, M. P. 
Dear Pussy, —Notwithstanding- the favor¬ 
able result of Lord Spencer’s experiment with 
mangold-wurzel, the consideration will naturally 
suggest itself to the mind of the farmer pre¬ 
viously to his adopting the cultivation of this 
root, whether, although the mangold-wurzel 
may bring on his cattle faster and better than 
the Swede turnip, it is not more difficult of 
culture, more tender in its habits, and less pro¬ 
ductive in bulk per acre than the Swedish 
turnip. 
I have grown the common red sort for six, 
the sugar-beet for four, and the orange-globe 
for three years; these kinds have regularly 
come into course with Swedes upon light land; 
the product has always been equal, in most 
cases far heavier. The Swede turnip has 
enemies innumerable; I have never observed 
the mangold-wurzel attacked either by fly, 6lug, 
or wireworm. Equally a cleansing crop with 
the Swede, it stores better, and lasts good for a 
longer period. In the summer of this year I 
was using sugar-beet with the stall-fed cattle, 
which cut perfectly good and crisp in August, j 
The mode of culture I adopt up to depositing, 
the seed in the ground is the same as that; 
adopted in Northumberland for ridging thej 
Swede; great care, however, must be taken that! 
the seed of the mango ld-w T urzel is not buried; 
too deep, or it will not vegetate. Dibbling, as! 
you never can ensure an equal depth, does notj 
answer; nor does the seed drill well, if properly! 
prepared by steeping, which I should recom-j 
mend, for at least twenty-four hours before; 
planting. To ensure, therefore, a proper depth, I 
I have been in the habit of using an iron wheel, 
round the outer circumference of which, 18 
inches apart, iron points project, broad at the 
base and tapering towards the point, about 2% 
inches long; this is wheeled upon the top of the 
ridge, the man walking in the furrow, and thus 
holes are formed which can never run into the 
excess of too great depth, and into which the 
seeds are deposited by women and boys follow¬ 
ing the wheel, and generally covering the seed 
by drawing the foot as they advance at right 
angles with the ridge over the holes; the roller 
follows, and thus the sowing terminates. One 
man with the wheel will keep six persons well 
employed in depositing the seed after him. 
This system was recommended me by my 
friend Mr. Webb Hall, and since I have adopt¬ 
ed it my crop has never failed. 
The after culture to the storing is similar to 
that of the Swede; great care, however, should 
be taken in never permitting two plants to grow 
in the same spot, which will be the case fre¬ 
quently, should only one capsule even be de¬ 
posited in each hole, as every capsule contains 
many seeds. Should the tops remain uncut, the 
plant will stand a considerable degree of frost; 
it should, however, be stored early in Novem¬ 
ber ; the best and cheapest method is to build it 
up against some high wall contiguous to your 
beast-sheds, not more than 7 or 8 feet deep, 
carried up square to a certain height, and then 
tapering in a roof to the top of the wall; protect 
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, adhering 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 from 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 m 
April your mangold-wurzel is sown the better, 
the deeper the tilth the greater probability 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 
