The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1867-11-19 00:00:00

iggrindritrt.

PROFESSOR BUCKMAN-ON Till CULTIVATION
OF ROOTS.

The lecture session of the Dorchester Fareten' Club
for 1867-8 commenced on Saturday evening leak at the
Antelope betel, under mast favourable &umpteen There
was • larger attendance than we ever before moonset
seeing, and the lecture was at once scientific end experi-
mental Professor Buthmsa of Bradford Abbas, who
aimbilcs science with practical farming, sdircssed the
Club on the scientific principles aoncerned in the culti-
vation of riot., Mr. J. Homer pnrsided, Mr. H. Gangs
took the vice•obair, ant there were .1. percent:
Messrs. J. Hardie', F. Rowe, 'T. Chick, R. Duero, J.
A. Smith, J. Homer, J. F. Hodges, jun., J. Damen, C.
Viand'', F. T. Bigga, E. Harding, Norris' H. W.
Hawkins, H. Taylor, J. Groves, S. Scutt, T. Denman,
T. A. Homer, Cunnington, H. Dunning, T. H.
Saunders, T. C. Saunders, Dr. Aldridge, B. Aldridge,
H. N. Howard, J. Galpin, Barnes, kg. The Chairman,
turfing briefiy introduced the lecturer,
Professor Buckman said the subject be had to in-
troduce to their notice was that of the cultivation of
root crops, but be should say that he did noisome there
to leach Dorset farmers in the practical matters
connected with the cultivation of roots, but he
wished to explain to them some experiments
- some of which he expected they would deem some-
what curious- connected with the cultivation of different
root arena and deducing from the results some of the
scientific principles concerned In root eultivation--(beer,
hear). In the first place they might wham' inquire
for • moment what wee to be understood by roots. Of
course it was *hat the farmer meant by roots-agricul-
tural roots. and if they examined them they would find
they consisted of large fleshy matter growing for the
runt pert below the soil- fleshy matter which wee eon-
mderably increased on account of cultintion ; in fact,
they hod induced in the roots they cultivated a kind of
fattening prooess- a precede of layirg on vegetable fat,
and it was by sating on that propensity which We
peculiar kind of root possesses, they got the valuable
product which agriculturist. understood by the term
roots. The roots to be mentioned by him would he
parsnips, carrots, marigold wureel, acid turnips-Swedlsh
end other kinds. He would point out to then, e
curious experiment in the cultivation of the pantile.
He called their attention to two tole:ably shaped and
good axed specimens which his gardener had du g up
that day, and to anent roots of wild parsnips obtained
from the roadeide. conristing of a number of thin
straggling root, of no practical value. Both descriptions
be said were of theism* age, and he had obtained the
large good roots, from the cultivation of persnips no
better than the wild on. be exhibited. By collect-
ing the seed, saving it during the winter, and
sowing it in a prepared bed in the spring, he at
once altered to a considerable extent the 'meditation of
some of his specimen., but not all. In carrying on en-
perimenta of course he .lected, and he wished to be
very particular indeed in pointing out to them the
signification of the term "selected." He selected the
best samples for the purpose of carrying on the system
of change in the parsnip. and by so doing you alter year
he found they gradually improved by being acted upon
by what be might call the cultintive procem, till in
eight year. produced parsnip. of the character they
saw in the larger specimens-a variety which es some
knew bad been introduced to gardens for some con-
siderable time. The first year they were shown was at
the National Horticultural lihowat the Great Exhibition,
when they took the prise offenrd for that particular
kind of vegetable. It was a very curious circumstance
that during the time he was making theft experiments
there was s patch of parsnips in • neglected situation by
the vide of an old stone quarry, where the quarrymen
had bed • cottage and garden, that was uneared for,
they seeded on the ground, and thus grew year after
year. From watching and *gambling them, he found
this-that being left encored for they gradually
degenerated to • perfectly wild state, in about
the same time in which he had raised good
parsnips from wild ones. During the progress of the
wild parsnips into better specimens they were very much
forked-ingered and toed, but by taking theft which
were the least forked and the most fleshy, he was
enabled ultimately to get parsnips of the good out-
line of those he had before him. So with regard to
the degeneracy of the perenip• originally good.
Year by year they became more forked till et length
they lost all symmetry. From this it followed that if
they wirhed to preserve root, of good character, and
perfeet in form, they must use Need from selected roots,
and therefore must adopt the principle of selection. If
they did not they would find matters very much indeed
es
they would he with cattle if left to their own will
and deviate- they would get very degenerate stook in-
deed. He carried out further experimenta with pan.
nips. Hance found • parsnip more ugly than anything
be liscl before seen, he carefully planted it, let It *red,
and by growing so many rows of that seed against so
many rows of good seed, he Game to some conclusions
which he thought they would admit were of greet
practical importance. He got theeeresults; the produce
of the poor seed WWI 7.4 and thee of the good seed 14
Thus he got does upon double the weight from the send
of a good kind of rout he did from the seed of a null.
formed kind. This showed they should he careful to
get good seed. Seedstuen admitted the important)* of
the seed being from good specimens, but they always
said what they sold was from selected roots, but they
knew from practical experience it could not be the case,
or what became of the vast amount of seed they some-
times saw about the country grown without even
selecting the bed roots from the good-whole petals.
of roote left to seed without any care or Detection at all.
fere wool I be no wrong at all if *lie sellers told their
customers the real facts sate the seed and they liked to
bay it, but it wee too bed to say the seed was from
selected roots when it was not so -(hear, hear). Now, ,
with regard to wroth At the same time that he serried
on the parsnip experiments he cultivated Moo Dorcas
carrots, or common wild carrot, which he obtained from I
the top of the Cotswold bills. He adopted a plan
similar to that he had employed with the
parenip, but he did not succeed in growing anything
better than the original carrot. Now it was singular ,
that the great French botanist M. de Candolle succeeded
in improving the carrot, but failed with the parsnip. It
seemed to him that the carrot he ought to have used i
was the Doreu meriting's, or see-side garret. He found
the room of that variety to etilenis very rapidly under
cultivation, and he and a party of friends partook of
such the first year of cultivation, and thought them
rather nice. It was not at all to be wondered at that
such • root should en improve. Nearly all our garden
esculents mune from the see side, and rapidly changed
from absolute leanness to fleshiness. because if the
perfect change of climate and soil. If an inland situa-
tion agreed with them, after growing by the sea-side,
they would get fat and put on dealt in the manner he
had described. The next group be woeld cell attention
to was that of the uringold wurssl. His experiments
with this root, bed not been carried on long enough to
get anything like a mengold of a good form. The Beeta
maritima, or see-side beet, in its original state pro-
duced some of the most wretched, forked, sticky roots
ever seen yet borinists told them, acid there could
be no question on the subject, that the beautifully.
formed mangold roots they now grew were derived from
that root. They knew there were some grown in
gardens for their roots, to he used as a pickle and so on.
Now those beets were only smaller than their
mangold wtusel ; they were grown with a certain
object, via., getting a medium-sited nioecoloured
root. fore was alto, as some of them might be
&were, another kind of beet grown, which was
white in the root and had some whitish leaves. It was
grown not for the root at all but for the neon ol
trievn-ita leaf strike in fact, which were cousidaed
by some to be almost equal to sea-kale or
asparagui, as a vegetable. The roots were but very
slightly Improved from the. found In the common wild
beet. This again clearly showed what selection would
do in aimed any direction they wished to go, end there-
fore they Kew how important is was that rigid and
careful selection should be observed by all engaged in
the cultivation of root crops. In order to point out
the cogency of these remarks in connection with
mangold wend he would direct attention to a crop of
his own during this season. He had got some four sorts
in • field, but on going over it be was very much struck
with one kind-the yellow into•ruardiate. The men
who were pulling them *ailed his attention to the dr-
Gamete:toe that they had no diffieulty in pulling the
marigold of that variety out of the ground-they had •
very month outline, and, as they said in Dorset, had
, no ' moors" to them. They also directed hie notice to
another sort grown under peculiar cironmstenors,
being from seed grown on the einine farm for two
generations, but which was used because he had not
quite enough without it. The consequence of his not
having observed sufficient cheese of seed ina that he
had roots of broad outline and with "moor," in
every direction, and the men complained of the
difficulty they had in pulling them up, and, as was
always the ease in Dorset when there we. the
least trouble in the world, they wanted "S
little more cider" to help on the work-(ther, hear, and
laughter). These facts showed another point - they
mast not only be careful in the selection of seed, but
must have change of cwt. With regard to swedes
they were aware that it was difficult to determine
their origin. They knew there were such things as
wild turnip., but they had not seen any wild swedes.
Thinking on that subject induced him, some years ago,
to nommenes experiment& in the development of swathe,
but they were not continued to an, extent, though, he
had 00 doubt, the swede was • hybrid between common
rape and the turnip. He then spoke of some experi-
ments with the treed of degenerate specimens, which he
grew, under similar circumstances, in eomparison with
seed from selected roots. The result was that the crop
of the former was 19.8, and that of the letter 35, show-
ing from the good seed nearly • double crop as compared
with that of the malformed roots. This again showed
the importance of selected seed. The seed from de-
generated roots not only produced roots ugly in them-
selves, but gave only half a amp, and there wosouotker
'mom tot point iumertained by Dr. Voelther, that mid.
formed root, only contained about two-thirds of the
amount of nutritive matter there was in a like weight
of better cultivated recta He then called attention to
• malformation of root which is common income parts
of Dorset and Somerset, more especially on purely windy
soils, end is known as bumble-footed roots. anbury,
and me on. The disease-if he might so Gall it--was for
a long time confounded with forked rocas, and it was
attributed by some to the manure used not being seal-
I entity mixed with the soil. But his experiments showed
I that the two diseases were distinct. In simply forked
roots they had to do with what ought to be celled
"topers and toes," the result of degeneracy
from growing had end. But &obery is produced
by the punctures a a two-wined By. This
ay was always found in the roots in the early
stages of the diabsoo. The punctures they made let to
the wet and the (rod, and, therefore, it w.. not
sur-
pricing such roota should rot touch sooner than those
well grown. With regard to all malformed roots, the
rougher the outside-the more the roots were tweaked
or broken, whether done accidentally or by i 0•000,, the
more it let in the weather, and caused so to spook an
Irritation and unnatural growth, mi when they had any
of their own akin off they found a new growth immue
dately set up. It was faxed that the insects ceasing
saber, did not commit depredations in Beide where lime
or limestone abounded, but only in soils composed of
almost pare sand. Therefore he &dried them not to
grow turnips in sandy fields any more than they weld
possibly help. Be had thee &entry prevailing this year
and last lathe sandy parts of Somerset, in the neigh-
bourbood of EeoviL One gentlemen there wee much
pusaled to and that he bad this anbury in his roots year
41.1trar, but his neighbour, some of whose fields wee,
In the midst of his, we. free from it. But ho
found the arel-muned was continiudly growing root

mops, whereby he kept alive the inmate from year to
year, while his neighbour did not cultivate roots to
such an extent. no be eras free team anbury. This
Illustrated the fact that they could not pow roots any
more thee they weld other produce of tbe same family
frequently on the same land without getters a eggenerate
' crop. These were the main points he intended to lay
' before them, and he would now sum them up. In the
first place he had shown that • degenerate stook neces-
sarily proceeds from • degenerate seed. It would be so
Is the &Menai kingdom as they all knew. Vegetables
were not of the importance perhaps that animal, were,
but the principle involved was presseely the Mlle, nay,
they required to be more particular in selecting their
stock for vegetables, because they could not command
all the eircumetanees and influence. with them as they
could with animals. He thought the experiments he
had related—aid, indeed, their own observation would
tell then. without having it pointed out by experiments
—that degeneracy must necessarily proceed from Mid
seed. Secondly, he wished to enforce upon their atten-
tion, that when they got • degenerate stock the produce
was never of the same weight ai from • good stook. AA
for as his observation went he had never }et got +good
weight of roots where the crop consistei f inalfoimed
roots. They could easily prove that for themselves,
and doing so and making known the results would be
very beneficial to agricultural society. If they got seed
from malformed root, they might by manuring highly
get produce which would be some improvement on the
parent stook, bat the general result would be • progeny
worse than the parents, and in that ease they would
not have good weight in their crop arid could not
pus lbly have good quality. Thirdly, he wished to
point out this important feet. By the selection of seed
they mould grow better forms and greater produce, and
It thereto» followed it was worth their while as farmers
to give to the seedgman who would really select his
roots for seeding a little more money for seed than
to buy of a man they weld not trust —(hear hear). The
extra price eras • slight matter compared with the
results, and if it we. poesible to secure good se-d by
paying a 'mein! seedentan • little more money be
Tem quite sure that every one of them would be
benefited—their, bey). Fourthly, he desired to enforce
what be had perhaps already suSeently dwelt upon,
that desipiedly selecting roots of bad kind would pro-
duce • had popery. This ought to give them ooefidence
In the preemie of selection he had advocated. The
general results of his experiments showed that they had
pester power over vegetable productions than might at
first sight appear. There was not so mach left to
nature—to the manner in which they dealt with the
soil, the sunshine, and the rain. Of entree all these
exerted • powerful influence, but they saw what good
results could be obtained where they did everythieg to
to assist them, and, on the eentrary, if they took an
opposite or even different course, the result was de-
part... 7. In conclusion' he would my that he believed
the more they looked at this seed question not only
with regard to roots, but all kinds of crops, the more
uniform would they be in their products, and the more
would they be impressed with the Importance of pro-
curing goad seed. He might have enlarged upoo the
Importance of constant change of seed, but that would
lead into • long dim:nano& though he would say such
change was absolutely neceeee.ry, but he would remind
them that the vegetables in the form they now bad
them, were all derived vegetables—they were culti-
vated, and nowhere found as such in their nebula state.
Therefore they must be careful of the circumstances
and conditions under which they were derived, in order
to keep up the good regalia. The more they looked into
the facts of what he had called tlie »Weld!» promme,
the more they would see that as farmers they must be
careful to maintain the cultivate impress, and to avoid
everything tending to the wilder forms from which their
products were derived. He Beelike) them, for their
attention, and expressed a hops that they would all
make experiments with care, that they might all have
full information as to those changes, for this knowledge
he felt sure would be found to be at the bottom of their
carrying on their profession with moons —(applause).
The Chairman and the Vice-Chairman made • few
observations on the interesting and valuable charmers
of the Professor's remarks and experiments, and
Intimated that it opened quite • new field of inquiry
from what the Club had been acocustomed to in con-
sidering the »Meehan of roots.
Hr. T. H. Saunders, of Waterootnbe, detailed some
results of his own experience. He told bow he had
some cabbage Our» which were sown early, run to seed
for the most part, but from thin seed he got some very
good cabbage. Then with regard to turnips, he selected
• handsome root from a field of the "Devonshire grey-
idone" variety, and let it seed, thinking that from it
be might get • good and true sort, but the result was
that be had, • crop which comprised turnips of every
shape and kind. He also deeeribed how he selected his
seed from roots he grew for that purpose. When the
seed is coming he picks out by the colour thoee seeds
which are not of the right variety, He also referred to
the innoculation of seed with new sorts by bees.
Mr. R. Dame, of Dorchester, mentioned, in support
of the Professor's argument for good seed, that last week
he was going over a field of mangell wursel in which
there were two eorta, the difference between them
attracted Ilia attention, and the owner estimated that
the better sort was one-tbird beerier than the other.
He inquired of the Professor as to the relative airman»
of the deterioration of the lend amused by good and
bad roots. In regard to club root he thought it
occurred when turnips were too often grown on the
same land, and that • cheep of mangold instead of
turnips was desireable. Ile had made some experi-
ments, and it appeared to him that the applleation of
lime or chalk to prevent club-root was • poen» injury
to the land for the growth of wen. At his suggestion
• friend of his, who» roots were injured by =bury.
ploughed the greater part of the field which was very
sandy, three inches doeper than usual, but left one ridge
ploughed the usual depth—four-and-a-half inches, and
the result was that in the ridge he had as many clubbed
turnips as in the whole of the other part of the field.
Of coin», it might be that in the deep ploughing, the
the insect. Professor Buckman spoke of were turned
underneath, and could not get up to the roots.
The Chairman made a few observations, raising the
question how farmers were to ensure getting rood seed.
Profeeeor Bookineur, in reply, said he was pleased to
hear such • very interesting discussion carried on. He
seemly expected one of so practical • chareeter, but
the beet practice was Needed on the best science, and
that was the beet science which enunciated the true
principlee of practice. Several questions of great
Interest had been asked, and the Professor proceeded to
refer to them at length. With regard to thecabbage
seed ik» of by Mr. Saunders from plants which had
"run" he said he had no doubt the explanation of Its
good resulta eas that the plant, had "run" from being
*Med earlier than usual, and not from degeneracy.
But the seed of "run" »Hags was not that which
woulcebe ordinarily preferred, and it wee • matter about
which they must he very careful. As to the Ilne•
looking turnip which produced such • various progeny,
he said it waa evidently oee of no recognised sort
having no fixity of character, and bents as it proved •
hybrid. He pointed out that It was important not to
grow two sorts of turnip seed near ouch other, and
spoke of the great distances which bees will Gerry seed.
Reverting to Mr. Saunders's turnip which proved such •
disappointemet, he observed that all turnipg were
hybrids, and, as in our own ries, some had more fixity
of character than others. The Saxon would change
wherever he went, becoming • Yankee, or
Australian, or ex ything else, all differeot from the
original type, but he believed the Celt—the tree
Irish-
man, never varied, but remained an Irishman under all
circumstances and in all eountriee It was just the
rune in plants. He than referred to the manner in
which Mr. Saunders gather. the seed he grows, and
said it wan • very original method, but by it be arrived
at • similar remit to that he (the Iseturer) would attain
by • different mode and • different set of observations.
In reply to a question by Mr. Damen he seid he believed
that the amount taken out of the moil by good or bad
roots was pretty much according to the weight. He
had no doubt that as Mr. Damon suggested the deep
ploughing he spoke of smothered the least:is whieb
had before caused anbeiry. But on land where he
bad about four inches of soil and and underneath
he preferred the use of a cultivator to deep-ploughing
as the better would only turn dressed to the top. With
regard to the question of getting genuine seed, as raised
by the Chairman, he pointed out the Importance of
genuineness in two directious —being true to its sort
and pure need. As to the purity of the turnip seed
&many sown his experience told him that it might
generally to be warranted that not more than 70 per
cent. of it would grow—(hear, hear). He than referred
to its adulteration with charlock seed, and the feet that
what is called "Three 0 seed," which is warranted not
to grow, may be bought in the market for seedsinen to
adulterate turnip seed with, and this is done to the
extent of from 5 to 26 per cent., ageonliug to the eon.
science of the adulterator. It woes subject upon which
farmers ought to look after their own interest more
than they did—(hear, hear).
The Chairman propceed a vote of thanks to the
lecturer.

Mrs. N. Howard, of Weymouth, seconded the
motion, and, speaking as one who farmed in another
county, and " up" to the ways of the seed trade. he
eaforoed the importance of purchasing seed of men in
whom they bad oonflilenos. in preference to having seed
at • rather cheaper rate from other pereons, and con.
eluded with some general observations on good farming.
The vote wee parsed unanimously, and shortly after
the proceedings termirsied.