The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-04-23 00:00:00

" CULTIVATION OF MANGOLD WURZEL.

- - - -
"This la the crop ors which we have latterly in chief de-
pended as the substitute for our failing turnip crop. Yielding
with greater certainty as heavy a produce of f.sid as good as
the turnip, no wonder that it has rapidly been grossing into
favour. It has *bears been known as keeping good till late
in the ("flowing ...Min, but tiil of late It has laboured under
the stigma of being oo exceeds ely relaxing when fed early in
the miser, as to be more injurious than nutritious until the
spring, and eren then we have heard of its musing abortion in
swine, obi ep, and cows, so that It is only under special eireum•
stances that it could be chosen by the cultivator as his main
green crop. Last year, however, we had a frost upon our green
crops, ahich killed them down and forced their consumption
before winter, if it .111 desired to save them at all; and It was
four.d that even the frosted Mangoids spread In the pastures
and in the 3ards did ewes in lamb and mine in farrow, no harm
whatever. And this last year, when owing to the coldness of
season. the Mangold Wurzel crop has ben a comparative
failure, it haa been a common practice to fold sheep on them
early in the autumn, leasing Swaim for that later period of
faiths for which the Mangold Wurzel had hitherto been
especially adapted; and it is found, especially where
the root ii pulped and mixed in varying proportions a ith shaft
of bay or stisw, that no relaxed state of the bowel. has under
t followed the large and early use of the crop.
rd
e Instir=r, as the root crop of the rummer months
that the Mangetd Werra woman an eripeeial value. So good
a keeper is it, that dock might indeed be kept on It all the
year round, for there is no better food for pigs and cattle
generally in June. July. and August following the year of its
growth. Any season like the past, therelnee, which by Its
unueval 'oldness has proved Imo adapted to the growth of this
crop than any we have had for pare, is, in it. effect on our
suppiles of cattle food, no lea than a national calamity. •
arop which In ordinary moons produces 110 to 40 tons per acre,
lass during the past year in many came failed to produce 16;
and that on which we generally depend for late spring food,
has hi many came been already fed by sheep on the gelds of its
growth.
"The cultivation of the Mangold Wurzel is
the sense as that of the Swedish turnip. There las difference
rereice
I. the used time, but hardly any In the treatment of the soil
either before it, or during the growth of the crop. Mangolds
Ilk, a Rifler soil than turnips, but there is the same need
of an industrious and forward autumnal cultivation of the
land. If the plough is need in spring. It will on clay toils
turn up a cloddy surface which la difficult to reduce, and
which is a hindrance to the proper cultivation of the
mop. A heavy droning of dung, and a liberal supply of
superphosphate will be well repaid in the future crop. and it
Is found in accordance with what is known both of the
natural history and the chemistry of the plant, (viz. that
It is • native of the sea shore, and that it. ash contains •
large proportion of chloride of sodium, or common salt,)
that the mop will also repay, by additional and more
healthy growth, a consklersbie dressing of common salt, to the
eztent indeed of 6 or 3 cwt. per sere.
"Th. mod may be either drilled on the top of each drill or
row, re dibbled therein at interval. of 16 to IS inches—the
rows themselves being 28 to 30 inches apart. The proper seed
time is about the and of April. No advantage Is obtained by
sowing too early, as the used will be longer in the land without
germination and the plants will be &leo be more liable to run
housed Fronts 6to 7 lbs. per acre ebould be used ; and Uit
be damped for two or three days before sowing, it will sprout
the sooner. The cheapest way to sow It is by the drill, dmezitio
itc:l twooorox or mr.7.„Adonizi
oeloortheLnionrothew
ofiat, r
top f ure • but
It Is not much more costly, and there are some advantages In
depositing the seed by the hand dibble. The women or boys
r who plant the seed have a stick the length of the interval
; between the future bunches, and they measure out the place
of the next plant, by means of It. With the end of it they
remove any clod which may lie there, making a little bed for
the two or three seeds which they drop in that place, and then
covering them up • Ith a little fine earth, and hall treading
than, in. . . .

natul

Mangold mod is very easily burled, and not more than hall
SO inch of earth should be used to cover It. The plants come
up In bunches In them places The intervals between the
row. me horse-hoed—these between the bunches are band-hoed,
and the bunches themselves are pulled In single plants as soon
as the leaf Is the axe of a child'. hand ; and the cultivation
during the summer, by horse-hoeing if necsaary, Is continued
as long as the leaves do not cover the ground.
" The var Mies of Mangold Wursels include distinctions rf
shape and of colour. The globes/taped are best for several
reasons, one of which is that the globular form presents least
°Weide in proportion to Its quantity of content., and so there
Is lees exposure to frost or drought, and leas liability to Injury
either during winter or the following summer. And as to the
former, there is this special advantage of the globular over the
long and tankard Mangold", that the former grow upright, and
are thus sheltered against the early frosts under a canopy of
foliage, while the longehaped roots straggle over the surface of
the ground, and are thus exposed In every direction to thesky,
I and the consequent feat of a clear autumnal night. This is
I no mere speculation —but am verified in the experience of
many during October, 1850. The globe red and orange MY,
gold. are therefore to be preferred to the long red. and long
notwitheandlng that the latter might have been
expected to yield the larger produce per acre. The greater
facility, too, of removal from the ground, which one would
aspect In the long Mangold" from the greater ho d which
their shape enables to be taken of them, is in practice not
obtained. . . . .

" There are many different sorts both of long and of globe
Mangold'. Among the former is ths ffivetbam, a somewhat
globose or bulged sort, less liable therefore to tumble about
and straggle over the land, and uniting therefore in some de-
gym the valuable properties of both dams."
Where all is so excellent, one hardly knows what to
select as epecially worthy of commendation. This much,
however, we may state, that in the " Farmers' Manual"
will be found a full description of the various kinds of
Grass Seeds, Mixtures of Seeds for Improving Pasture,
with Fries Lista attached. Messrs. Sutton and Sons
rank among the first of agricultural seed growers, and
bare obtained prises at Birmingham, the Crystal
Palate, and other plates.