The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-11-25
MangOlds for Stock.

able proportion OF our farmers are Stlil
root-growers. Judging by our per-
sonal experience as a scotsman, we
should say that about half of the farm
ers in Vermont who have been in the
habit of growing roots for feeding
have abandoned them for ensilage.
Individually, we have always preferred
the potato to any other feeding root;
first, because it gives us the same nutri-
ment in half the bulk; second, because
it has no fibres and carries no dirt;
third, because it is less apt to cause
bowel arrangements. Against these
advantages the only offsets are that the
potato may rot, and must have frost
proof storage; but as we believe in Civ
ing that kind of storage to all roots,
this is no objection at all. Though
beets will bear little frost, and tur-
nips more, no humane or wise feeder
will feed frosty roots to his stock.
AS we prefer potatoes to either beets
or turnips for stock-feeding, so we pre-
fer sugar beets (and especially Lane's),
to turnips, because there is more nutri-
ment in the same bulk, and because they
to be communicated to milk or meat.
We prefer sugar beets to mangolds be-
cause they are richer in nutriment, and
therefore less bulky to handle and
store. Nevertheless, mangolds are
somewhat easier to grow, and are con-
sidered by the average farmer to be
surer crop. He also cannot quite be-
lieve that bushel of mangolds con-
tains no more value than three
pecks of sugar beets. 1t certainly does
require better farming to grow the lat
ter, and perhaps an equal amount of
nutriment can be as cheaply grown in
mangolds as in sugar beets.
That experienced stock-farmer, Mr..
Jenner Fust of the Montreal Journal
of agriculture, has, in his November
issue, an excellent article upon man.
gold culture, from which we make the
following extracts:
There are several kinds of mangolds,
the most important ones being the long
red, the orange or yellow-globe, and
the ovoid or egg-shaped, which is either
red or yellow. OF these the long-red
is an immense cropper, but inferior in
quality to the yellow. On good heavy
land l prefer the former; but on light
1non,C Tho oil ha will no
the better: it yields well, is less leafy,
and, an important point, it is much
easier to get up when ready to pull.
Preparation ofthe land. The deeper
the cultivation the greater the crop, is
an axiom in mangOld-growing, as well
as in growing all kinds of roots. BY this
l do not mean that in heavy land large
mass of raw clay should be turned up
in spring, involving all sorts of bothera-
ton in blowing, grubbing, har-
rowing and rolling, until half the sum-
mer is over. This would defer the SOW
ing of the crop till all chance of an
abundant yield was over. Still the
great aim of the root-grower should be
the attainment by degrees of good
depth of well-worked soil, and he never
should be satisfied until he has secured
furrow of at least nine inches deep.
When land has been fairly treated, and
is not an absolute stranger to the dung
cart, the depth of this blowing may be
given as just as deep as your horses can
draw the plow. | should not like, as a
rule, to bring up more than one or, at
most, two inches of raw-soil from the
bottom of the old furrow; but we must
not forget the enormous pulverizing
effect of our Canadian frost on a we'll
; laid furrow slice, and the descent of
some portion of the former manurings
into the sub-soil will have tempered its
acerbity so as to render it less hostile
to the Interpretation of the filament-
GUS roots of the future root-crop, par
3 ticularly in connection with the heavy
. dressing which must be given if you eX-
pect remunerative crop of mangOlds.
In truth, if | was to lay down so dan
: gerous thing as a law for blowing ii
a would be, always pillow deep for roots
before winter, but never 90 below the
|, old furrow for grain. On rery heavy
= land, not subject to spring-hooding,
u am inclined to think that the easiest
s plan for growing mangolds is to pillow
a down the dung in the autumn, and tC
SOW the seed in the spring on the flat
surface of the stale furrow. | have
: tried this, and found it to answer well
It 1t simplifies matters extremely an(
+ does away with half the work at thu
busiest season of the year. The oni,
y objection / see to its practice is thu
c difficulty of finding enough manure a
l. the time of preparation. When sowin!
IS in spring, on flat-work, where the dun!
was plowed down in autumn, all that i
=, necessary is to harrow well until all tn
u annual weeds are destroyed, and thei
y SOW in the seed at two feet apart will
1t Matthews or the Planet, Jr., seed-drill
In following out the system, recon
mend the cultivators of heavy land no
III to make their ridges too wide: two fee
y would be quite enough, and this widtl
IL would give four rows of mangolds T.
,e the ridge, as the two outside rows shout
:, be one foot from the open burrows
III leaving the crop two feet apart fror
le one end of the field to the other.
IL Spring preparation. - This is, c
t. course, the usual way of getting i