Beta depicta, or, Remarks on mangel wurzel, with an exposition on its utility deduced from practical experiments, and with full directions for its culture, and the management in feeding and fattening of cattle

SOUTHAMPTON
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

BOOK NUMBER

CLASS MARK

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AGRICULTURAL LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
SOUTHAMPTON

h€^-zf

to?

On a Reduced ■Scale.

saacson

BETA .DEPICT A 9

OR,

lUmarft*

ON

MANGEL WURZEL,

WITH

An Exposition on its Utility deduced from Practical Experiments f

AND WITH FULL

DIRECTIONS FOR ITS CULTURE,

AND THE MANAGEMENT IN FEEDING AND FATTENING OF CATTLE,

By THOMAS NEWBY.

Embellished with an Etching descriptive of the Plant, on a reduced scale.

It is to Vegetable productions, that commerce owes its support ; they form our
ships, cordage, and sails; and it is for Vegetable rarities, principally, that we cross
the seas, and explore every clime from the equator to the poles.

Phillips,

LONDON :

PRINTED FOR SIMPKIN AND MARSHALL, STATIONERS’ COURT.

It. NEWBY, CAMBRIDGE ; AND SOLD BY THE AUTHOR, AND ALL BOOKSELLERS
IN ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND.

1828.

TO THE

3gri(tUtitrf0t0

OF

THE UNITED KINGDOM:

THIS

SMALL WORK

ON

MANGEL WURZEL,

IS MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBE!!,

BA TIIEIR OBEDIENT

AND

MOST OBLIGED SERVANT,

THOMAS NEWBY.

Reference to the Plate.

a. a.

h. b.
c.

The root on a reduced scale, divested of its large leaves.
The root cut, and exhibiting its rose colour rings.

The usual proportion of the root beneath the ground
■when growing.

Beta Hybrida,

French. Racine de Dissette.

German. Mangold Wurzel.

Class, Pentandria.

Digynia,

Order.

PREFACE.

Stimulated by a desire to afford all the information in my
power respecting the cultivation and use of Mangel Wurzel,
and —

To make those plant, who never did before.

And those who always planted, plant the more ! —

I have availed myself of every opportunity in my power to
collect materials for that purpose, and of my leisure thus to

compile them ; and to use the hacknied apology, “ they are sent
forth by the pressing solicitations of a few friends,” and I
humbly hope they may be found not unworthy of their attention,
thinking with Dr. Jebb, " that in a good cause, no effort, how-
ever trifling, is lost.”

My best thanks are due to those gentlemen, who have kindly
favoured me with information on the subject.

I have named the authors of such books, and papers, from
which I have made extracts, as far as I could, and where I have
not, are from memoranda furnished me by friends.

In the year 1814, the Reverend St. John Priest, the respect-
able Secretary of the Norfolk Agricultural Society, published
a most strange and unexpected account, relative to the effect of
Mangel Wurzel upon Milch Cows, on the authority of Lord
Crewe, in Cheshire ; T. W. Coke, Esquire, in Norfolk ; and
Mr. Toilet, Staffordshire ; that the above root produced in a

VI

few days a paralysis in the hinder quarters, dried up the milk,
and killed the cows. On this it ought to be remembered that
Mangel Wurzel had been in agricultural use in this country as a
cattle food, and in course must have been given to cows,
nearly or altogether twenty years previous, and no such incon-
venience had been before observed ; on the contrary, the root
had been found salubrious and fattening to all animals fed
upon it.

This false alarm, as it was designated at the time, called
many able writers and practical agriculturists into the field to
dispute the point, suffice it to say —

Post tempestatem tranquillitas,

and Mangel Wurzel triumphed ! and has since continued in high
esteem with all unprejudiced agriculturists in the United
Kingdom. The debate on the Reverend gentleman’s motion
was long and loud, and was at last negatived by a large majo-
rity. I, of course, voted with the opposition !

Sound, sound the cow-horn ! herdsmen all,

Your’s was the vict’ry nobly won :

Collect your herds, both great and small.

And tell what Mangel Wurzel’s done !

Now come and browse on Mangel Wurzel,

For it will never do you harm,

Dissolved is the Eastern puzzle,

It really was a false alarm !

I take credit to myself for having first introduced the culture
and use of Mangel Wurzel into this county, and Isle of Ely
in the year 1812 ; and in giving it all the publicity possible, by
publishing in the following year my first “ Remarks,” compiled

.*» *'

vii

from the kind communications of several practical farming
friends.

There is an old proverb which says, “ those that do not go
fishing, should be mending the nets,” and that it is considered
wrong in any one to continue indolent, if he can render any
service to the public ; ' and as my avowed object is to give a
plain account of this unrivalled vegetable, I venture again to
offer the produce of my leisure hours, with the earnest hope
that it may prove a useful manual to the farm house, and the
cottage.

As I am not possessed of the knowledge of an experienced
husbandman, the defects that may be found, I humbly crave
the candid reader will overlook, and I shall be well pleased, if,
after perusing the following pages, he does acknowledge that I
have prepared

GOOD ENTERTAINMENT FOR MAN AND HORSE !

Bene’t Street,

Cambridge, March 1, 1S2S,

CONTENTS.

Pags

Reference to the Plate . . . iv

Preface . . . . . . v

Remarks . . . . . . 1

The Preparation of Sugar, from Mangel Wurzel . 9

First introduction of Mangel Wurzel info England . 12

Productions . . . . . . .22

Subsequent Communications . . . .26

Culture . . . . . .43

Season for Sowing . . , . .45

Calculations . . . . . .45

Caution . . . . . .46

The Application of the Roots . . . .46

To Preserve the Roots . . ’48

Produce and use of the Leaves . . .49

Advantages . . . . . .51

To relieve cattle when Hoven . . . .51

The choice of Roots for Seed . . . .53

Season for re-planting Roots for Seed . . .54

Management of the Seed . . . .54

To prevent the True Stock from degenerating . . 55

b

X*

Page

Exhaustion of Soil

„ . .55

Planter’s Table

. 59

Appendix

.61

Conclusion

. 66

Advertisement

. 68

R E M ARKS.

The many kinds of Beet which are known to have
been used for the preparation of Sugar from their roots,
(we are informed by Mr. John Taylor, of Leipsig,
in a letter to the Society for the Encouragement of
Arts, &c.) are varieties of that species called Beta
vulgaris, or Beta caule erecto of Linn.etjs, and of
his Pentandria Dt/ginia class and order : they con -
sist of the Beta rubra vulgaris, Bela rubra major,
Beta rubra radici Rupee, Beta lutea major, Beta
pallide virens major, Beta alba vel pallescens
quee Cicla officinarum, and Beta communis viridis.
Of these the principal are the Beta rubra vulgaris,
runkel Rube of the Germans, or red Beet of the
English, and the Beta Cicla , den weissen Mangold,
of the Germans, or the white English Beet ; and
varieties of those whose roots have coloured rings.
Henry Phillips, Esq. in his History of Culti-
vated Vegetables, says it takes its name from the
shape of its seed vessel, which, when it swells with
seed, has the form of the letter so called in the Greek
alphabet. The Grecians held this root in great
esteem, as it was their custom to offer it on silver, to
Apollo, in his temple at Delphos. They used also to
cut the leaves, in preference to lettuce, and observed

B

2

the method of laying a small weight on the plant to
make it cabbage. The Beet was first cultivated in
this country in the year 1548, a period when many
vegetable plants were introduced, to gratify a luxu-
rious monarch.

The Beta Cicla, is the Mangel Wurzel, or
Root of Scarcity of Doctor Lettsom, who was inde-
fatigable in his exertions to promote the general
cultivation of this, his favorite vegetable ; he obtained
a supply of seed from the Continent, which he gave
freely away to all who applied for it, before the Seeds-
men of London could procure them for sale ; at which
period the worthy Doctor published several interesting
papers, descriptive of this inestimable root, from which
I shall, in the course of this little work, enrich its
pages, by quoting extracts.

We owe to Germany, most probably, the discovery
of this useful plant, from whence arises its name,
Mangold being the German name for Beet ; but it is
pronounced Mangel, by a provincial error, particu-
larly in Swabia, Alsatia, and other southern provinces
of Germany, and possibly hence the misnomer origi-
nated.

The Abbe de Commerell (who was the correspond-
ing Member of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences
at Metz), speaking of the Mangel Wurzel, says : “ In
Germany, where the greatest advantages have been
derived from it, it is called Dick Ruben, (the great
turnip) ; Dick W urxel, (the great root) ; and Mangel
W urxel, (the root of scarcity.) I have made use of the
last denomination, the Root of Scarcity, (Racine de
Dissette) because it is a literal translation of the name
often given to it by the Germans, and because it is ex-

3

pressiv of the properties of the plant which it denotes.
It might, indeed, be called the Boot of Abundance ,
which would be no great deviation from the German
name, and which would be expressive of one of the
principal properties of this plant ; which is, constantly
to thrive, and to produce a very great crop, even when
other kinds of roots and vegetables fail, and when
there is a general scarcity of fodder.”

The Beet* is a genus whose species are, perhaps,
as badly ascertained as those of any plants whatever,
the maritima being the only one with whose place of
growth, and history, we are perfectly well acquainted,
the species being involved in such obscurity, the va-
rieties of course require much elucidation.

Matthiobus, who published his Commentarii in
1565, and whose wooden plates, though some of the
earliest, rival many of the copper ones of modern days,
has figured three sorts of Beet, which he calls alba ,
nigra, and rubra.

DodoNjEUS, whose Pemplades came out in 1616,
and whose figures, though they do not come up to
those of Matthiolus in boldness of design, exceed
them for the most part in accuracy, exhibits three
sorts of Beet, which he denominates alba, rubra, and
rubra Romana.

* Greeds o-eutAov teutAov.
Latinis Beta.

Germanis Mangold.
Belgis Beete, Rodebeet.
Italis Beta, Bietola.
Hispanis Aselgas.

Gallis Poiree.

B 2

4

The three Beets of these authors, as far as one can
judge from figures, appear clearly to be the common
white Beet , common red Beet, and turnip-rooted
red Beet, now generally cultivated in our gardens.

Casp. Bauhine, whose Pinax was published in
1623, enumerates nine species, six of which he calls
minores, and three majores.

Minores, Beta communis sive viridis.

Beta alba vel pallescens quee cicla* officinarum.
Beta rubra vulgaris,

Beta rubra radice rapae,

Beta lato caule,

Beta sylv. maritima,

Majores, Beta pallide virens major,

Beta rubra major,

Beta lutea major.

LlNNAiUS, who perhaps was too scrupulous in
multiplying species, in the third edition of his Species
Plantarum, reduces the above to two, viz. Beta ma-
ritima, and Bela vidgaris, but in the fourteenth
edition of his Systema V egetabilium, published by
Professor Murray, the Beta alba of Bauhinie, is
admitted as a species under the name of Beta cicla, f
and its place of growth pointed out, viz. Lusitania
ad Tagum. We may observe that Linnaeus, in his

* Called sicula originally, because it was first thought to
come from Sicily, thence. Sicla, and by further corruption
Cicla.

t With all due deference to such great authority. Beta rubra
and alba would have been terms less exceptionable, than vulgaris
and cicla, vulgaris being equally applicable to either, and cicla,
as before observed, unintelligible to most

5

Species PI. not knowing the habital either of the red
01 white, suspected them to originate from the mu-
ritima.

Dictionary Miller, who, to a considerable share
of discernment, joined a very extensive and long con-
tinued practice in the cultivation of plants, describes
three species, viz. —

Maritima, sea Beet,

Hortensis, common white Beet,

Varieties. White Beet, green Beet, Swiss or
chard Beet.

Vulgaris. Red Beet, with a pyramidal root.

Varieties. Common red Beet, turnip-rooted red
Beet, green-leaved red Beet.

On comparing the Mangel Wurzel, with all the
Beets above enumerated, both species and varieties, it
is not found exactly to accord with any of them ; it
seems to approach the nearest to Miller’s green-leaved
red Beet. It is difficult to say whether it partakes
most of the nature of the vulgaris or cicla ; indeed
it has all the appearance of a hybrid plant, produced
from both ; it is certainly a variety only ; and if we
should be justified in giving it a latin name for dis-
tinction’s sake, we should call it Beta hybrida.

That Beet has long been known as an article in diet,
history testifies. The very name of Cicla is derived
from Sicily, a country where it formed a considerable
portion of the diet of the people, and was well known
to the Romans in general. Beta stands at the head
of one of Martial’s Epigrams, in the following distich :

Ut sapiant fatme fabrorum prandia Betcr,

O quam ssepc pctet vina piperque cocus !

6

Persius, in his third satire, rallying the delicacy of
palate which some of his contemporaries indulged,
likewise introduces this vegetable as the food of the
common people :

tenero latet ulcus in ore

Putre, quod haud fliceat plebeia radere Betd.

Prior to these, both Arabic and Greek authors men-
tion the Beets as dietetic plants, and many ancient
writers describe their cultivation and culinary uses:
among our countrymen, Evelyn, in his Acetaria,
speaks much in their favour; the “costa, or ribs of
the white Beet (by the French called the Chard) being
boiled, melts and eats like marrow ; but the sea-Beet
is the most delicate of all.” This species is well known
to people living on the sea-coast, who call it Cliff-
spinach, and frequently cultivate it in their gardens ;
it differs from the others, not only in being a smaller
and procumbent plant, but in having a perennial root.

Gerard observes, that “ Beet boiled and eaten
with oil, vinegar, and pepper is a most delicate and
excellent sallad ; but what might be made of the red
and beautiful root, 1 refer unto the curious and cunning
cook, who, no doubt, when he hath had the view
thereof, and is assured that it is both good and whole-
some, will make thereof many and divers dishes, both
fair and good.”

The Mangel Wurzel root had become an article
of importance on the Continent, prior to its being
known in this country, as we find by a communication
made to the Society for the encouragement of Arts,
Manufactures, and Commerce, by Mr. John Taylor
of Leipsig, who says, “ Y ou well know that Director

7

Achard , of Berlin, first introduced this subject into
general notice, and recommended that the Sugar should
be procured by boiling the Beet-roots, when taken out
of the earth ; that they be sliced when cold : that
afterwards the saccharine juice be pressed out ; that it
be filtered, evaporated, and, after evaporation, the
sugar be procured by crystallization and pressure.”
More on this subject will be said hereafter.

And in France, when sugar and molasses were pro-
hibited being exported into that kingdom, Bonaparte
directed his attention to this root, as a national good,
and caused it to be cultivated on an extent of upwards
of an hundred thousand acres yearly, for the pur-
pose of extracting sugar. The establishments for this
purpose were very numerous in France, before the
abdication of Napoleon ; the largest I am informed
was at Rambouillet, but that, with many others, was
sold by auction, by order of Louis XVIII.

We are informed by Mr. J. C. Loudon, that at the
time the French government encouraged the manu-
facture of sugar from this root, experiments were made
on a considerable scale, and with great success, in the
town of Bruges. The machinery was unexpensive,
and the remaining cost was merely that of manual
labour, and a moderate consumption of fuel. The
material itself came at a very low rate, about ten
shillings British by the ton ; and to this circumstance
may be chiefly attributed the cessation of the manu-
facture. Instead of encouraging the cultivator, the
government leaned altogether to the manufacturer, and
made it imperative on every farmer to give up a cer-
tain proportion of his land to this root, without secu-
ring to him a fair remuneration. The consequence

8

was, that the manufacturers, thus supported, and
taking advantage of the constrained supply, have in
many instances been known to refuse payment even of
the carriage of a parcel, in other respects sent in gra-
tuitously ; and a consequence still more natural was,
that the farmer, wherever they had the opportunity of
shaking off so profitless a crop, converted the sjrace
it occupied to better purposes. To the manufacturer
the profit was ample : an equal quantity of sugar with
that of the West Indies, which at that time sold for
fire shillings a pound, could be produced on the
spot from Mangel Wurzel at less than one shilling
by the pound : and to such perfection had the sugar
thus made arrived, that the Prefect, Mayor, and some
of the chief persons, of Bruges, who were invited by a
manufacturer to witness the result of his experiments,
allowed the specimens which he produced to exceed
those of the foreign sugar.

At a dinner given in the autumn of the year 1827,
by "the town of Amiens, to the King of France, was
placed on the table, opposite to his Majesty, an im-
mense column, composed of sugar manufactured from
Mangel Wurzel, at Franvillers, near Amiens. The
column consisted of four different qualities of refined
sugar, and crystals of raw sugar formed the pedestal.

It appears from the experiments of Professor
Lampadius, of Freyberg, near Dresden, that Mangel
Wurzel roots, contain water, fibrous matter, sugar,
mucilage, glair, starch, colouring matter, scented mat-
ter, and a bitter substance. The water is in the propor-
tion of from one half to two thirds of the weight of the
roots : the fibrous matter of the roots differs, and is
considerably more in poor, than rich land ; the

9

saccharine particles vary from two to five per cent. ;
the mucilage is from three to five per cent. ; and the
glair, or matter resembling white of egg, is about one
per cent. ; the starch is in very small quantity, being
only about two or three ounces in an hundred weight,
the colouring matter undergoes several changes by
exposure to the air, as yellowish, brown, and red, and
may be precipitated by acetite of lead : the scented
matter is volatile ; it rises in distillation of the root
with water, combines closely with spirits of wine, and
this matter occasions a peculiar contraction in the
organs of taste. By boiling the roots, the smell and
taste are very much lessened. The bitter substance
is soluble in water, and remains behind in the first
sirup after the crystallization of the sugar.

The Preparation op Sugar from Mangel Wurzel.

The following are some experiments of Professor Lampadius :

One hundred and ten pounds of roots, washed,
peeled, cleaned, and then grated, gave a mass which
weighed eighty-seven pounds, out of which were
pressed forty-one pounds and a half of juice, which
was boiled with twenty ounces and a half of charcoal
powder : this, when filtered and evaporated down
until crystallized, produced full five pounds of a
brownish yellow-grained sugar, also five ounces of
brown sirup.

The above brown sugar, after being dissolved in
six pounds of lime water, mixed with one pound of
blood, then boiled, filtered, and afterwards evaporated,
yielded four pounds, five ounces and a half of purified
brown sugar, and six ounces and a half of sirup .

The four pounds, five ounces and a half of sugar

c

10

thus prepared were again dissolved in six pounds of
lime water, mixed with one pound of milk, then boiled
for a quarter of an hour : during the boiling, a small
quantity of white wine vinegar, and a little more milk,
were added ; the saccharine matter was filtered, and
treated as before ; the product was four pounds of
well-grained white powder sugar.

The residium after pressure, the brown sirups of
the two first processes, and the remains of the filtra-
tions, weighed, when collected, forty pounds : they
were mixed with one quart of yeast and eighty quarts
of water, heated to forty degrees of Reaumur’s ther-
mometer, or 112 of Fahrenheit’s, and, after fermenting
forty-eight hours, were distilled. They furnished at
the first distillation, fifteen quarts of weak spirit,
which, on a second distillation, gave eight quarts of
abetter; from which when rectified, were produced
three quarts and a half of spirits resembling rum.

From the result of this experiment, it appeared, that
after paying the farmer for the roots, and discharging
all incidental expences whatever, a profit was yielded
of nearly cent per cent, on valuing the four pounds of
white powder sugar at one shilling per pound, and the
three quarts and a half of rum at one shilling per
quart.

It is not to be inferred, that the profit from this
process will always equal the above ; for subsequent
experiments have proved that the crops of roots cannot
always be depended upon, nor do they always yield the
same quantity of sugar, the produce of different years
having varied, from two pounds of sugar per hundred
weight of roots, to five pounds, according to circum-
stances which have intervened. In the year 1800, an

11

experiment was made at Berlin, under the inspection
of commissioners, and it appeared that 1650 pounds
of the root produced fifty-seven pounds and a half of
raw sugar, and thirty-seven quarts and a half of spirits.
It is also affirmed, that when the sweet juice is ex-
pressed, the residue of the root will serve to make coffee.

This invaluable production, may now be found in
almost every civilized nation in the world, where
the climate is sufficiently temperate for its growth :
in the year 1816, when Bonaparte was exiled
to Si. Helena , I had the honour of furnishing a
gentleman of this University, with a very numerous
assortment of seeds, and amongst the rest, some
Mangel Wurzel seed, to take with him to that remote
island. By the accounts, as communicated from St.
Helena, to Sir Hugh Inglis, from Governor
Beatson, it grew there in its greatest perfection ;
two of the roots were sent, by Sir Hugh, to England,
each weighing Fifty-six Pounds ! !

The quantities there obtained, upon experimental
ground, are immense, after the rate of Sixty-six
Tons and a half per acre, manured with hog-
dung and ashes, and Seventy-seven Tons and
three quarters, with the dung of sea-fowls, pro-
bably the most stimulant and powerful of all manure.
Without manure the acreable produce was only nine-
teen tons and a quarter, a lesson of vital consequence
to farmers ! The Governor, whose attachment to the
culture of mother earth, seems full of zeal and duty,
made a curious and important experiment on a barren
ridge, between two deep ravines, in which, from its
declining surface, no moisture could be retained. It
was trenched and sown, at the same time with sixteen

c 2

12

different sorts of seeds, — Mangel Wurzel Coffee
Cotton— Wheat— Harley— Oats and Peas— Buck-

Wheat— Spring Tares— Lucerne— Burnet— Sain-
foin — Silla — Chicory — Rape and Sunflower .

For a long time there was no appearance of vege-
tation ; at length, seven months after sowing, and
being soaked by rains, the Mangel Wurzel appeared,
one connected line of thriving plants ; but a few of
the rape vegetated, which soon after died ; and not a
plant of the rest ever appeared. The above experi-
ment is the more worthy of attention, as it has been
generally supposed in this country, that, the Mangel
Wurzel will not succeed but upon a rich soil.

I will venture to presume, that Napoleon, found an
agreeable substitute in this salad * (perchance from
the seed I sent) for the gammon- and-spinach, he
was wont to distribute, and partake of, so unsparingly,
when he ruled in France.

The introduction of Mangel Wurzel into England.

The Mangel Wurzel, was first introduced into this
country, for general use, about the year 1786, by
Thomas Boothby Par/cyns , Esq. residing at Metz,
in Fi'ance, who sent a packet of the seed to the late
Sir Richard Jebb, Bart, which he presented to the
society for Encouragement of Arts, &c. and by the
secretary, some of the seed was presented to a few of
the members, among whom, the late Dr . John Coak-
ley T^ettsom, was included, who was enabled by the
kindness of Granville Sharp , Esq. acting executoi,
of the late Sir Richard Jebb, Bart, to give publicity
to the following extract, from the original letter,

* Mangel Wurzel.

13

dated at Metz, the 19th of April 1786, which accom-
panied the first packet of seeds introduced into
England.

“ I have made an excellent acquisition of a plante
“ racine, which has every advantage with the turnip,
“ both for the food of man and beast, without beins'
“ subject to the ravages of any insect whilst in its
“ infant state ; an inconvenience (which of late years)
“ the fanner in all parts of Europe has very much felt
“ in the turnip. The scarcity of forage in France,
“ for these two last years past, has induced a very
“ experienced cultivator in this neighbourhood to
“ search for a substitute, when hay and other forage
“ fails. He has succeeded to a miracle, almost, in
“ the root I mention ; I have seen the root and plant,
“ and am so far convinced of its excellence, as a food
“ both for man and beast, that I think I shall be able
“ to render Old England an essential service in con-
“ v eying seed there for its being cultivated. The
“ leaves are excellent, and much like spinach when
“ boiled, all sorts of cattle are fond of them, and they
“ may be cut six or seven times in the autumn for
“ green forage. The root weighs from eight to ten
“ pounds,* and keeps (like the turnip) till the month
“ of May following. The cultivator I allude to, fat-
“ tened hogs, oxen, and sheep with it last winter, and
“ it exceeds his most sanguine expectations. It is

* The roots at Trente Place, the product of the seeds, sown
by the late Sir R. Jebb, Bart, weighed about ten pounds each.
The Abbe Commerell says, they grow in Lorraine to ten or
even fifteen pounds. The roots raised in Norfolk to twenty
and twenty-four pounds each.

14

“ excellent for milch cows, as it causes no disagree-
“ able taste in their milk, or the blitter made from it.

“ The cultivator sent some plants to the Minister of
“ France , it was so approved of, that he desired ten
“ quintals, 1000 lbs. weight, to be distributed through
“ all the provinces. I have procured two pounds of
“ the seed, which the cultivator gets from the interior
“ parts of Germany , and I mean to send some of it
“ to the Society* in the Adelphi, with printed direc-
“ tions for its cultivation by the above mentioned
“ person.”

Amongst the greatest promoters, and earliest culti-
vators of this root, I have to notice the late Sir Wil-
liam Jerningham , and Sir Mor daunt Martin, of
the county of Norfolk; to the latter gentleman I had
the honour of sending some seed, and receiving the
following letter dated —

Burnham, Norfolk March 16 , 1815 .

Sir,

I have been an attentive cultivator of
Mangel Wurzel from its first introduction, and began
by sowing seeds from such plants as grew most into
the ground, in hopes of their resisting the frost, but
was soon convinced of my error ; a friend sent me a
few seeds from Brussells, they produced plants with
very small tops, and growing so much out of the
ground, as to bend with their own weight.

I last year bought a pound of your seed, and dis-

* The account communicated by J. B. Parkyns, Esq. is
published in the fifth volume of the Transactions of the
Society.

15

posed some of it, in small packets, as widely as I
could, that if it should prove superior to mine, you
might have your due credit, the rest I sowed in drills
between some wheat Dr. Lettsom sent me, and my
own : yours * was certainly the largest , and pro-
duced the most foliage , and were so much the
clearest from fangs, that I shall continue to save
the seed.

I am now about planting out every well formed
root I can spare for seed : to protect them from hares,
I have formed a small island in a marsh, but I find
the soil (which has chiefly been an old sea-bank) to
be much too stiff, that I shall only try a small part of
it this season, which may give me the benefit of a
change of soil, for my own future use. The chief of
the produce of my roots on the upland, I shall allot
for sale, for which purpose I shall get a friend in
London, to enquire the price at different shops, and
then advertise it at the average of their collective
price : this year I have barely seed enough left for

my own use, having supplied a few friends, and sold
the rest.

Mordaunt Martin.

And in another letter which Sir Mordaunt addressed
to the Farmer's Journal, he observes — “ The leaves
I gave to my cows in the autumn, thrown on grass-

* I hope I shall not be accused of egotism, when I say,
that the seed I sent to the worthy Baronet, and for which he
honourably awarded me » due credit,” was of a genuine im-
proved, stock, and of which, I have continued to supply my
friends ever since.

1G

land, as I strip them from the roots, when I pack them
up. The roots I gave to them in the same way, be-
tween finishing turnips, and beginning grass. When
1 give them to beasts tied up, I divest them as much
as l can of the earth which adheres to them. If I
have straw to keep them tolerably clean, I feed them
in the farm-yard ; if not, on my poorest grass-land,
and they prefer them to the freshest grass, and shrink
in their milk when they cease to have. them ; if the re-
maining stock is in my way, I frequently remove the
roots into any empty building for the convenience of
feeding my swine till the following harvest. I have
sown Mangel Wurzel and Swedish Turnips in drills
alternately; every Mangel Wurzel has been bitten by
the hares and rabbits, and not a Swedish furnip
touched; I have further covered up a wheel-barrow
full of Mangel Wurzel with a cart load of Swedish
Turnips, and my cows have turned over the latter to
get at the former, as horses do cut straw to get at
oats ; and swine will leave a corn stack to get at them,
and will fatten thereon sufficiently for roasting pork.

I had a quantity of Mangel Wurzel at one end of a
heap, and Swedish Turnips at the other : the Maugel
Wurzel kept as perfectly as mine has invariably done ;
the Swedish Turnips heated and rotted.”

R. C. Harvey, Esq. of Alburgh, kindly favoured
me with the following account : — “ Although I do
not occupy a large farm, still the soil varies very much,
and, in order to procure the produce of Mangel Wur-
zel, I have grown it Upon light, strong, wet, and good
mixed soil land ; the latter is far preferable, and next
to that is the light land, if you have a tolerable depth
of soil. I had last year, upon my best land, Forty-

17

seven Tons Fifteen Hundred; upon the light
about Forty Tons ; upon good strong land Thirty-
. seven Tons ; and upon the wet, cold land, not more
than Twenty-five Tons, per acre.

“ Respecting the quality, it is, beyond a doubt, su-
perior to any other root known in this country ; bul-
locks, sheep, or pigs, will leave every other root for it
(except for the first three or four days.) It is generally
sown with the intent of laying up till the spring of the
year, but the quantity I generally grow, would take
up too much time, and room, to house or stack the
whole of it; and as 1 in summer feed from sixty to
seventy bullocks, I want those for Smithfield in Fe-
bruary, I therefore eat my Mangel Wurzel first, giving
the tops to the sheep and cows, which are generally
two or three days before they eat it freely.

“ I had last year fifty-four Scots which did the most,
fed in that way, of any I ever saw ; I had two which
I fed almost entirely upon Mangel Wurzel— they paid
me 521. 10 s. for seven months keep. I consider the
bullocks do quite as well at Mangel Wurzel, as at
oil-cake. I have been, and am still a considerable
grower of Swedish Turnips, but could never grow
more than two-thirds of the weight, the Mangel Wur-
zel would get per acre.”

In Hertfordshire , it was first introduced amongst
the tenantry of the Marquis of Salisbury, who
have ever since been growers, for the sole purpose of
feeding, and fatting of cattle. A better proof of its
utility cannot be given, than the following extract
from a letter, which I received from a gentleman, who
is a considerable grower in that county “ It saves
all the expence of oil-cake to those who wish to fatten

18

their cattle, Mr. Stevenson, of Hatfield, having fed
forty head of bullocks, sheep, &c. upon it, for these
four or five years past, and it only wants to be gene-
rally known to he universally cultivated,”

" Dear native land, how do the good and wise.

Thy happy clime, and countless blessings prize !

It affords an excellent substitute, to feed with, when
other food is scarce, or considered too dear to buy, as
will appear by the following account, which was
transmitted to me, from a friend residing in the fens,
with an order for seed : — “ I thank you for recom-
mending the Mangel Wurzel to me last year, it is a
rara avis with us here ; but I will never be without
it, it saved me the expence of buying peas, beans, or
barley, last summer, to feed some store hogs ; in fact
I must have parted with them, had it not been for the
Mangel Wurzel. I had no other food for them, and
it would not have answered to buy ; but thanks to
you, and Mangel Wurzel , my hogs did well, and
paid me for keeping them. My neighbours envied me
my food, and regretted that tbev were not growers of
this excellent root, and even those who once con-
demned it, (and many did, without kuowing anything,
as to its merits or demerits) said they would not be
another season without it.”

The following account was sent to me, by an old
acquaintance resident a few miles from Cambridge,
a share of whose friendship I enjoyed uninterrupt-
edly for many years : — “ The quantity of Mangel
Wurzel I grew last year, answered exceedingly well
indeed. I never grew anything where the produce
was so great, or my cattle did so well with. Since

19

tlie inclosure of our parish, we are deprived of our
commons , and nearly all the grass-land, is converted
into arable, or, in other words — “ two farms have
(like Aaron’s rod) swallowed up the remaining
seven ” and very few have the convenience, or means,
to keep stock for their own use. Be assured my
friend, an inclosure bill , is the seldom-erring signal
of ruin to all the small farms of the parish, with a
melancholy train of collateral consequences ; this is a
subject, that ought to be considered by even our
rulers: there maybe some difference in terms; but
the infatuated and cruel ambition, which would reduce
the independent tiller of the soil, to a state of servi-
tude, would, with equal apathy, overwhelm thrones,
and lay crowns and sceptres in the dust. —

Where then, ah! where shall poverty reside;

“ To ’scape the presence of contiguous pride ?

If to some Common’s fenceless limits stray’d,

“ He drives his flock to pick the scanty blade ;

“ Those fenceless fields the sons of wealth divide.

“ And even the bare-worn Common is deny’d.”

“ The leaves of Mangel Wurzel, kept my hogs and
cows in the summer, and the roots in the winter and
spring : they eat it with great avidity, and did well
upon it. As as article of food lor cattle, it has no pa-
rallel, and it is worthy of recommendation to those,
who have no grass-land, and even the labourer wl:o
has a little ground, would do well to cultivate so use-
ful a substitute, as it will afford food for a pig, or cow,
without buying corn or hay, which is generally too dear
in summer, to answer his purpose to feed with, and
not less so in winter.”

c 2

20

Part of my friend’s letter, brings to my recollection
the following lines, which I used to repeat when a
hoy, and although not analogous to my subject, I take
the liberty of inserting here.

The Crime is great, in man, or woman.

That steals a Goose from off a Common !

But who can plead that man’s excuse, —

Who steals the Common from the Goose*

I resume with the following extract from a lettei I
received from J. B, Burch, Esq. of Brandon,
Suffolk.

“ From the judicious management of Mangel
Wurzel, on the Duke of Norfolk’s faun, at
Fornham, near Bury, by keeping it for spring feed-

* “In every country, in all situations and circumstances,
and in our own country, particularly in the situation in which
it is now placed, it is of the highest importance to consider,
whether a mere increase of wealth may not be purchased too
dearly ; whether it is prudent or wise to diminish the number
of those whose souls are knit to their native land, by stronger
ties than are known to the mere manufacturer. To the patriot,
it can be little satisfaction to see his country the richest in the
world, if the measures and causes which make it rich, dimmish
in the most trifling degree, its independence ; either by raising
any passion above the love of our country, or by diminishing
the number of those who must be its most natural and power-
ful defenders. To the moralist it can afford little pleasure to
be told, that by the saving of agricultural labour, the manu-
factures of his country will be extended or increased, if he
perceive that by the change of employment, the health and

virtue of part of the community are sacrificed.”

Stevenson.

21

/

"f bis dairy has (,»»«) a plml ^ w|]i|e otbm m

7'^' tbe ™“ »f lomips, and the back-

war, neas of ,11 the grasses in this i„ dement , e(lson .

nd beside he is finishing his last lot of Devon bull
locks upon them,

' . “ Il0W , l0ng Wi!1 farmers r ^ain blind to their own
interests !”

A nd in another letter written prior to the foregoing

! w ' Sa} S l ~“ In the f ' rSt 3 ,ear of my growing Man-
f . l " Ze ’ 1 gave t5le leaves to my cows, and they
fed upon them very heartily ; as l fatted some bullocks
with the roots in the winter of that year, I did not give
any to the cows until the following spring, when each
cow had, as long as they lasted, about one bushel a
ay. a sweet flavour was soon distinguishable in the
milk-the quantity increased -and the butler par-
took of the sweet flavour of the milk.

“ I did not continue the practice of gathering the
leaves because I conceived it was injurious to the
- growth of the root.

; My crop pf the second year was given in part to
co.vs, when first severed from the ground ■ the
same ^prove.enl was immediately discoverable in
e milk, and the butter, as well as in the condition of
he cows. As I wished to save a pasture for mowing
season, I reserved the other part of the roots till
ie spnng: I found them in the month of May as
sound as when gathered; they remained so till ’the
cows had finished them, the latter end of Ju I
gamed my crop of hay-I had delightful May butter

22

and my cows had all the appearance of the highest
state of health. I have had no cause subsequently,
to alter my opinion of the PREEMINENCE of the
Mangel Wurzel root for the dairy.

“ I have often heard the like praise bestowed upon
the Mangel Wurzel root, by gentlemen who have tried
it on a much larger scale, than the scope of my little
farm will admit of.”

To those interesting and important communica-
tions, I could add many more, and cannot refrain from
quoting a short extract from a letter, published in the
Farmer’s Journal, from the pen of B. Holdtch,
Esq.* of Thorney, in the Isle of Ely ; speaking of
Mangel Wurzel, he says “ It is desirable we should
have a name for it in one word. It is beginning to
be called WuRREL in some parts, and some call it
Worzel, and Wezzel. It would be a deserved
honour to its original advocate, to call it Lettsom.
Let any considerable seedsman advertise the seed by
this name, and the thing is done.

PRODUCTION.

The extraordinary produce on several farms, in this
and adjoining counties, will appear wonderful to those,
who have never seen it cultivated. The average quan-
tity of food, produced on several farms, is Fifty-
Four Tons, or 2650 bushels per acre. Suppose
an acre of land divided into rows, eighteen inches
asunder, and the plants of Mangel Wurzel to be

* The late ingenious Editor of the ‘ Farmer’s Journal.’

23

twelve inches apart, it will on computation contain
about 30,000 roots, and suppose each root to weigh
on an average, about live pounds, it will produce about
Sixty Ions , by this it will be proved to take the pre-
cedence of turnips.

.The Abbe de Commerell, gives the following ac-
count of the nett produce of an acre of land, Lorrain
measure. “ In order to save cultivators some trouble,
in calculating what quantity of roots may be jzroduced
in an acre of land, Lorrain measure, which is nearly
equal to half an acre of France, I will state here
the method of proceeding in that calculation, and of
shewing the result. The acre of land contains 259
square rods, the rod contains ten feet, and the foot ten
royal inches : the acre then comprehends 2,500,000
square inches of surface ; but every square of eighteen
inches contains (multiplying 18 by 18) 324 square
inches ; and thus, in dividing 2,500,000, by the num-
ber of square inches necessary to every root, it will be
found, that 7,716 roots may be planted in an acre of
Loz-rain, placing them at eighteen inches distance ;
there remains indeed a fraction in this calculation ; but
this may be disregarded.”

The following relation was communicated to Dr.

Lettsom by a gentleman at Ipswich. “ Mr. D

near Swaffham, Noi'folk, received some seeds of the
Root of Scai'city from the late Sir Richard Jebb, Bart,
which he sowed in light rich earth, in a drill, at the
end of April last : when the plants had acquired the
thickness of a quill, some were ti-ansplanted, and others
left in the seed-bed. On taking up the latter on the
first of November after having had their leaves several
times pi-eviously plucked during the summer, a single

24

root, with a moderate top, measured three feet two
inches in length, and twenty-seven inches in circum-
ference, and weighed twenty-four pounds, with the
top, and twenty-one pounds without it. Those roots
which had been transplanted, acquired only about half
the size. Mr. D. is of opinion that sowing them after
the manner of turnips, in well ploughed earth, ma-
nured as for turnips, and hoed to eighteen inches
apart, with their leaves untouched, would prove the
best mode of culture. From this astonishing instance
of vegetation, we may calculate, that upwards of fifty
pounds weight of provision has been produced in about
half a yard of soil !”

Dr. Letts om further informs us — “ I calculate,
from the product of my garden, that a square yard of
ground,' planted with the Mangel WurzeJ, will yield
Fifty Pounds in weight of salutary food : an abun-
dance equalled by few, if any other plants hitherto cul-
tivated in Europe.”

In the year 1813, I received two roots from Oliver
Cromwell, Esq. Cheshunt Park, Hertfordshire ,
produced from seed I had the honour of supplying
him; they weighed, together, Sixty one pounds, the
heaviest of the two weighed Thirty-one pounds, and
measured, thirty-four inches in length (including
five inches of the stalk leaves) and twenty -eight inches
in circumference.

The following is an extract from a letter, from R.
Rams den, Esq. Carlton Hall, Nott’s. “ I have a
large quantity of it (Mangel Wurzel) this year, thir-
ty-eight tons per acre, and all of it will be given to
cows, with a little hay as formerly.”

J. Braddick, Esq. of Thames Ditton, in a letter

25

published in the Farmer's Journal, says : — “ I hare
only one quarter of an acre , of this root, which I
judge has produced, between Fourteen and Fif-
teen Tons of roots. The plants if left at eighteen
inches apart, each way, must of course give a greater
produce, the roots average about eighteen pounds each,
from which, deduct three pounds for top, about fifty-
seven roots stood in a square rod. I have fed two
large bogs for ten weeks past, on these roots, they now
only require a fortnight’s keep on pease to harden their
flesh previous to killing. I have now one heifer up
fatting on the roots of this plant, and three milch cows,
eat daily of the roots, and tops, which latter are plucked
off as the plants are taken up for use.”

T. Herod, Esq. of North Creek, says : — he sowed
the Mangel Wurzel, broad cast on the 4th of June,
harrowed itin the same as turnips are usually harrowed,
when sown in that way the land being in a high state
of cultivation, produced Sixty Tons and Ten Hun-
beed weight per acre.

“ I* should never be forgotten,” says Mr. P. Simp-
son, “ that forty-eight tons, the produce of only a single
acre, of this root, will make ten bullocks fat enough
for the butcher ; and that six acres, of equal produce
will fatten sixty bullocks ; that the profit on each bul-
lock will be considerable ; and that when the business
of feeding is over, the yard will be full of rich dung :
neither should it be forgotten, that the tenant who sells
his sti aw, cannot partake of any of these advantages ’

In the Feus of Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely

A vast expanse, beyond what eve can ken.

From Ely’s lofty tow’rs to Lincoln’s fen.

E

The Mangel Wurzel has met with great approba-
tion, and on many farms the produce has been abun-
dant beyond example. £ The present face of this
country wears a very different aspect (says an anony-
mous writer) to what it did formerly : for it is a maxim,
wherever we see a religious foundation, the circumja-
cent lands were rich and fertile, as the Ecclesiastics of
former days had the picking and culling of all the
good things of the earth ; they would never fix their
residence but where they might be accommodated not
only with the conveniences but the delicacies of life ;
and their aquatic situation supplied them with plenty
of fish for their fasting days.’

The pamper’d abbot fixed here his stand.

To riot on the fatness of the land,

Where verdant pastures once were wont to feed
The fine-fleec’d sheep, and ox of largest breed;

Where rapid rivers yield the fishy prey.

To fast delicious on each maigre day.

The reader will excuse this digression, when he le-
flects that it is designed as a compliment to the Fen
country.’

SUBSEQUENT COMMUNICATIONS.

The following account appeared in £ the Cambridge
Independent Press,’ on December 1, 1827, respecting
the management of Mangel Wurzel.— ££ Have a suffi-
ciently number of men or women, on the piece, to pull
them up, and cut off the greens, taking care to cut off
enough of the crown to hold the leaves together*;

* With all due deference to this anonymous writer, I beg to
differ from this mode of cutting off the tops; I strongly

27

two dung carts must stand near, and the roots must he
thrown in one, and the greens in the other. Draw the
roots to your rick-yard (or near where you intend to
consume them) and get ready a large quantity of dry
straw ; and then begin a stack large enough to con-
tain the quantity you wish to store, by placing, first a
layer of straw about a foot thick, and then a layer of
roots about the same thickness, and so keep on alter-
nately with straw and roots, until you are of sufficient
height, and then top it up in the same manner, and
thatch it, and they will keep without any further trouble
all the winter. This plan secures them from frost,
with the exception of a few near the outside ; it secures
them from heating, which they are very apt to do; it
secures them from wet, which will otherwise injure
them ; and the straw will afterwards serve to litter up
the pen where the cattle eat them. A cut of the rick,
may be cut down at any time, the same as hay is cut,
without disturbing the whole, and this plan prevents
the necessity of filling the sheds and outhouses, which
may, therefore, be usefully employed for other pur-
poses. The greens, of course, must be used directly,
as they will not keep; and the plan I adopted, was to
draw them out on a piece of pasture ground, and spread
them about with dung-forks, and they were thus eaten
by my cows, and on which they thrived exceedingly.
If they are left on the piece where- they grew, they will
either get dirty, or dusty, so that nothing will eat them

recommend stripping them with the hand, which prevents the
roots (from what is termed) bleeding, which they are apt to do,
and ultimately to rot. — T. N,

E 2

28

well, but if a little dirty the first shower of rain, after
they are strewed on the pasture, washes them clean,
and the sheep, notwithstanding, may he folded on the
ground where they grew. This then is my (I think)
original plan for securing the roots, and making the
best of this valuable plant : and I, last winter, kept
well seventeen breeding sows upon it alone, and at a
time when beans could scarcely be procured at any
price, and I found its advantage at such a time almost
incalculable, and I have no doubt the more it is known,
the more it will be cultivated.”

The following is an extract of a letter I received
from a friend in the North — -dated

Peeth, Mahch 10 , 1827 .

<c In the mountainous districts in Scotland, accord-
ing to good old custom, it is deemed an admirable
property in sheep, to starve well, and to escape in
certain proportions with skin, horns, aud bone through
the rigours of winter. The provision for cattle is very
scarce, hay and straw, where most wanted, are either
too dear, or cannot be purchased at all ; Linseed has
been resorted to, boiled, and mixed with cut wheat
straw forming a jelly, and given to cattle at the cost
of about sixpence per day each. Pigs, store sheep
and ewes are kept at a great expence. The Lincoln-
shire farmers, I am informed, are suffering great loss
from the total failure of their turnip crop ; and doubly
fortunate those, who like myself, can go to a good
store of Mangel Wurzel roots ; my crop of about four
acres, produced about 180 tons of good sound roots,
and were I inclined to sell what I have left, (and I
have not many) I could command almost any price

29

for them, as many farmers in this part of the kingdom
are under the necessity of sending their stock into
other counties to keep them from starving. Another
year, many of my neighbours have determined on cul-
tivating Mangel Wurzel, and some to great extent,
instead of turnips.” R.

Mr. Whttechurgh, a very considerable farmer at
Harlton, Camb’s, is a successful cultivator of Mangel
Wurzel; Mr. W. informs me he grows it principally
for the feeding of his ewes in the spring, and that he
has been feeding seven or eight milch cows this win-
tex upon the roots, and they are doing amazingly well.
Mi. W. assures me, that no other food whatevei' will
produce so much profit to the farmer, and he has no-
ticed, whenever his milch cows have been debarred
from eating Mangel Wurzel, the decrease in their
milk has been very great. Mr. W. this year began
to feed his swine upon this root, and to use his own
words— “ the pigs grow like weeds.” Jan. 5, 1828.

At the last' meeting of the Bath and West of Eng-
land Agricultural Society, a letter from Mr. Joseph
Louch, on the culture of Mangel Wurzel, was read,
and a specimen of the root, grown at Hambridge, near
Biidge water, and weighing about thirty pounds, was
submitted to the inspection of the meeting. Mr.
Louch observed in his letter, that he had sent this
specimen to the Society, in the hope that it might in-
duce gentlemen to direct their attention more decidedly
to the cultivation of the plant. Its utility was gene-
rally allowed ; it being, in a scarcity of grass, an inva-
luable substitute for hay ; while the expence attendant
on its growth was trivial. Any land would do for

30

Mangel Wurzel. Even where turnips failed, he had
known the cultivation of this plant succeed. He had
chosen for it a strong blue soil of about two acres, on
which sheep had been previously folded ; and had
planted about two inches below the surface of the
ground, suffering the leaves to remain on the plant,
which served as a protection from frost, and did not,
as had been supposed, do an injury to it. The re-
sult had been — a very abundant crop; the roots
weighing from fifteen to thirty pounds each. The
fact of its cultivation being so cheap, so easy, and
practicable, on any description of soil, would he hoped,
render Mangel Wurzel an object of more general
attention. 1828 .

The following very Friendly epistle, I received
last season. My poetic correspondent having so
faithfully described his method of cultivation and its
results, I cannot refrain from inserting it, with the
omission of his name and residence, as perhaps he
had no idea of iny giving it publicity ; I will, however,
venture to say, the letter bears the post-mark of a
market town in Suffolk.

Esteemed Fhiend,

I write to let thee know
How well thy Mangel Wurzel seed did grow ;

I had it from thee, in third month last year,

On the ninth day — as doth per bill appear ; —

And unto thy directions (thou did’st send
Enclosed in the bag) I did attend : —

I plough’d, and dung’d, and harrow’d well my field,

(I know bad farming does no profit yield !)

31

I soak’d the seed for four- and- twenty hours,
"Which expedited much its growing 1 powers ;

On twelfth day of fourth month I did begin.

With greatest care, the seed to dibble in
The ridges fourteen inches from each other.

And with a rake, the seeds did safely cover :

After a little time the plants appear’d.

And many thistles too, the sunshine rear’d ;

I then employ’d a man, and little boy.

With hand and hoe, the thistles to destroy ;

The Wurzel soon large spreading leaves display’d,
Which pleased Rachel B ****, my dairy-maid ;
For all my milch cows on the green tops browz’d

Until the period, when the roots were hous’d ;

And Rachel doth affirm, she ne’er before
Had such delicious butter in her store !

And not a cow, at morn and eve did fail

In milk, to send her home a brimming pail !

Two acres, did near eighty tons produce
Of valued food for starving winter’s use ;

Some of the roots ’bove thirty pounds did weigh,")
My old friend S****, had no such roots as they/ (

Half his were spurious, which ran away. I

He says, in future he’ll be rul’d by me, ^

And buy his Mangel Wurzel seed, of Thee !

Farewell ! Friend N— , please at thy leisure send
Ten pounds of Wurzel seed, for

Thy assured Friend,

* * *

— 1 Month, 6 th, 1827.

I am honoured with the following interesting com-
munication from J. C. Curwen, Esq.* Workington

* The father of the soiling and steaming systems
England.

32

Hall, Cumberland, M.P. and one of the most expe-
rienced agriculturists in the kingdom.

Workington Hall, January 9th, 1828.

“ l n one or two instances where the soil was
adapted, 1 had abundant crops, not less than Sixty
Tons per acre. The seed of the Mangel Wurzel,
is of slow vegetation, to remedy this, I mixed it with
sand, and put it in a warm situation, wetting it a little,
so that it vegetated Jbefore I sowed it ; I found this an
improvement. I consider this root as amongst the
first for feeding : some care is requisite not to give it
in too great quantities, as it is apt to foment on the
stomach, and produce inflammation— salt is a great pre-
ventative. Where steamed food is used for cattle, it
answers before all other roots. Lord Alihorpe, and
other efficients, have left no doubt of the excellence of
this plant. On peat soil it thrives well. Deep
ploughing is essential, to give the tap-root solidity in
striking, wherever it is prevented either by the quality
of the soil, or stones, the plant fails. Stripping the
leaves may answer in a little way, but on a great scale,
the expence is too great, and I think it must injuie
the root. The necessity of protecting it against frost,
is attended with some expence. Where the soil is
dry, I see it is protected by pitting, as the Irish do
their potatoes, with a course of straw. On loam well
prepared I have had Sixty Tons on clay, with every
care and attention, from fifteen to twenty tons of bulbs.
In Norfolk, Mr. Coke says he can get fifteen tons,
with less than half the expence requisite for Swedes,

&c.”

J. C. Curwen.

33

£ am also favoured with the following from Mr'.
W. Clayden, a highly respectable, and extensive
farmer at Littlebury, Essex.

Littlebtjry, January 14th, 1828.

“ I have now cultivated this most excellent root for
three years, on several descriptions of soil, and con-
sider it of great advantage to the occupier of a strong
clay soil, which is not adapted to the growth of tur-
nips, as it comes early to maturity, and may be carted
off the land any time in October, thereby enabling
him to winter more stock, and to sow his laud with
wheat, if lie thinks proper. It is also serviceable on
light soils, as it has been with difficulty during the
drought of the last three or four summers, that a plant
of turnips has been secured; but with Mangel Wur-
zel, if the land is in a proper state, and the seed good,
you are almost sure to obtain that desirable object, it
not being so liable to be injured by the attacks of
insects: but I should recommend all who cultivate it,
not to be niggardly either of seed, manure, or hoeing.

“ I l iave principally given it to store cattle, and
milch cows I have always found them to thrive par-
ticularly well with it, and it is free from the objection
for the latter purpose, to which turnips are liable, that
of imparting an unpleasant flavour to the milk. I
have now some bullocks fattening upon it, with the
addition of one oil-cake per day. I consider them
going on fast. I think it ought not to be given till
the beginning of January, and as the year advances,
it becomes more valuable up to the Month of May.
The quantity grown has, I think, in many instances,
been over-rated, and I should consider will vary ac-

r

34

cording to the difference, in soil, and culture, from
twenty-five to forty tons per acre : no exact period can
be fixed for sowing, that must vary according to the
nature of the soil, as on rich land, if planted too early,
it is apt to run away, and on poor land, if too late,
liable to he attacked with wire-worm, or grub.”

William Clayden.

Mr.Moyse of Denny Abbey, a gentleman of great
practical knowledge in farming and grazing, having
invited me to visit him, and see his stock, feeding and
fattening, on Mangel Wurzel: I accepted his kind
invitation, in the last week of January 1828, when I
had the gratifying pleasure of being shewn over his
extensive farm, containing nearly thirteen hundred
acres — where

White shine the flocks, in narrow cots reclin’d.

Where spotted oxen o’er the lawn appear.

The general arrangement, neatness and regularity,
united with convenience and economy, so very visible
on Denny Abbey Farm, exhibits a specimen of that
agricultural judgement and knowledge so requisite
and necessary to an English farmer.

An able writer on agriculture, wisely says : — “ In-
stead of large proprietors attempting to rival the
meanest of their tenants, in farming for pecuniary
profit, which, on a fair calculation, they rarely, if ever
obtain; let their views in agriculture be professedly
and effectually directed toward the pecuniary advan-
tage of their tenants : for from them, only, their own
can arise, in any degree that is entitled to the atten-
tion of men of fortune. Instead of boasting of the

35

price of a bullock, or the produce of a field, let it be
the pride of him who possesses an extent of landed
property, to speak of the flourishing condition of his
estates at large, the number of superior managers that
he can count upon them, and the value of the improve-
ments which he has been the happy means of diffusing
among them. Leave it to professional men, to yeo-
manry and the higher class of tenants, to carry on the
improvements, and incorporate them with established
practices, to prosecute pecuniary agriculture in a su-
perior manner, and set examples to inferior tenantry.
This is strictly their province ; and their highest and
best views in life. It has been through this order of
men, chiefly or wholly, that valuable improvements in
agriculture have been brought into practice, and ren-
dered of general use.” Such a landlord, appears H.
P. Stanley, Esq. the proprietor of Denny Abbey
estate.

Mr. Moyse informed me, that he was prejudiced, a
few years ago, against the cultivation, and use of
Mangel Wurzel, (doubtless through “ the false
alarm,” which spread from Norfolk,) but at last, his
better judgment overcame his prejudice, and he re-
solved upon cultivating it, and trying its merits as a
cattle food ; and a better proof cannot be given of his
opinion of its intrinsic excellence, than by his having
ever since cultivated it to a very considerable extent :
the last season Mr. M. planted forty acres, and cal-
culates the produce of roots, at fifty ton weight per
acre ; the year previous, Mr. M. says he had forty-
eight tons, and the crop was not so abundant as the
last ; several roots this season, weigh forty-two
pounds each. I walked with Mr. Moyse, and his

F 2

343

bailiff, to see the Mangel Wurzel stacks, three of
which are one hundred and ninety-two feet in
length each, and about twelve feet wide at the bot-
tom, and another (now opened) one hundred and
sixty-two feet in length, and the same width as the
others ; they are about eighteen or twenty feet high ,
from the level of the ground to the ridge ; they are
piled with alternate layers of haulm straw, from the
bottoms to the tops, which are formed to a ridge, and
thatched. Mr. M’s bailiff informed me, that they took
seventy -four acres of haulm to complete them, and
he calculated that the four stacks contained two thou-
sand tons voeight of solid nutricious cattle food. —

Reserv’d till vegetation shrinks and dies ;

Till yon fair spotted tribes, that range the dale.

And frequent wait the ruddy milkmaid’s pail,

View the gay plains when verdure wont to glow.

Incas’d in ice, or buried deep in snow.

Mr. Moyse never strips the leaves from the roots,
unless he wants them for his stock, thinking, that the
trampling over the land, and loosening the roots, oc-
casions more injury, than the value of the leaves will
compensate ; but when he takes up his crop, ploughs
them for manure, as is customary with green coleseed.

In sowing for a crop, Mr. M. recommends, (espe-
cially on good land) to plant them in ridges thirty
inches asunder, and to leave the plants eighteen inches
apart.

In commencing feeding with Mangel Wurzel, Mr.
M. limits the quantity, till by degrees his stock eat
what they choose, especially his fattening beasts : be-
tween forty and fifty of which I saw feasting upon it,

37

and many of them ready for the butcher; Mr. M. as-
sured me that they had eaten nothing else, except a
little hay : the roots are given to the beasts, and to all
the other stock, whole ; I recommended slicing them,
but Mr. M. had tried it, and found it better to give the
loots whole, to all stock. Mr. M. sends several
Mangel Wurzel fattened beasts, (and sheep) to Cam-
bridge* weekly, and supplies their places with others,
principally Scots, and as soon as he had fed off his
Swedes, he intends placing 200 beasts upon Mangel
Wurzel.

In conclusion, Mr. Moyse gave me his decided opi-
nion, that Mangel Wurzel, as a cattle food, for either
feeding, or fattening beasts, or for milch cows, far
excelled every other, and had not the least doubt, that
ere long, it would surmount every prejudice, and be-
come an article of general cultivation throughout the
empire.

Mr. Archer Butterfield, of Bassiugbourn,
Cambridgeshire, has obliged me with the following
communication, Mr. B. says : —

“ I have been in the habit of growing Mangel
Wurzel for some years, the last two years past, I have
sown about ten acres per year ; I generally sow it on
a light Moorish soil, so much so that it is not calcu-
lated to bear corn, I find it does much better on that
kind of soil, than on old ploughed land, being ex-
tremely troublesome on a dusty soil — the leaves I give

* If any of my beef-eating friends in this neighbourhood
wish to taste of Mangel Wurzel beef, I strongly recommend
them to Mr. Cross, the respectable butcher, in Sidney Street.

38

to my cows and sheep, which they are extremely fond
of. I am feeding pigs with the roots, and they thrive
upon them ; and also my milch cows, and find they
are a fine thing for milk. I have fatted beasts with
them, with very little else beside. Horses, when used
to them seem to prefer them to any other food : sheep
and lambs eat them with avidity, and in my opinion
Mangel Wurzel is far superior to Swedish turnips for
any kind of stock.”

A. Butterfield.

Bassingbourn,

January 25, 1828.

W. Wedd, Esq. of Foulmire, Cambridgeshire, has
been a grower of Mangel Wurzel for some conside-
rable period, and informs me that he has obtained
twenty-four tons (exclusive of the tops) per acre,
from land very unfavourable for the growth of this
root.

January 26, 1828.

I here give the following very valuable extract from
a letter, I am favoured with, from J. Wjllmott, Esq.
a gentleman of great practical knowledge of hus-
bandry, in general, dated

Lewisham, January 23, 1S28.

“ I herewith send you a few hints (hastily put to-
gether) on Mangel Wurzel, which from the care that
has been taken for the last few years in saving the
seed, from the very best roots, is now getting into very
general use, and deservedly so, as there is nothing to
compete with it in value, as a winter food for cattle ;
indeed if we go on improving the stock, as we have
done for the last two or three years, there will not be

39

a farmer of any respectability, who will not think it
necessary to have a few acres of it. The large quan-
tity of foreign seed sold last season, and the very
little that proved good, has, I hope, sufficiently opened
the farmer’s eyes, and no argument will, I trust, per-
suade them to sow the imported rubbish , when good
English seed from transplanted roots, can be procured
at any price— I say transplanted, because I know there
have been instances where the seed has been sown in
tows in the month of August, and being promiscuously
thinned out, and the winter proving mild, they have
survived, and produced abundance of seed, of which
there have been many complaints, and serious ones
too — this however can only happen when the winter
is unusually mild, and the roots small, for if they are
of a tolerable size, and the crowns are not covered,
they are sure to be destroyed the first severe frost, that
happens about Christmas — respecting the cultivation
of the roots for winter use, I have only to remark, that
the drills should be drawn, from two feet, to two feet,
three inches apart, from row to row, according to the
goodness of the ground, and size of the lands, always
remembering, the richer and better the land, the more
distant the plants should be from each other ; thus, if
the soil be very good, the plants in the rows may be
left sixteen or eighteen inches apart from each other,
but if it should be of inferior quality, a foot to fifteen
inches will be sufficient : — with respect to taking off
the leaves, I never could see much advantage in it ; if
the season should be very dry, and grass short, it may
be advisable to do so, to a certain extent, but other-
wise the damage done to the crop, by destroying the

40

roots, and treading down the ground, is more than
adequate to the few leaves that can be got from the
plant, at this season of the year.

“ As a proof of the advantage to be derived from
growing this root, in preference to any other, it is suf-
ficient to say, that a neighbour of mine, who has for
some years cultivated the root, to a considerable ex-
tent, has, the three last years, made more of it, than
any other crop on his farm. In the autumn of 1825,
he sold his crop as it stood, on the ground, for forty
pounds per acre : — the following year he sold it for
thirty-three pounds ; and the last autumn he got
twenty-eight pounds : this low price, was in conse-
quence of the seed not coming up, in one part of the
field, where the land would not work well, and from
the dry weather setting in so soon after sowing, there
was not more than half a crop ; even however at the
latter price, I do not know what is to compete with it,
in value, nor no one that does less injury to the land.

“ The plants from the early sown seed will, a great
many of them, be very troublesome, in running to seed ;
and the quality of the roots, from the latter sown crop,
is always of superior quality ; — it is necessary that the
land be well manured, and ploughed at least three
times, to pulverize it, and make it fit to receive the
seed; with these advantages, and keeping the land
well horse-hoed in the summer, from thirty to forty
tons weight may be reasonably expected per acre, and
if sold for only twenty shillings a ton, or sixpence a
bushel, it will pay better than any other crop that I
am acquainted with.”

John Willmott.

41

The following extract, from a letter I am favoured
with from Mr. Wilkie, a most intelligent agricul-
turist, will shew the enormous produce per acre,
under good husbandry ; upon the land of the Right
Honorable the Earl of Hardwicke at Wimpole, in this
immediate neighbourhood.

Wimpole, January 26, 1828.

“ I have cultivated Mangel Wurzel for the last twelve
years, to the extent of ten or twelve acres a year, with
gieat success. As to weight I have generally grown
from Sixty to Eighty Tons per acre — have given
the roots to all kinds of stock ; but chiefly to bullocks
and sheep. The leaves I always cut off when the
roots are taken up, and feed them off with sheep on
the ground where they are grown, which is a great
benefit to the land, as I generally find they produce as
much feed as half a crop of ordinary turnips. Mangel
Wurzel and straw, without any allowance of hay, will
keep young beasts in excellent condition. I have above
fifty at present chiefly in this keep : it is an excellent
thing for milch cows, as it produces a great flow of
milk, and gives a richness to the butter, without im-
parting any bad taste, as is the case when fed with
turnips.

The great advantage of Mangel Wurzel is, that it
can be grown on land not adapted to turnips, and
without the uncertainty attending a turnip crop, as
being but little affected by the turnip-fly— thriving
luxuriantly in dry seasons, in consequence of its hav-
ing a long tap-root, and drawing nourishment far be-
yond the reach of the drought ; and hence in my opi-
nion, impoverishing the surface soil less than most

G

42

root crops. It is an excellent preparation for wheat,
as we generally grow our best wheat after this crop.
The preparation of the soil for Mangel Wnrzel, the
same as for turnips, with the same quantity of manure.
I have occasionally in the sowing process, drilled the
seed in on a flat surface ; hut the best way is to dibble
in the seed on the Northumberland drills or ridglets,
after being well rolled down at nine inches apart in
the rows, the ridglets being twenty-seven inches apart,
will bring the plants to stand eighteen inches square,
which I believe is a good distance to get a weighty
crop. I have no other observations on the subject
worth mentioning at present, and shall be happy at
any time to give you all the information in my power
on the cultivation of this valuable root.”

Thomas Wilkie.

By talcing the average-extent of land, cultivated by
Mr. Wilkie, and the average weight per acre, gives the
enormous amount of Seven Hundred and Se-
venty Tons of cattle food, from only eleven acres
of land — this I think stands unprecedented in the
annals of agriculture !

The following I received from a most respectable
friend, dated

Clay House, near Altringham,

1st Month, 31st, 1828.

“ As far as I know, much attention has not been
paid to the cultivation of Mangel Wurzel, in the
neighbourhood of Sheffield ; my father used to grow
a little, but never much, the principal part of the seed
which he had of you, was for my brother who lived at

43

Hinckley , in Leicestershire, where he cultivated it
to great advantage, but he went to America soon
after my father’s death : — he took with him a large
supply of the seed that he had saved, from what came
originally from thee, and I had a letter from him only
a few days ago, in which he says, he cultivates it in
the neighbourhood of New York, and that it is much
used for the table, coming in earlier than the beet,
which is in great request there.

“ A pint of the seed that my father sent for, I had,
and sowed about an acre of it, on some land that I had
in a very exposed situation, in Derbyshire ; which,
though the plants did not arrive at the size they would
on better land, were a very beautiful crop, and the
wonder and admiration of every one that saw them ;
nothing of the kind having been grown in that part
before.”

J. B. ScANTLEBURY.

CULTURE.

The first object, with a view to produce, should be
to keep the ground in such a state as will enable it to <
produce good crops, and to bear in mind the old re-
mark, that —

One year’s good weeding,

Will prevent seeding :

But one year’s seeding,

Makes seven years’ weeding !

About the beginning of April the ground should be
well dunged, and deep ploughed, at least twice over,
thrice would be better, and cleansed by harrowing, so
as to leave the surface fine : this should be done, as
near the time designed to sow as can be. It is proper

G 2

44

to form a gemination before the seed is sown by
steeping it in soft pond water for twenty-four hours.
The seed is best drilled, or dibbled, in rows, full
eighteen inches apart, and must not be covered above
three quarters of an inch deep, a light bush harrow
carefully drawn by the hand, over the surface, to cover
the seeds, or a new light birch broom (a new broom
sweeps clean) drawn over in the like manner, will be
the best method to secure the seeds from the birds and
vermin. As soon as the plants make their appearance
above ground, give them a hoeing with a carrot hoe,
to kill the weeds, and a second, when the roots are
about the size of a radish, with a turnip hoe : should
there not be a full crop, the plants at this time may be
transplanted to fill up the vacancies — the last hoeing
should be done carefully, leaving the plants full eigh-
teen inches apart each way. Transplanting this ve-
getable is not advisable, only where it is required to
fill up the vacant spaces, as all tuberous rooted plants
do better not transplanted.*

During the summer, the tops may be stripped off,
and given to cows, &c., taking care to preserve the
middie leaves on the crown, to form another head.

* A bulb is compared to a bud under ground, producing
shoots from its middle or sides, the bulbs of the crocus, or
hyacinth, is not properly the root, but a part of the stem ; the
fibres are the proper roots. The carrot, turnip, potatoe, and
Mangel Wurzel, are tuberous roots, for these have eyes formed
on the surface, which particularly distinguish them from bulbs
properly so called.

Willdenow.

45

The quantity of seed required for an acre is

If broad -cast . . . 4 •

If drilled . . . 3

If dibbled _ . . 2

The best method is drilled, or dibbled, if dibbled it
is advisable to fix a shoulder, or stop to the dibble, to
prevent the holes being made deeper than required
as the seeds, or capsules, have two or three kernels in
each, it will require care to thin the plants out singly.

SEASON FOR SOWING.

The seed should be sown, if on an extensive scale,
at twice, the first about the middle or end of April,
the second from the middle to the end of May ; I have

known good crops from seed sown in the second week
of J une.

CALCULATIONS.

A pound of good seed, is calculated to contain about
22,000. An acre of land, in eighteen-inch rows, the
plants twelve inches apart, would contain 29,010
plants, if the roots weighed one pound each, on an
average, there would be thirteen tons; if they weighed
ten pounds each, 130 tons.. These latter would fur-
nish nine hundred weight, forty-eight pounds of well
grained white powder sugar, and 231 gallons of rec-
tified spirits, besides the green leaves afforded for
cattle, and the dregs after distillation for pigs.

One hundred weight of roots cut into small pieces
for cattle, measures two bushels— the quantity there-
fore may be estimated at 2000 bushels per acre.

46

CAUTION.

To guard against the many spurious kinds of
Mangel Wurzel, of which this country now too much
abounds, and which has hurt the reputation of the
true, it is necessary to descrioe that most deserving of
cultivation. It is in shape, and when growing, some-
thing like the long pudding turnip, the colour red
without ; and within, when cut transversly, it should
exhibit circular rings, as it were, of red and white
alternately — this should he remembered is the
TRUE.*

A yellow kind has recently been introduced into
this country, but I cannot find from the many enqui-
ries T have made respecting it, that it is held in much
estimation. It is good in quality, what there is of it,
hut the produce per acre, as compared to the old, and
genuine sort, is so very inferior, that it will not bear
a comparison, and those who have tried it once, sel-
dom ask for it again.

A white kind, has also recently been imported from
the continent, which report speaks very unfavourably
of, and many cultivators forbear venturing upon it,
without some better trial, than has been made of it, in
this country.

I advise all growers to buy no other seed than that
of the true stock of Mangel Wurzel, they may de-
pend upon doing well with that for probation est ■

THE APPLICATION OF THE ROOTS.

The best method to prepare the roots for the use of

* Vide Frontispiece.

47

cattle, is to cut them with a sharp instrument into
snutU pieces, first cleansing them from dirt, an instru-
ment made into the form of the letter S, with a handle
attached in the centre ; a bill hook, or any other sharp
instrument, will answer the same purpose ; the smaller
the pieces are cut, the more advantageous it is, and
the cattle eat them with more avidity, and thrive the
better. Milch cows, oxen, hogs, deer and sheep, will
eat it readily after a few trials ; it is advisable to give
tue cattle a little dry fodder at the time they are eating
Mangel Wurzel— two meals a day is sufficient for a
cow, comprising about twenty pounds of the roots,
mixed with about five pounds of hay or chaff at each
meal.

The following extract, from a letter before me, must
convince the reader of the great advantages, derived
from the use of Mangel Wurzel, as food for milch
cows.— •“ On the morning of the 18th of October, two
milch cows which had calved in the spring, were se-
lected, and turned out into an over-eaten pasture, and
fed every morning and evening with hay only— the
milk was measured at each meal, the cream was also
measured, and the butter weighed at each churning ;
and the result was as follows for one week : —

MiIk ' - - 101 quarts

Cream ... 51

B utter 41 lbs.

The cows remained in the same pasture another
week, and were fed with Mangel Wurzel, and hay,
each cow having half a bushel of the root sliced, and

48

given to them morning and evening, the result
was : —

Milk

Cream

Butter

130 quarts

8 *

6f lbs.

The cows remained in the same pasture one week
more, and were fed every morning and evening with
hay only, as first mentioned, and the experiment pro-
duced only

The same two cows, and eight other milch cows,
have been feeding on Mangel Wurzel, hay, and straw,
for six weeks past, and they are all doing very well.

Choose a dry day, in October or November, and
take up the whole crop, strip off the leaves with the
hand, and give them to the cattle, or plough them in
the land for manure. If the stock of roots be consi-
derable, and they cannot be deposited in the out-house,
it is necessary to cause pits, or trenches, to be dug in
the same field, or in the rick yard, which during win-
ter may be secured from rain and frost ■, take the pi e-
caution of clearing them from all the earth which sur-
rounds them, and deposit them carefully in alternate
layers with dry straw , till you reach the height you
require, then cover them well with straw, and throw
upon that straw three feet of the earth, which has been

Milk

Cream

Butter

87 quarts

TO PRESERVE THE ROOTS.

49

dug out of the pits then beat this earth well down,
and form it into such a shape, with shelving sides,
that the water may run from it more easily. In this
way the roots may be preserved from the month of
November to July.

PRODUCE AND USE OF THE LEAVES.

The Abbe Commerell says, in a good soil, the leaves
may be plucked off the roots every twelve or fifteen
days. I have remarked, more than once, that, in the
space of twenty-four hours, the leaves grow nearly two
inches and a half in length, and one inch and an half
in bieadth, and also, that at the second gathering, they
have been from twenty-eight to thirty inches in length
the account will appear exaggerated, till experience
shall have demonstrated its truth. Oxen, cows, and
sheep, readily eat these leaves ; the3 r nourish them,
and they are even fattened by. them,— they are given
to them entire, as they come from the field. Poultry
will eat them when cut small, and mixed with bran :
even horses will like these leaves very well, and may
be fed with them during the summer ; nothing more
is necsssary for this purpose, but to cut them small,
with an instrument. The leaves of this root will also
afford to men, an wholesome and agreeable food ; they
have not an earthy taste, like beet; their taste resem-
bles that of the Gctvd/OYi A* ISspcic/iie , and they may be
eaten in the same manner— they may be dressed in
different ways ; they are considered as a kind of spi-
nach, and are preferred to it by many persons. They
may be eaten from the spring to the month of Novem-
ber ; by their continual re-production, and great abun-
dance, they are highly useful to farmers, to country

H

people, anil in all houses in which there are many'
servants : the leaves, which the roots, when kept in w
cellar, produce during winter, are very tender, and
very delicate' in side dishes. I never knew (says Dr.
Lettsom) any person that once tasted the leaves, with-
out wishing for a repetition of the pleasure ; they have
preferred it to spinach in taste, at' the saute time it
appears to be much easier in digestion, which rcndeis
it in a medical point of view, applicable to the weak,,
the hectic, and consumptive; these are chiefly re-
stricted to a vegetable diet, and every article that
enlarges the - catalogue in this department, lessens the
restraints, and thereby augments the comforts of ex-
istence : the stalks and ribs of the large leaves, di-
vested of the leafy part, and peeled, eat like aspa-
ragus, or may be used in soups, which they greatly
improve.

The leaves tied up in a bag or net, with slices of
meat interlaid, and boiled, make a dish both pleasant
and salutary, or with plumbs, damsons, sliced apples,,
quinces, &c., afford a diet that is highly esteemed by
many. How many families in possession of little
gardens, often abounding in weeds ; who, with less-
trouble than is necessary to clear them away, might
dine once a week upon this salutary vegetable ! How
many are there, with- a little tract of land, scarcely
sufficient to feed the cow, which is to supply the family
with milk, might compensate the deficiency of a dry
summer, by covering a part of the land with Mangel
Wurzel 1 How many persons in affluence, by devoting,
a space of ground to raise this prolific vegetable, might
supply their poor neighbours, in hard winters, with
its roots and leaves, which seasoned with a morsel of

51

sneat, would afford a pleasant and plentiful nourish-
ment : —

For dainty food the poor can ne’er afford.

Unless, in lawless plight, they seek to steal —

Of good coarse cheese, and root from garden hoard.
With sweet brown bread, and wholesome milk beside,
And then — as smiles content — an humble pray’r
Of gratitude to God— for such their fare.

Mott.

ADVANTAGES.

The keeping of a cow will greatly contribute to the
felicity of the family of the labourer and the mechanic.
He who has not hitherto been able to feed one, may
easily in future enj oy this advantage ; let him rent but
a little spot of ground, and there cultivate the Mangel
Wurzel, and he may keep his cow ; and the milk which
she will produce, in less than a month, will pay the
rent of his ground — the peasant who has hitherto been
able to keep but one cow, will be enabled to keep two
or three, if he will apply himself to the cultivation of
this root. As it is not attacked by the caterpillar, or
by any other insect, its success is certain every where :
it suffers nothing from the vicissitude of the seasons —
turnips do not possess these advantages ; the leaves
afford ail excellent food during four months in the
jear : whilst turnips produce leaves only once a year,
and even then are tough, and injured by insects.

TO RELIEVE CATTLE WHEN HOVEN.

As cattle and sheep will sometimes become swollen,
or hoven by eating too voraciously of Mangel Wurzel,

I will state the following simple, hut effectual method,

H 2

52

which was some time 'ago communicated to the Society
for the Encouragement of Arts, &c.

This is effected by an instrument formed of a knob
of wood, turned in a lathe, suitable to the size of the
species of animal to be relieved, and fastened to the
end of a rod of common cane, six feet long- for cattle,
and three feet long for sheep, which is thrust down
the throat to remove the obstruction at the entrance of
the paunch. The shape of the knob in this instru-
ment does not appear to be most judicious. It is
much too thin and sharp at the edge. The oesopha-
gus is apt to be rent longitudinally by rude treatment :
if, therefore, wood be at all proper in this case, it
ought to be egg-shaped, with part of the larger end
cut evenly off, which would be found a much safer in-
strument, whether in passing down, or returning, than
that which is recommended to the Board. But the
soft ravelled end of a rope, as described by Mu.
Marshal, in his ‘ Minutes of Agriculture in Surry,’
is perhaps better calculated than either, to answer the
purpose, and without the smallest danger to the tender
organs to which it is applied. Mr. Loudon (speak-
ing of the hove, or blown in cattle) says “ It is ob-
served to be more frequent in warm weather, and
when the grass is wet. When either oxen, cows, or
sheep, meet with any food they are particularly fond
of, or of which they have been long deprived — they eat
greedily, and forget to lie down to ruminate, by which
means the first stomach, or paunch, becomes so dis-
tended as to be incapable of expelling its contents.
From this inflammation follows, and the stomach
either bursts, or, by its pressure on the diaphragm, the
animal is suffocated. The situation of the beast is

53

known by the uneasiness and general swelling of the
abdomen.”

Dr. Whyatt, of Edinburgh, is said to have cured
eighteen out of twenty hoved cows, by giving a pint
of gin to each. Common salt and water, made strongly
saline, is a usual country remedy.

When the disease has existed a considerable time,
or the animal has become outrageous, or the stomach
so much distended with air, that there is danger of
immediate suffocation or bursting, in these instances
the puncture of the maw, must be instantly performed,
which is called paunching. This may be done with
the greatest ease, mid-way between the ilium, or haunch
bone, and the last rib of the left side, to which the
paunch inclines : a sharp penknife is frequently used.
As soon as the air is perfectly evacuated, and the
paunch resumes its office, the wound should be care-
fully closed with sticking plaster, or other adhesive
matter.

THE CHOICE OF ROOTS FOR SEED.

The time for gathering in the crop is the season for
choosing those roots which are proper for producing
seed ; and those are best for this purpose which have
attained only a middling size, which are smooth, even,
and of a rose colour without, and marbled with red
and white within side ;* such are the marks, which
distinguish those which it is proper to preserve and
cultivate— those which are all white, or all red, are
either degenerated, or are real beets. The roots
which are intended for the production of seed, should

* Vide Frontispiece.

r

54

be kept separately from the others, in a place where
they are secured from dampness and from frost.

SEASON FOR REPLANTING ROOTS FOR SEED.

At the beginning of April, those roots ought to he
put into the ground which are intended for seed; they
should be placed at the distance of three feet from each
other ; as their stalks grow from five to six feet in
length, it is necessary to give them props of seven
feet in height, sunk a foot and a half into the earth ;
these props should be interwoven with small rods, and
should form a kind of hedge row. Against this hedge
row the stalks should be tied, in proportion as they
extend in length, that they may not be broken by the
wind.

MANAGEMENT OF THE SEED.

This seed commonly ripens towards the middle or
end of October ; it should be gathered immediately
after the first white frosts appear ; then the stalks
should be cut, and if the weather will permit, they
should be raised up against a wall, or palisade ; if the
weather be bad, they may be tied together in parcels,
and hung up under shelter in an airy dry place, till
they are well dried, the seed may then be shipped
from the stalks by the hand, which is the better way,
than threshing out the seed, as some do, whereby the
seed is broken and injured— the seed may then be pre-
served in bags, as is done by other garden seeds.
Mice are particularly fond of Mangel Wurzel seed,
caution is therefore necessary to guard it from them.

55

TO PREVENT THE TRUE STOCK FROM
DEGENERATING.

The seed of the root of Mangel Wurzel degenerates,
like all others, if care be not taken to change the soil
every year, or at least two years ; that is, to sow in
a firm soil that which has been produced in a light
and sandy soil, and vice versa. Thus the cultivators
of the two kinds of land, by every year changing their
seeds, will afford to each, a reciprocal benefit.

EXHAUSTION OF SOIL.

The melioration of the soil by turnips, is supposed
by some authors, to proceed from the thickness of the
foliage of such crops preventing a too copious evapo-
ration from the surface of the ground ; whilst others
have ascribed it to their leaves overshadowing the
soil, and as the putrefactive process of vegetable recre-
ments proceeds best in damp, and confined air, they
suppose the soil may thus be improved ; this may also
be implied to Mangel Wurzel.

Mr. Tull,* the father of the drill husbandry, at-
tributes it to the ground where the plants are culti-
vated, being, usually, once or twice hoed, and thus in
effect to have been followed by the repeated aeration
and pulverization of the soil, and the destruction of
innumerable weeds.

Dr. Darwin is of opinion, that not only all the
circumstances above mentioned may contribute to

* Mr. Tull, expended a good estate in the prosecution of
his favourite tenets, and ended his days in penury.

56

produce that effect, but also, as it appears by the ex-
periments of Priestly and Ingenhouse, that
though the perspirable matter of 'vegetable leaves
gives out oxygen in the sunshine, yet that it gives out
carbonic acid in the shade ; which even in the aerial
or gasseous form, is much heavier than common air,
and will therefore subside on the earth in the shade of
this perspiring foliage, and contribute to enrich the
soil by the hourly addition of carbon.

Every farmer must well know that all crops are ge-
nerally divided into two kinds — those that exhaust and
impoverish the soil, on which they grow ; and those
that ameliorate and improve it. The first are fibrous
rooted plants, as wheat, barley, rye, oats, &c. the se-
cond includes all the luminous and tap rooted tribes,
as beans, peas, tares', mangel wurzel, turnips, carrots,
parsnips, &c. and mttch depends on the judicious in-
terchange of these different crops. Every farmer is
well acquainted with the stimulative powers of the
dung cart, and the good effects arising from good
farming, are visibly discovered in good crops ; and I
need only add, that Mangel Wurzel will amply repay
every expence of the finest culture.

Mu. Sinclair, in his Hortus Gramineus TV o-
burnensis, has given an analysis of the impoverishing
principle of different vegetables to the soil, from which
I select the Mangel Wurzel, the Swedish turnip, and
the common field turnip

Green Nutritive

Food. Matter.

Mangel Wurzel, produces upon a suit- 1
able soil, on an average, twenty -five tons of f its. lbs.

green food per acre, every pound weight of )"56,000 . . 3120
which contains 750 grains of nutritive \
matter. J

57

Swedish Turnip, produces on favourable
soil, on an average, thirteen tons, per acre,
a pound weight of which affords of nutri-
tive matter 440 grains.

The common field,, or White Turnip,
affords from a sandy loam, upon an ave-
rage, per acre, sixteen tons of green food,
a pound of which contains 320 grains of
nutritive matter.

If a plant, therefore, impoverishes the soil in pro-
portion to the weight of vegetable substance it pro-
duces on a given space of ground, the following will
be the order in which the plants just mentioned ex-
haust the land.

Grden

Food.

Nutritive'

Matter.

lbs. lbs.

■29,120 . . 1830

-35,840 . . 1638

Mangel Wurzel
Swedish Turnip
White Turnip

25

13

16

The proportions which
they hear to each other
with respect to weight
of produce.

The effect of some plants (says Mr. Sinclair)
are only to impoverish the soil for an immediate
succession of the same plant ; while others have the
property of exhausting the land, not only for an imme-
diate succession of themselves, but likewise for every
other kind of vegetable.

Sir IT. Davy gives the following account of the
nutritive product of the following plants : —

The quantity analysed
of each sorts, 1000
parts.

Whole
quantity
of soluble
or nutri-
tive mat-
ter.

Mucilage

oi-

Starch.

Saccha-
rine mat-
ter or
Sugar.

Gluten

01-

Albumen.

Extract,
or matter
rendered
insoluble
during
evapora-
tion.

Mangel Wurzel

136

13

119

4

Swedish Turnip

64

9

51

2

2

White Turnip

42

7

34

1

“Much food is in the tillage of poor; hut there is
that is destroyed for want of judgment,” says the

i

58

wise man, and we are informed by Puny, that Fur lux
Cresinus out of a small piece of ground, gathered
much more fruits and profits than his neighbours did
out of their great and ample possessions. This ex-
cited their envy and hatred against him; insomuch,
that they accused him of having by sorcery, charms,
and witchcraft, transported his neighbour’s fruits and
fertility into his own fields. For this he was ordered
by Spurius Albinus to answer the charge. He
therefore fearing the worst, at the time when the
tribes yvere ready to give their voices, brought into the
court of justice his plough, and other rural instru-
ments belonging to agriculture, and placed them in
the open face of the court. He set there also his
daughter, a lusty strong lass and big of bone, well fed
and well clad ; also his oxen full and fair. Then
turning to the citizens of Rome ; “ My masters” (quoth
he) “ these are the sorceries, charms, and all the en-
chantments that I use. I might also allege my own
travel and toil, my early rising and late sitting up, and
the painful sweat I daily endure. Rut I am not able
to present these to your view, nor to bring them with
me into this assembly.” Which when the people had
heard they unanimously pronounced him ‘not guilty
and he was highly commended by all persons for jiis.
integrity and industry.

PLANTER’S TABLE.

Shewing how many plants may be placed on an
acre of land, at various distances apart.

An acre contains : —

4 roods, each 40 rods, poles or perches
160 rods, 16 feet and a half each

59

4840. square yards, 9 feet each
4,3560 square feet, 144 inches
174,240 squares of 6 inches each, 36 inches
6,272,640 inches, or squares of 1 inch each.

Shewing how many plants may be placed on a rod
of land, at different distances.

A rod of land contains 272 1 square feet, or 39,201

square inches — a rod will therefore contain

Plants

Inches asunder Square

root to

2450 and 4 inches over

4 by 4

16

1960

5 by 4

20

1633 and 12 over

6 by 4

24

1089

6 by 6

36

816 and 36 over

8 by 6

48

612 and 36 over

8 by 8

64

490 and 4 over

10 by 8

80

392 and 4 over

10 by 10

100

272 and 36 over

12 by 12

144

261 and 54 over

15 by 10

150

An acre will con/aii

i :

Plants

Feet asunder

Square feet, to

43,560

i

1

21,780

2 byl

2

19,305

H by H

H

10,890

2 by 2

4

8,712

H by 2 •

5

7,261

3 by 2

6

60

Value of plants on an acre of land.

Plants

d.

£ , s.

19,360 at

1 )

20 13

9,680 at

* s

7,000 at

2

62 8

1,000 at

1

4 3

5,000 at

H

10 8

Comparison of acres of land.

English acre

0,7929

France arpent, 100

perches 22 pieds

1,0000

Spain fanega

0,6720

Saxony morgen

1,0842

Naples moggio

0,6546

APPENDIX.

Cambridgeshire stands unrivalled for its butter and
cheese. Mr. Loudon says, “ the butter most esteemed
in London is that of Epping and Cambridge. It is
brought to market in rolls from one to two feet long,*
weighing a pound each. The Cambridgeshire butter
is produced from the milk of cows, that feed one part
of the year on chalky uplands, and the other in rich
meadows or fens, it is made up into long rolls, and
generally salted, not cured, before brought to market.
By washing it, and working the salt out of it, the
London cheesemongers often sell it at high price for
fresh Epping butter, and the Suffolk and Yorkshire
butter is often sold for that of Cambridgeshire.”

Mr. Banister (in his 1 Synopsis of Husbandry’) says
the greatest mart in England for Welch cattle, is Bar-
net, the number of horned cattle, Welch, Scotch, Irish,
and English brought for sale to this fair is often com-
puted at twenty thousand, the fair is held annually
on the 4th of September, almost solely for this busi-
ness. This fair was formerly kept at Islington, till the
distemper, which raged violently among the cows at
that place in 1746, obliged the Welchmen to remove to
Barnet, where it has been continued ever since. Such
bullocks which are not sold at this fair, are driven into
the home counties, particularly Kent, Essex, and Cam-
bridgeshire.

It is of consequence to the farmer and grazier to be

* What is brought to Cambridge is rolled out to a yard in
length, being more convenient for the college butlers, who
serve it out, in what they term parts.

G 2

able to form a proper judgment of the value of the
cattle he is about to purchase ; and from the ap-
pearance of the stock when lean, to give a near
guess what weight they will arrive to if properly fat-
tened. Mr. Loudon has given the criteria of a beau-
tiful cow, according to Wilkinson,* thus : —

She’s long in her face, she’s fine in her horn.

She’ll quickly get fat without cake or corn,

She’s clear in her jaws, and full in her chin,

She’s heavy in flank, and wide in her loin.

She’s broad in her rib, and long in her rump,

A straight and fat back with never a hump,

She’s wide in her hips, and calm in her eyes.

She’s fine in her shoulders, and thin in her thighs.

S he’s light in her neck, and small in her tail.

She’s wide in her breast, and good at the pail.

She’s fine in her bone, and silky of skin.

She’s a grazier’s without, and a butcher’s within.

The valley through which the Cam flows from
Steeple Morden toW alton,is called ‘the Dairies,’ from
being almost wholly appropriated to dairy farms. And
at Sohcirn on the borders of the fens, the pastures are
uncommonly fertile, and the chief produce of the
place, is from the dairies : and cheese of an excellent
quality, and very similiar, both in taste and flavour to
the Stilton is made here in great quantities. At Cot-
tcnham, a cream cheese is made, which is rather
larger than the Stilton, and by some considered of
superior flavour : Professor Martijn, attributes this
to the fragrant nature of the herbage of the commons,
on which the cows are pastured, abounding with poa

* An eminent breeder at Linton, via Nottingham.

03

aquation, ami pralensis. I will add to the learned
Professor’s panegyric, by saying that both cheese
and butter* here, have attained a still higher excel-
lence and flavour, and greater abundance, chiefly
owing to their feeding on Mangel Wurzel ; and this
intrinsic merit, would in vain be sought for (in butter
particularly,) made from any other food, how great
soever may be the skill of the dairy-maid. Cottenham
common, pastures about one thousand milch kine, and
it offers a great treat to those who seldom witness so
numerous a herd, to see the cows, on their return
home, to their respective owners in an evening of a
summer’s day— a scene, Blomfield lias beautifully
described in the following lines :

The clatt ring dairy-maid immers’d in steam.

Singing and scrubbing midst her milk and cream,

Bawls out, “ Go, fetch the Cows;” j

******

The stiong press on, the weak by turns succeed.

And one superior always takes the lead;

Is ever foremost, wheresoe’er they stray :

Allow’d precedence, undisputed sway :

With jealous pride her station is maintain’d,

For many a broil that post of honour gain’d.

******

Foith comes the maid, and like the morning smiles ;

The mistress too, and follow’d close by Giles.

A friendly tripod forms their humble seat.

With pails bright scour’d, and delicately sweet.

Cottenham cheeses, are held in such high esteem,
among the sons of Alma Mater, that it is" customary

* Butter forming an important article of commerce, as
well as food, the legislature has passed various statutes respect-
its package, weight, and sale. The principal of these are the
3Gth and 38th of George II l.

C 4

(particularly at Christmas) for them, to make presents
of them to their distant friends ; and a coach or van
rarely leaves Cambridge at that festive season with-
out one.

In a letter just received (February 1st 1828) from
W. Harley, Esq. Glasgow, I make a brief extract :
— “ The Mangel Wurzel seed you sent me, was ex-
cellent, which I sowed in different parts of my farm,
and gardens, where the soil was light and deep (and I
have very little ground of that kind) but such had a'
very luxuriant crop. When the roots were raised, I
cirt off the leaves, and gave a small quantity of these
to each cow, as a mixture, which they were very fond
of, — the roots were laid up in a store, and during,
winter were sliced and steamed, with turnips, chopped
hay,” &c. &c.

The Harleyan Dairy at Willour Bank, near
Glasgow, is the largest, and most complete establish-
ment of the kind, in the kingdom. A detailed account
of which is now in the press.

Mr. II. gives a decided preference to the Ayrshire
breed of cows, his stock amounts to about 200, pro-
ducing on an average eleven English quarts of milk
each, per day. Mr. II. has favoured me with a pro-
spectus of his forthcoming work, entitled, “ The
Harleyan Dairy System,” in which, Mr. 11. says : —
“ Among the numerous undertakings that have been
planned, and carried into effect by individuals within
the last twenty years, there are few or none that have
met with more general approbation, or that promise
to be more extensively beneficial, than the improved
dairy system, originally projected and gradually
brought to perfection at the celebrated establishment
of Willour Bank, near Glasgow. For a long time

G5

this dairy was an object of almost exclusive interest to
every visitor of the west of Scotland, from the prince
to the peasant; but more particularly to agriculturists
and others engaged in plans of similar improvement.
Farming Societies, and the members of various patri-
otic Institutions, both at home and abroad, became
interested in its results, and on numerous occasions
availed themselves of the experience of its proprietor
to improve or ameliorate their own system.

At the special request of the directors of the Cale-
donian Dairy, Edinburgh, the author furnished the
outline of the plan upon which that fine Establishment
was founded, and which was preferred to all that their
manager had seen any where in England.

The Highland Society too, voted the proprietor a
handsome piece of plate, in approbation of the Wil-
low-Bank System ; and of so much importance did
they deem it in a national point of view, that they re-
quested him to publish a detailed account of his Es-
tablishment at the expence of the Society. That no
such account has yet been published is a matter of
surprise to some, and of regret with many, since it is
generally admitted that the greater part of the System
is original , and not to be met with in any other
quarter of the kingdom.”

Dr. Cleland, says, in his “ Annals of Glasgow.”
— “ It began with twenty corns, and increased to two
hundred and sixty. At present there are one hun-
dred and ninety jive coins in the Establishment. —
The passages, &c. are clean washed, and rubbed with
white sand. The roof and walls are kept clean with
white-wash. — The cows are curried daily : their skin
is remarkably clear and glossy.”

K

CONCLUSION.

The reports from the North of England, in the
winter and spring of the years 1826 and 1827, gave a
powerful call upon the attention of the farmers to the
cultivation of Mangel Wurzel ; in the vicinity of
Horncastle, multitudes of cattle and sheep, and many
horses perished through want — farmers losing six or
eight beasts, two or three horses, or twenty or thirty
sheep, per week. Hay they had none, and the straw
of the preceding year, was short in quantity, and de-
fective in substance. Thousands of store sheep and
lambs, reduced to mere skeletons, were either lost, or
sold for a few shillings each .

In the Midland counties, the scarcity of fodder
was severely felt, and great qaantities of hay were
purchased in London, and after being conveyed by
water carriage into Warwickshire, yielded a profit of
31. and 4 1. per ton.

In the county of Kent, the turnips nearly all rotted,
and those farmers only, had good keep for their ewes
and lambs, who were wise enough to sow plenty of
Mangel Wurzel ; hay and straw, were both scarce and
so unprecedently dear, that the graziers were compelled
to have recourse to artificial food for their stock.

In 1826, there was a more general failure of the
turnip crop throughout the kingdom, than had been
remembered for many years : a greater part of the first
sown, were eaten off by the fly, in their infant state;
the same misfortune attended those of a later sowing,
and thousands of acres fell a sacrifice to the uncom-
monly hot and dry weather ; the long continued cold
weather, and subsequent frosts of the ensuing winter,

67

produced an unprecedented deficiency of vegetable
food, and the consequences were, that thousands of
the animal race fell sacrifices to cold and hunger.

Sufficient I hope has been said upon the subject, to
convince the farmer of the sterling merit, and utility,
of Mangel I'W'urzel. and that he need never more
complain of a deficiency of winter provision for his
flocks and herds.

Since writing the above. I am assured by one of the
most eminent Graziers, in the County of Cambridge,
that so great are the advantages, and profit, that arise
from the fattening of Stock with Mangel Wurzel,
that many deem it a secret, which they wish to keep
to themselves : — “ but ” added the said gentleman,
“ Mangel Wurzel will certainly, ere long, make
Beef and Mutton cheaper!”

ADVERTISEMENT.

ADVERTISEMENT.

T. Newby, respectfully returns thanks to his numerous Agri-
cultural friends, in England, Scotland, and Ireland, for the
many favours received, and informs them, they may be sup-
plied with Mangel Wurzel Seed, carefully transplanted from
the true stock, on application at his residence, Bene’t Street,
Cambridge.

R3r T. N. would -be obliged to those gentlemen who have
cultivated Mangel Wurzel, for any new information respecting
its culture, and management ; and for the results of experi-
ments proved in its use, in feeding and fattening of stock : —
such favours will be duly appreciated in a future Edition of
this little work.

bury st. Edmund’s :

PRINTED BY T' C. NEWBY, ANGEL HILL.