Part 5

The quantity to be applied to the acre as given by practical growers, varies from four to twenty-five bushels. The effect is not always the same; one season the increase may be very striking and the next, under the same application, not be perceptible, the cause of which is not very clear, though it appears to give better results in dry seasons than in wet. The most striking effect from the application of large quantities, in my experience, has been on the borders of meadow land. A number of years ago I manured in the furrow with refuse herring bait, salt and all, just as taken from the fish barrels. The crop of Mangolds grown from this manuring was one of the largest and smoothest I ever raised. The next season the land was planted to Oats. In the Fall, while laying a heap of this oat straw in the barn, I chanced to use one as a tooth-pick. It tasted as though it had been pickled; thinking it was the result of some accident, I took another; that also was salt. This aroused my curiosity and on examination I found farther, to my great surprise, that all the straw tasted as though it had been dipped in pretty strong brine. Certainly this tremendous salting, over and above what the crop of Mangolds could use, to all appearance, had not lessened the bulk of roots. On meadow land, Mr. Ware of this town, thinks that in a dry season he doubled his crop by the application of refuse salt, at the rate of twenty-five bushels to the acre. In purchasing waste salt for this or any other agricultural crop, it is best to get the dirtiest lot possible, for this dirt is the waste of the fish on which it has been used, and consists mostly of fish scales, which for manuring purposes is decidedly the most valuable part of the fish. For this reason the waste from salted herring is probably the most valuable of all.

PLANTING THE SEED AND TENDING THE CROP.

Our ground being now ready the next step is to plant it: How much seed shall we need and how far apart shall we have the rows? The very best of seed is often disappointing in the matter of vegetating, and it is therefore best to plant with a liberal hand, for it is better to have to thin out than not have plants enough. From six to ten pounds of seed is the quantity used, the larger quality when planted for sugar purposes, the object in view being to get an even stand with all the roots the same distance apart, to attain which a great deal of thinning is necessary. As to the proper distance between the rows, practical growers will give various replies;--18, 20, 22, 24, 30 inches. The thirty inch men are those who expect to depend on the cultivator to do about all their weeding. That the crop does not require so much room to yield the greatest bulk, is shown by the experience of other cultivators, who have raised from forty to over sixty tons to the acre, with their rows from eighteen to twenty-two inches apart, while the greatest, crop on record, viz.:--of over eighty tons to the acre, was raised with the rows twenty-four inches apart.

Planting on ridges is often advised, but as far as I have observed, those who begin this way generally change to the system of level culture as they advance in experience. The only advantages I have found in the system of ridge cultivation have been that the Mangolds appear to grow with fewer roots, and are rather more easily weeded. These advantages in practice are more than off-set by the extra labor of making the ridges and preparing them for planting. Mangold seed is apt to come up badly. In France, where land is cut up into small areas and labor is cheap, one would expect to find as little waste as possible, but while travelling there I noted in their fields that the Mangolds were quite scattering. Mangold seed, like those of beets, are enclosed in a porous shell which itself is usually called the seed. By cracking these “seeds” the real seed will be found within, at the angles, from one to four in number, and when broken, if fresh, appear as white as flour. One reason why a portion of the seed fails to vegetate, is, I infer, from the quantity of moisture necessary to reach and swell the encased seed. For this reason, if planted during dry spells, care should be taken to get them down to a good depth, say an inch and a half deep, and then to pack the fine earth closely over them so that it may hold the moisture. Any machine, therefore, that is used for planting should have a good roller. To facilitate and hasten the vegetation, some cultivators practice soaking the seed, by pouring on water when almost at a scalding temperature, and letting the seed remain in it from thirty-six to forty-eight hours, being careful to keep it where the water will not fall below blood heat, then rolling plaster or dry soil, until it is sufficiently dry to drop readily from the machine.

Some prefer to plant by hand, believing that the greater certainty of getting the seed up and the greater regularity of the plants in the row is more than an off-set to the additional labor. In doing this some growers will drop the seed on the surface by the machine, and then follow and push them under to the depth requisite, with the thumb and finger; others use a strip of plank about four inches wide and three feet in length, on the under side of which are inserted wooden pins, every seven inches, the pins being one and a quarter inches in diameter and projecting two inches. The holes having been made, the seed are dropped in, and covered by the hand. Where blanks are found they may be profitably filled by transplanting the young Mangolds, care being taken to break off the tops of the larger leaves, and also to loosen the ground a little when planting them. If a time just after a shower is selected, the result will be very satisfactory. The transplanted roots when gathered in the Fall will usually be found with several small roots in place of a single tap root.

All root crops require prompt and thorough attention in the matter of weeding, and to lessen this costly department of labor they should not be raised on land abounding in the seed of weeds. Mangolds will require two or three hand weedings, besides as many slidings with the scuffle or wheelhoe. If too thick they should be thinned rather early in their growth, for I have oftentimes noticed that if this is left until the roots begin to develop, those left standing are apt to be dwarfed. It is best to give two thinnings. The plants should be left from ten to twelve inches apart; the crop of eighty tons was thinned to twelve inches apart and as the roots are more apt to grow coarse and prongy, and with less sugar in them, when far apart, I am inclined to ten or twelve inches as far enough. The object aimed at should be, as Prof. Voelcker has shown, to get the weight in many roots of medium size rather than in fewer roots of large size.

GATHERING AND STORING THE CROP.

Unlike other roots, the keeping qualities of Mangolds are destroyed by a temperature low enough to but little more than freeze the surface of the ground. In the late Fall when the growth is about completed, these much exposed roots have but few leaves to protect them and hence, where freezing weather is feared, the provident farmer will always give them the benefit of the doubt. If he is so unfortunate as to have his crop injured, let him at once get the most he can out of them, in the way of food, for though the injury at first may appear to be but trivial, the part frozen will become first corky and afterwards turn black, and ultimately rot. If but slightly frozen the frost may be taken out by at once covering the roots temporarily with earth, but such roots must be fed early or they will rot. Where the globe or ovoid varieties are grown, on land where they pull hard they may be lifted by running a subsoil plough with care. In pulling these, or any roots that are to be topped on the field, don’t do, as is usually done, either scatter them on the surface, without any system, or throw them into heaps, as in either way the cost of removing the tops is increased. If thrown in piles the tops become more or less intermingled, and the small amount of extra labor thereby caused in topping each individual root becomes great in the aggregate, when thousands are handled. Still it oftentimes happens that the weather takes a sudden, unexpected turn, threatening too low a temperature for the safety of the crop; under such circumstances the question is how to get it out of danger in the most expeditious way possible. The quickest way is to pull and throw into heaps, roots in, tops out, by which arrangement, should there be considerable of a freeze up, the tops would shield the roots. To protect them still more effectually earth may be shovelled over the heaps, so as barely to cover them, and when protected in this way they may be allowed to remain quite awhile awaiting the leisure of the farmer. Here let me say that this plan of protection will not answer for all crops, as I have learnt with Cabbages, to my sorrow, for when covered up this way, but for a few days, when taken out they will be found to be almost cooked by the great heat which they have developed.

In gathering all roots the great object is to have as few handlings as possible, hence, if the tops are not twisted off as the Mangolds are pulled, they should be laid in rows, tops in and roots out, four or more rows being put in one. It will be best to have two hands work together, and so make two of these rows, leaving a small passage-way between them, the roots being on the inside. Now let the topper follow with a large and sharp knife, and lop off the leaves to his right and left as he goes, being careful to so top the roots that each individual leaf will fall separately, which means that he is not to cut the top of the root itself, for unlike Carrots, Mangolds so cut are apt to decay when stored. For economical work the knife should be a large and somewhat heavy one, the blade eight or nine inches in length. A small grit stone for the use of the hands engaged in topping any kind of roots is always a good investment; is saves running to the barn for an occasional touch on the grindstone.

If the roots are to be marketed they will need to be left to have the earth on them dry, that it may fall off when loading, but if for use on the farm it will be rather of an advantage, as it will help keep them from wilting. The portion of the crop to be fed before Spring should be stored as near to the place of feeding as possible. The great object should be to keep them sufficiently covered and cool to prevent wilting. As all the beet family are good keepers, there need be but a small per cent. of loss. Store them in a cool, rather moist cellar, provided it has no standing water. The heap may be three or four feet in depth, and should be covered with earth that is rather moist than otherwise, to prevent evaporation. The long varieties may be piled cordwood fashion. Those to be fed after Spring opens can be kept in a pit, dug in gravelly soil, on a hill-side, or where there is no danger from standing water; the pit may be three or four feet in depth, and be filled to the surface. In covering there are two methods: one, to throw the earth directly on the roots, and the other to first cover them with cornstalks, or some dry, coarse litter before throwing on the earth. In practice I find that when the litter is used the roots in immediate contract with it are apt to mould, more or less, and be affected with a dry rot, though it is an excellent plan to throw over coarse litter up to severe freezing weather. Which ever course is pursued it is best not to throw on more at first than is sufficient to barely cover them, and to add the remainder, making a covering of about two feet in depth in all; to which is to be added a foot of coarse hay as the weather becomes cold. The process of thatching with straw and so piling that there shall be a roof-like slant to the heap, with furnace-like ventilators opening from it at intervals, I have never found necessary in actual practice, the elevation of the earth above the bed being a sufficient water shed, while the cold nature of the root prevents heating. Rats are the great enemies of root pits. I have had galleries cut by these vermin through a bed of roots, utterly destroying them for seed purposes. The best way of killing them in my experience, has been to drop a little arsenic on buttered bread and put it conveniently near their holes, but so far hidden that no neighbor’s dog would be likely to suffer by it.

FEEDING THE CROP.

Besides arguments which are of weight for cultivation of all kind of roots, there are special ones for the raising of Mangolds. The vast bulk of yield exceeds that of any annual crop as high as eighty tons of roots having been raised to the acre on the sewerage farms of England and when to this is added the weight of leaves that such a crop would carry, it will be safe to say that a hundred tons have been given to the acre. Taken as a whole the Mangold has less enemies and is less apt to fail than any other root. Compared with the Turnip family, it has several marked advantages, being more reliable in dry seasons and less liable to disease; and in flesh-forming heat-giving and fat-producing elements it surpasses it. While the Turnip family cannot be raised repeatedly on the same land, indeed on most soil can be raised only intervals of three or four years, Mangolds can be raised many years in succession, as Mr. Mechi, the distinguished English agriculturist, has proved by raising sixty tons per annum on the same tract of land of six acres area, for six successive years. They will keep longer in good condition than any other root, under favorable circumstances even as late as July. Experiments in feeding steers made with care, proved that while a ton of Mangolds increased their weight sixty-five pounds, a ton of Swede increased their weight but forty-eight pounds, equal quantities of hay having been fed in each experiment. Other experiments have established about the same proportionate value between these two roots, though the general result was not as favorable. Mangolds, like fruit, undergo a ripening change after they are gathered, and until this is effected they are not in the best condition for feeding. The ripening process for the most part consists in a change of starch into sugar, and makes the Mangolds both more healthful and more nutritious food. Before this change is effected they are apt to scour stock if fed to any degree liberally. The time when this chemical change takes place will depend on the degree of ripeness of the crop when stored; and this, as has been clearly shown, is affected by both the soil on which they grew and the manure with which they were fed; other conditions equal, those grown on upland ripen earlier than those on lowland, while rank manures tend to prolong the period of growth and crops so grown come into condition for feeding later in the season. In England, a common practice is to begin feeding the Mangolds at Christmas, while in this country the middle of January is considered early enough. Experiments carefully made have proved that when fed to fattening animals they should follow and not precede Turnips. It is a good rule in feeding this as with other roots or tubers, to begin with a small quantity and gradually increase the amount up to the limit which the appetite of the cow, her general health and the tale of the milk pail indicate. Every farmer who feeds a dairy needs a root cutter. There are several of these in the market, some designed for sheep only, which cut the roots into small pieces, others for neat cattle, while some manufactured by our Canada neighbors can be arranged to cut for either class of stock. As good a one as I know of for stock purposes, cheapness, durability and effectiveness combined, is one sometimes known as the Ames machine of which I present an engraving. This machine is capable of cutting about two bushels a minute. Experiments in England have shown that 59 pounds of cooked Mangolds are equal to 70 of uncooked. Leaves of Mangolds should be fed with care as they are more apt to scour than those of any other root. The reason of this is that they contain comparatively a large quantity of a poisonous acid known by chemists as “oxalic” acid, the same that is developed in Rhubarb leaves, when slightly wilted, and which sometimes causes death when such leaves are eaten as “greens.”

The practice sometimes followed in Europe, of feeding the leaves of the growing crop, where labor is very cheap, is thought to pay, as the leaves are gathered just as they begin to drop from their upright position and when their usefulness as nourishers of the root have ended. But with labor as cheap as may be, there is no economy in this, for, aside from the deleterious effects to animals, when fed too liberally, by actual experiment it has been found that the wear and tear to the crop, incidental to the plucking of these leaves by an average farm hand, injures it more than the value of the leaves after they are gathered.

Were it not for the enormous bulk that an acre will produce in roots when compared with its yield in hay or grain, there would be a serious argument against the growing of them to any extent beyond what might be needed for medicinal purposes, in the fact that the manure made from them is of so low a value; and the practical weight of this argument would grow in proportion as farmers acquire a knowledge of the most important department of farming. To most farmers a cord or load of manure of cow or horse, is a cord or load of equal value; now this is far, very far from being the fact, as will be seen by the following table which I take from the Scientific Farmer, compiled by the celebrated Mr. Lewes, who, by his careful experiments, has laid the agricultural world under lasting obligation. In this table a ton of English hay is taken as the standard and were all the manure saved, both solid and liquid, from a ton of each of these varieties of food, the ingredients at the market value of the Ammonia, Potash and Phosphoric Acid would be worth as follows:--

Hay, $10.00 Clover Hay, 15.00 Oat Straw, 4.50 Wheat Straw, 4.16 Barley Straw, 3.50 Decorticated Cotton Seed Cake, 43.33 Linseed Cake, 30.66 Malt Dust, 28.33 Malt, 10.50 Oats, 11.50 Wheat, 11.00 Indian Corn, 10.50 Barley, 9.83 Potatoes, 2.33 Mangolds, 1.66 Swedes, 1.41 Turnips, (common,) 1.33 Carrots, 1.33

This table is very suggestive in many ways:--by it we see that there are varieties of food, the manure from which is worth more than the cost of the food itself. In its application to the feeding of Mangolds, it at a glance suggests the wisdom of feeding at the same time a portion of something richer and more concentrated. By so doing the quality of the manure is vastly improved and the crops will not be slow to discover it. There is still another reason for feeding these rich foods while using roots; it enables the farmer to feed with profit his straw or inferior varieties of hay. Says Prof. Stockhardt, “The full benefit to animals derivable from feeding roots is secured only when the proper proportion of substances rich in nitrogen are fed with them; accordingly, about two pounds of oil-cake should be fed with each hundred pounds of beet root, or other foods may be substituted in the same proportion as they are rich in nitrogen.”

Recent researches have determined a fact of great value to agriculture: that to get the most profitable results from food the Albuminoid and Carbohydrate elements should bear a certain proportion to each other, and that while a decrease in either of them from this proper proportion means insufficient food, and a consequent loss of flesh, fat or milk, an excess of either means money wasted. The proportion for cows that are dry and oxen when not at work is about one of Albuminoids to eight of Carbohydrates; for oxen at work and cows in milk, one of Albuminoids to from four to six of Carbohydrates.

The following table taken from Prof. Johnson’s excellent work, “How Crops Grow,” gives the proportion of the Albuminoids, Carbohydrates and other elements in roots and tubers.

+-----------------------------------------------------------+ | |Water. | | | |Organic Matter. | | | | |Ash. | | | | | |Albuminoids. | | | | | | |Carbohydrates. | | | | | | |Crude Fibre. | | | | | | | |Fat, &c. +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | ROOTS AND TUBERS. | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ |POTATO. |95.0|24.1|0.9|2.0|21.0|1.1|0.3| |JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE. |80.0|18.9|1.1|2.0|15.6|1.3|0.5| |KOHL-RABI. |83.0|10.8|1.2|2.3| 7.3|1.2|0.2| |FIELD BEETS (3 lbs. weight).|88.0|11.1|0.9|1.1| 9.1|0.9|0.1| |SUGAR BEETS (1 to 2 lbs.). |81.5|17.7|0.8|1.0|15.4|1.3|0.1| |RUTA BAGAS (about 3 lbs.). |87.0|12.0|1.0|1.6| 9.3|1.1|0.1| |CARROT (about ½ lb.). |85.0|14.0|1.0|1.5|10.8|1.7|0.2| |GIANT CARROT (1 to 2 lbs.). |87.0|12.2|0.8|1.2| 9.8|1.2|0.2| |TURNIPS. |92.0| 7.2|0.8|1.1| 5.1|1.0|0.1| |PARSNIP. |88.3|11.0|0.7|1.6| 8.4|1.0|0.2| |PUMPKIN. |94.5| 4.5|1.0|1.3| 2.8|1.0|0.1| +-----------------------------------------------------------+

To give the tables necessary to develop this interesting subject to its full capacity, would be altogether beyond the scope of my little treatise. I will refer my readers to the appendix of that excellent work by Prof. Johnson, “How Crops Grow.”

THE COST OF THE CROP.

An average crop of Mangolds may be set down at 22 tons. To grow this crop would cost the farmer who depends on barn manure mainly, about as follows:--

DEBTOR.

Ploughing twice, harrowing and dragging, $9.00 Seed, 10 lbs., 3.50 Planting, 1.00 Sliding, weeding and thinning crop, 16.00 Gathering, topping and storing, 12.00 Manure, and handling of 7 cords, 38.00 Refuse salt, 16 bushels, at $1.25 per hogshead, 2.50 Interest, taxes and wear and tear of implements and teams, 15.00 ------ Total cost, $97.00

CREDITOR.

By crop of 22 tons roots, at $8.50 per ton, $187.00 “ tops,--4 tons, at $5.00, 20.00 “ value of manure left in soil, 14.00 ------- $221.00 Balance, $123.00

In the above estimate I have assumed most of the labor to be by boys, who at hand weeding, if they are reliable, can get over the ground faster than men. I have made no allowance for the cost of cutting up the roots when feeding, as this does not belong under this head. Should the land be old the item of weeding would have to be increased one-half. The salt I have priced at its cost along the sea-coast. I have estimated the value of the crop at the average value of several years past, while the manure charge is higher than it should be where farmers have access to the fertilizing wastes of great cities.

Now, if instead of being contented with a crop of 22 tons to the acre, the farmer strives for double that quantity, he will get it by additional expense in but two directions, viz.: his manure bill and the cost of gathering and storing. If we now double the cost of each of the latter, and credit the results with double the crop, which every practical farmer who has had experience in root culture will allow is but reasonable, we shall have the following results:--