What is a Mangold Wurtzel? A number of years ago I raised a piece
of Early Turnip Beet seed in a very isolated location; there was
not another piece of Beet seed growing within half a mile, at
least. A good deal of the seed wasted, as is usual when the seed is
allowed to ripen well on the stock before cutting. From this waste
seed thousands of young plants sprang up, many of which survived
the winter, by the help of the protection of chickweed and snow.
They had got so far along when ploughing time came, I left the
piece unploughed, thinning them out that they might produce early
beets. As the season advanced a good many of them pushed seed
shoots and ripened a crop of seed. Some of the seed I gathered
and the next season planted it to see what it would produce. The
crop was “everything;” all the way from a nice, dark colored Early
Turnip Beet, through different sizes, colors and forms, up to a
light-fleshed Mangold Wurtzel! As the original Beets were a very
pure Turnip Beet, and during several years of careful cultivation
for seed purposes had shown no admixture with any other variety,
the experiment proved either that the coarse variety of Stock Beet,
which we call Mangold Wurtzel are but sports from our fine-grained
table Beets, or that the Beets class are sports from Mangolds,--most
probably the former.
Mangold Wurtzels differ from table Beets in their general coarseness
of structure, and the larger size to which they grow, the elements
which enter into the composition of each being the same in kind.
What is a Sugar Beet? The term “Sugar Beet” is an unfortunate one,
as the word “Sugar” had already been appropriated to express the
sweet flavor of the varieties of Beets raised for table use, while
the word Beet is strictly a misnomer, the vegetable Sugar Beet being
in reality a Mangold Wurtzel. A generation ago our fathers used the
term “Sugar” as a familiar designation for any sweet variety of
beet raised for table use, and at the present by the great majority
of the public the term is still so used. As the new industry of
manufacturing sugar from the beet grew on the continent of Europe,
seedsmen were called upon to supply for commerce seed of the best
variety for this purpose. It was necessary that this variety should
be as free as possible from all coloring substance as this would,
as a matter of course, give a stain to the juice, and impose on the
manufacturer the labor of purifying it. The ones at first selected
were the long, white Mangold Wurtzel, and these were called the
“Sugar” Beet in commercial parlance. These white Mangolds were not
entirely white, the portion that grew above ground being usually
colored a light green by exposure to the sun’s rays; it became
therefore an object for the manufacturer to still improve on them to
the end that all the coloring should be eliminated. The intelligence
and enterprise of the seedsmen of Europe responded to this want, and
in the course of a few years two prominent varieties were produced,
that have nearly completely satisfied it,--one of these was sent out
by the estimable house of Vilmorin Andrieux & Co., of Paris, and is
named “Vilmorin’s New Improved White,” and the other “White Imperial
Extra,” by the distinguished German house of Ernest Benary.
These improved Sugar Beets of commerce grow nearly entirely under
ground, and when grown these beets define themselves to be the
Mangold variety, by the coarser structure of the root, the stouter
ribs and the greater coarseness of the leaves, which spring in larger
masses directly from the crown, than is the case with beets for the
table.
The moral of all this for my farmer friends is, that if you want a
beet for table use do not order “Sugar Beet” or you will be very
likely to find a Mangold growing in your garden, a return, but not a
recompense for the sweat and toil of the husbandman.