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.”
[Illustration: AMES CUTTER.]
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.”