Part 5

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.”

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:--

Extra cost of crop of 44 tons over one of 22: Manure,--7 cords, $38.00 Gathering, topping and storing, 12.00 ------ $50.00

Now adding-the credit side we shall have for Extra 22 tons roots, $187.00 Six tons tops, 30.00 Value of manure left in ground, 14.00 ------- $231.00 Deduct extra cost, 50.00 ------- Profits cleared, $181.00

In other words, by investing $68.00 for six months, we clear $163.00, which, as any farmer boy can figure, is at the rate of about five hundred per cent. a year. Mr. Fearing of Hingham, with the same amount of manure raised over sixty tons to the acre, and the instances are numerous where over forty tons have been the crop when even a less quantity has been used. Can any farmer who has accumulated a small surplus of money do better than invest it in manure? There is altogether too much money, for the prosperity of their farming, invested by farmers in Savings Banks. These banks pay from four per cent. on money, but here is an instance where an investment made in manure pays over four hundred per cent. Merchants don’t do so foolish a thing as to put their earnings into Savings Banks. No; they invest in their business and so keep it and its money making capacity under their own control; when will farmers be as wise and become their own bankers? Let me remark that the farmer who is so wise as to attempt to get the most from his land will do well to follow Prof. Voelcker’s advice and drill in four or five hundred weight of dissolved bone to the acre, in place of the same value in stable manure.

In the above estimates of the value of Mangolds we have assumed that the farmer sold his crop. Now it is true of this as of every other crop that the farmer can use on his premises, that it is of more value to him than the general market price indicates.

Under this head an intelligent farmer of large experience writes:--

“From experiments made in feeding beets, their value has been made to range from 13 to 20 cents per bushel, with hay at twenty dollars per ton. An exact estimate of the practical value of beets for cattle food, is a difficult matter, as it is now, and ever will be, hid from mortal ken. The improved condition of the cow (when fed to cows during the winter), her increased usefulness during the entire season, her lessened liability to sickness and disease which high feeding with any one of the different kinds of grain induces, her lengthened lease of life, her evident satisfaction and perfect contentment, which is so plainly manifested while eating her daily ration of roots, are each and every one legitimate items to be taken into the account in estimating the practical, the actual value of beets as food for dairy stock.

“After carefully looking at the subject in all its bearings, so far as my experience has given me opportunity to do so, I have come to the conclusion that beets for cattle food are well worth fully as many cents per bushel as good hay is worth dollars per ton, without taking into consideration the increase of the manure; and that the average cost, when stored in the cellar or put into pits, with every item of expense included, need not exceed eight cents per bushel.”

I will close my little treatise by remarking that while I cannot expect to have exhausted so prolific a subject, yet I hope and trust that it may prove of value as a guide and a stimulus to some of my many friends in the great community of farmers.

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