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