The Rural Magazine, and Literary Evening Fire-Side, Vol. 1 No. 08 (1820)Various
Science
The Rural Magazine, and Literary Evening Fire-Side, Vol. 1 No. 08 (1820)
Various
Agriculture; Agriculture -- Periodicals
"The method of cultivating the Beet root, here recommended, is the
same as that used in the cultivation of turnips, in Northumberland,
and other parts of the North of England with this exception, that
the rows there are 27 inches apart.--There may be reasons in the
North for still preserving that space; but in Essex the effect of
it, in the cultivation of the Beet root, would be, that instead
of 48 tons per acre, 43 tons only would be obtained. Experience
has proved, that the roots do not get to a larger size in rows
three feet apart, than they do in rows two feet apart. It may
therefore fairly be presumed, that they would not be larger, in rows
twenty-seven inches apart; and if not larger, the weight of the
crop, per acre, must be less, because the plants decrease in number
as the rows increase in space."
To the preceding account of cultivating the Mangel Wurtzel, I will
subjoin a few
REMARKS.
In this mode it is intended that every two feet of ground should
bear one plant: and as an acre contains 43,560 square feet, there
will be half of that number of plants on an acre, and the roots must
weigh nearly five pounds each, on an average, to yield forty-eight
tons. The land must indeed be strong to produce so heavy a crop. If
our lands, enriched and prepared in the best manner conveniently in
our power, can be made to yield half as much, we shall have reason
to be satisfied: especially as the Mangel Wurtzel, quantity for
quantity, contains more than twice as much nutritive matter as the
Ruta Baga, and even 50 per cent. more than Carrots; according to
the experiments (by analysis) of a celebrated English Chymist, Sir
Humphrey Davy, which he stated to the British Board of Agriculture.
These experiments were made with the red and white Beets; but it is
presumed that the Mangel Wurtzel produces as much nutriment as any
other Beet.
Instead of 6 it may be advisable to apply at least 12 cubit yards
(that is 6 such cart loads as were before-mentioned) of manure to
an acre; and to distribute the same in deep furrows 4 feet apart.
This would give four square feet of ground to each plant, the plants
being at a foot distance one from another in the rows, four feet
apart, would admit the use of the common horse plough in their
cultivation.
Carrots and the Mangel Wurtzel possess one eminent advantage; that
they are not, to my knowledge, annoyed by insects at any period of
their growth. Whereas the Ruta Baga and other turnips, while in the
seed leaf, are injured (in England whole fields are often destroyed)
by a small black fly: and the Ruta Baga (like cabbages) when far
advanced in growth, is sometimes infested, and in dry seasons half
ruined, by plant lice; as was my small crop in 1818.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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