3 LETTER LXVI. Sir M. MARTIN, Bart. to Dr. LETTSOM. Sir, Burnham, Nov. 30, 1788. Having read the Abbé de Commerell's pamphlet, but not having met with any person who did not abuse the Mangel Wurzel, or who had given it a fair trial, I sent last Spring to Messrs. Grimwood and Co., for seed of every kind of beet and Mangel Wurzel. They sent me red, white, and green beet, and what they called Scarcity Plant; and a friend sent me a few seeds, which came from Brussels. Mr. Grimwood's Scarcity Plant proved to be nothing but red beet; but my Brussels seed proved to be the right Mangel Wurzel. I sowed them early in March, with a bed of parsnips between each, to prevent mixture. The only spot I had for the purpose is by nature so hot a gravel, that I can get no white thorn to thrive on the hedges, and for that reason had railed in about a rood, and sowed it with lucern broadcast many years ago, on which I bestowed no other expence than an annual Winter dressing, from the ash heap at the scullery door, mixed with fowls' dung; and harrowing well every Spring, with common harrows; and it constantly supplied what two horses eat in the day-time through the summer. In the Autumn, 1785, I ploughed it up, and with a good deal of trouble got it fine enough to plough in a coat of farm yard dung in the Spring, and set it with potatoes. I did not measure the crop, but it was sufficient to raise the admiration of my labourers. In March 1787 I ploughed it again, and sowed it with carrots, which I took up in November, and filled six carts full. In the Winter I carried a few barrels of water from the drain of my farm yard, and two or three loads of fresh mould upon it, and ploughed it again, and raked in my seeds. The Spring drought had almost determined me to plough it up again, as the mould had supplied me with abundance of weeds, and the ants eat the red beet leaves almost as fast as they grew; but my few plants of Mangel Wurzel encouraged me to persevere. The white and green beets produced no esculent roots, but a vast foliage, which I made free with for house use as spinach ; and as I thinned the plants, gave them to my labourers, who seemed delighted with them; and between Midsummer and harvest, when I was distressed for grass for my cows, I cut the tops of half of them close to the ground, and gave them to my cows in their night pasture, to the great triumph of my neighbours, for the cows smelled at every leaf and eat none that night; but the next I triumphed in my turn, for there was not a leaf to be found the next morning, and the plants soon produced fresh tops. I was too proud of my few plants of the right sort to spoil their appearance by stripping off their leaves, though I am now convinced it might have been done, in moderation, without checking their growth. The red sort had but small tops in proportion, except some which had their crowns close to the ground, which I ignorantly prized as my best roots, and fed my pigs abundantly with those which swelled above ground; but upon taking them up, I found my mistake, for they had all forked roots; the best of those which swelled above ground weighed about 34 lb. I have great satisfaction in finding that my cows now devour the leaves of all the sorts greedily, though their bellies are full of turnips, and they will eat even the hard forked roots without cutting. The parsnips I sowed on the same day in the intermediate beds are very small, whilst the Mangel Wurzels weigh from eight to fourteen pounds each, with what tops remained on them last week; and from ten pounds and a half to six pounds without them which convinces me that a cottager on this soil can by no other means produce so much food for his family, his cow, and his pig, on so small a space. If you are not frightened at the length of this letter, I shall beg leave to report to you the |