of for feeding
purposes. The experiment was conducted on a field of four acres, of
which the produce of 12 drills, each 200 yards in length, was left
untouched. The result was that the produce of the roots of the untouched
plants was only 40 tons 8 cwt. 6 qrs. per acre, whilst the roots of the
plants which had been partly denuded of their leaves weighed at the rate
of 45 tons 1 cwt. This experiment afforded results which are apparently
favorable to the practice of stripping the leaves; but it is to be
regretted that it was not rendered more complete by an analysis of the
roots, as a great bulk of roots does not necessarily imply a great
weight of dry food, and it is just possible, though not very probable,
that the roots of the stripped mangels contained a larger proportion of
water than those of the untouched plants.

The results of the experiments of Buckman, and of Professor Wolff, of
the Royal Agricultural College at Hohenheim, are at direct variance with
those obtained at Glasnevin. Both of these experimenters found that the
removal of the leaves occasioned a diminution in the produce of the
roots to the amount of 20 per cent. Nor was this the only loss, for it
was found by the German professor that the roots of the untouched plants
possessed a far higher nutritive value than those of the stripped
mangels.

When doctors differ, who is to decide? Here we have high authorities in
the agricultural world at direct variance on a matter of fact. The names
of Buckman and Wolff are a sufficient guarantee that the experimental
results which they announce are trustworthy, and I can testify, from
observation, that no field experiments could be more carefully conducted
than those carried out at the Albert Model Farm. We can only, then,
under the circumstances, admit that both Mr. Boyle, on the one side,
and Professors Buckman and Wolff on the other, are correct in their
statements of fact; but as it is evident both cannot be right in the
general inferences therefrom, it is desirable that the subject should be
still further investigated, and the truth be placed beyond doubt. It is
a question which appears so simple that one is at a loss to account for
the discrepant opinions in relation to it which prevail. "Let nothing
induce the growers," says Mr. Paget, in a paper on the cultivation of
the mangel, "to strip the leaves from the plant before taking up the
root. A series of careful experiments has convinced me that by so doing