we borrow food at a most usurious interest." "Although," says Mr. Boyle,
"the practice of stripping has been followed for many years on the farm
without any perceptible injury to the crop, these results, showing so
considerable an addition to the crop from taking off the leaves, were
hardly anticipated." It certainly does appear somewhat at variance with
our notion of the functions of the leaves of plants, that their partial
removal could possibly cause an increase in the weight of the roots;
but granting such to be the fact, it is not altogether _theoretically_
inexplicable. We know that highly nitrogenous manure has a tendency to
increase the development of the leaves of turnips at the _expense_ of
the roots. Gardeners, too, not unfrequently remove some of the buds from
their fruit trees, lest the excessive development of foliage should
retard or check the _growth_ of the fruit. _Theoretically_ an excessive
development of the leaves of the mangel may be inimical to the growth
of the root. Probably, too, it may be urged, the outer leaves, which
soon become partially disorganised and incapable of elaborating mineral
matter into vegetable products, prevent the access of light to the more
vigorous inner leaves. In conclusion, I may say of this subject that it
is worthy of further elucidation; and I would suggest to my readers,
and more especially to the managers of the various model farms, the
desirability of fully testing the matter.

The _White Beet_ is a congener of the mangel. It is largely grown on the
continent as a sugar-producing plant, but is seldom cultivated in these
countries. It produces about 15 tons of roots per acre, and its roots on
the average contain--

Water 83.0
Sugar 10.0
Flesh-formers 2.5
Fat-formers 1.5
Fibre 2.0
Ash 1.0
-----
100.0

This plant is deserving of more extensive growth in Great Britain.

The _Parsnip_ is, after the potato, the most valuable of roots. It
differs from the turnip and the mangel in containing a high proportion
of starch, and but little sugar;