THE MANGEL CROP.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 135, 9 June 1926, Page 20

THE MANGEL CROP.

Mangels will now be readly for harvesting. Some farmers arc quite satisfied to pull them and leave them on the ground to wilt. They then cither turn the stock on to them, or cart them out as required. Little if any time or labour is saved by this method. The

paddock is occupied too long when it might be more profitably used, and any carting that is done comes when the land is in the worst possible condition for that work. A better plan is to pull the roots take off the tops, and leave the mangels in rows sufficiently wide apart to allow a dray to be taken between them to be loaded from both sides. It will usually be found that four drills in each row of roots will leave the desired distance. Should there be any danger of heavy frost before the crop can be stored, it is a good idea to throw the tops over the rows as they are taken off. Covered in this way there will be little danger of the frost doing the roots any harm for a considerable time. Storage Process. As soon as it is convenient after the roots are pulled, they should be carted to a suitable site and heaped into a triangular shaped row. The row should be about nine feet wide at the base, and about five feet six inches high. When the roots are all carted, the row or pit, or clamp as it is called should be covered with straw and a trench dug round it. The soil from the trench is thrown on to the straw. If the straw is not available, raupo or rushes will be found quite satisfactory as a covering. Mangels stored in this way will remain sound for six months, or even more. Mangels should not be fed to stock until they have been out of the ground for at least one month. When selecting the site for the storage, it is well to remember that the paddocks are generally wet and cartage difficult when most of the roots are to be used, therefore a good deal of inconvenience will be avoided if the pit or clamp is as near a s possible to where the mots will be ~

Piri Land Company's stud, was also taken from the Government service, for he resigned the position of farm manager at the Central Development Farm nr Wcraroa in order to hike charge of operations at Totara Park.

Tlio selection and purchase of the foundation stock required for llic Totara Park here] foil to the lot of Mr. l>. O. McOownn, iis nianaghig'-ilircctor of the J'iri Land Company. Invariably displaying great wisdom" in liis p«rcliasca, ho acquired slock from the loading herds of tlio Dominion, incliulinj; those of Messrs. W. D. Hunt. John Donald, Vernmi Marx. Rloomtiold Farm Co.. C. Hopping, Cluny Farm Company, and the Wcraroa Central Developmont Farm. The natural sequence is that to-day Totara Park is the home of a select coterie of some of the leading Friesian matrons of the Dominion. These grand old cows are leaving stock which have already brought the Totara Park stud well into tho limelight, both in the showring and in tlio realm of semi-official testing for butterfat production.