Up to the act of depositing the seed, the processes of preparation for mangel are similar to those described for the turnip; winter dunging being even more appropriate for the former than for the latter. The common drilling machines are easily fitted for sowing its large rough seeds, which should be sown from the beginning of April to the middle of May and may be deposited either on ridges or on the flat. The after culture is like that of the turnip. The plants are thinned out at distances of not less than 15 in. apart. Transplanting can be used for filling up of gaps with more certainty of success than in the case of swedes, but it is much more economical to avoid such gaps by sowing a little swede seed along with the mangel. Several varieties of the plant are cultivated--those in best repute being the long red, the yellow globe and the tankard, intermediate in shape. This crop requires a heavier dressing of manure than the turnip to grow it in perfection, and is much benefited by having salt mixed with the manure at the rate of 2 or 3 cwt. per acre. Nitrogenous manures are of more marked value than phosphatic manures. The crop requires to be secured in store heaps as early in autumn as possible, as it is easily injured by frost.
MANGLE. (1) A machine for pressing and smoothing clothes after washing (see LAUNDRY). The word was adopted from the Dutch; _mangel-stok_ means a rolling pin, and _linnen mangelen_, to press linen by rolling; similarly in O. Ital. _mangano_ meant, according to Florio, "a presse to press buckrom," &c. The origin of the word is to be found in the medieval Latin name, _manganum_, _mangonus_ or _mangana_, for an engine of war, the "mangonel," for hurling stones and other missiles (see CATAPULT). The Latin word was adapted from the Greek [Greek: magganon], a trick or device, cognate with [Greek: mêchanê], a machine. (2) To cut in pieces, to damage or disfigure; to mutilate. This word is of obscure origin. According to the _New English Dictionary_ it presents an Anglo-French _mahangler_, a form of _mahaigner_ from which the English "maim" is derived, cf. the old form "mayhem," surviving in legal phraseology. Skeat connects the word with the Latin _mancus_, maimed, with which "maim" is not cognate.