SECRETARY'S REPORT. 31 



answer is, turnips. I believe them to be more economical than any thing else 

 we can raise. 



In England, a country noted for large and fine cattle and good beef and 

 mutton, more account is made of the turnip crop than of hay. They truly 

 say that without roots there must be few cattle, and with few cattle little 

 manure, and with little manure scanty crops. 



Of all the roots grown for stock, turnips can be grown cheapest, and they 

 are used with success. Mr. Knight of Fort Fairfield, says : " Turnips may be 

 successfully used for fattening cattle for the shambles. I have been more 

 successful with ruta bagas as a principal food than with corn. With these as 

 the principal food, I have had oxen gain an inch in girth per week until fit 

 for slaughtering." 



My own experience fully sustains the above. It is objected by some that 

 turnips impart a bad flavor to milk. This is sometimes the case, but when it 

 is, the taste can be removed by putting a piece of fresh charcoal into the milk 

 or cream before churning. 



Last winter, being short of hay, I gave my cows sis quarts each of ruta 

 bagas per day, with two-thirds hay, and one-third straw. They did quite as 

 well as on hay alone, and there was no bad flavor to the milk. With good 

 culture, 800 bushels per acre can be grown, or about 2-1 tons. Now allowing 

 them to be worth half the price of hay (and for feeding out with straw they 

 are) we have equal to twelve tons of hay, or the equivalent of eight acres of 

 grass, yielding a ton and a half of hay per acre. Thus the farmer who grows 

 an acre of turnips adds to his crops equal to eight acres of meadow, and the 

 turnips can be grown and harvested for less than the hay of eiglit acres. 



My method of cultivation is to plow grass ground eight inches deep, and 

 sow with oats, or peas and oats the first year. After the grain is Jiarvested in 

 the fall, plow again a little deeper than before. In spring, after other crops 

 are in, spread a good coat of manure, not too coarse, and work it in with a 

 cultivator, then use a heavy roller until tlie lumps are all crushed, then har- 

 row and brush till fit for planting. The drills are made three feet apart, using 

 for this purpose a pair of board trucks witli the axle as long as the width of 

 the drills, confining a board in the fork of the handle to make the drill. This 

 is pushed across the piece, and in going back one wheel runs in the track 

 made before. This makes all the rows of equal distance, and saves much 

 labor in after cultivation. The seed is sown by hand, pretty thick. Ashes 

 are then put in the drills at the rate of ten bushels per acre and covered with 

 the hoe. When the plants are up a little, more ashes are scattered when the 

 dew is on, after which I have not been troubled with worms or bugs. When 

 the rows can be plainly seen, I run a cultivator between them, and again 

 eight or ten days after. Use no hoe until four or five inches high ; tb.en thin 

 and hoe Avell. The after cultivation is done with a horse and cultivator. 



Ruta bagas have proved as good with me as potatoes, for wintering pigs, 

 and I have- used them in preference since potatoes rotted. I have swine now 

 which if fed with both, eat the turnips up clean first, showing plainly which 

 they prefer. 



Turnips are very valuable for sheep ; if fed wholly on dry hay when they 

 first come to the barn they are apt to have the stretches, and some juicy food 

 is necessary to keep them in health. I have found turnips the best food for 

 this purpose, and the cheapest grown. 1 prefer them to any kind of proven- 

 der in the first part of the winter. Every farmer who keeps sheep should 

 grow enough to feed to them as long as they keep good. 



Flat turnips are best grown on burnt land, but they do well on pasture 

 ground, especially when fed by sheep for some years. It sovsn on newly burnt 

 land they need no hoeing. Sowing about the end of July and harvesting are 

 all the labor requisite. 



Some think turnips an exhausting crop, but such is not my experience. I 

 raise as good grain crops and hay after turnips as after any other crop, and 



