196 [Senate 



used poor seed, which considerably increased the expense of cultiva- 

 tion ; the thinning was delayed too long, and done imperfectly — by 

 which the plants were stinted in their early growth ; and the ex- 

 tremes of wet and drouth nearly destroyed a large portion of the 

 crop — and seriously injured it all. Still, under all these circumstan- 

 ces, I have raised on an average about 500 bushels to the acre ; and 

 I have no doubt that had the circumstances in all these respects been 

 favorable, I should have had from 1000 to 1200 bushels to the acre ; 

 the whole expense of which, could not have exceeded 30 dollars. 

 The value of 1000 bushels at 1^. a bushel, half the present value of 

 potatoes, though I consider them worth two-thirds as much for feed- 

 ing stock, — would have been 125 dollars, leaving the sum of 95 dol- 

 lars as the nett profit of the crop on one acre. Probably no farmer 

 would realize, by feeding out, an income of one shilling a bushel for 

 beets, — neither would he realize in the same way 2s. a bushel for po- 

 tatoes, nor 8 dollars a ton for hay. But my object in making this 

 communication, is to offer some hints on the comparative advantages 

 of raising these roots for the purpose of feeding stock. 



Now, two tons of hay, a good average crop for the land that would 

 produce 1000 bushels of beets, would keep one cow about six months ; 

 and 1000 bushels of beets, at H bushels each a day, (an ample al- 

 lowance,) would keep four cows something over the same length of 

 time. If it be allowed that the after feed would pay for the expense 

 of cutting and securing the hay, (which it would not do,) then it fol- 

 lows that the same land which would keep one cow on hay, would, 

 at an increase of 25 dollars in the expense of cultivation, keep four 

 times that number on roots, or furnish extra keeping for three cows ; 

 while the hay required to keep the three extra cows, would cost at 8 

 dollars a ton, 48 dollars. Thus, by the substitution of the beet crop, 

 on one acre of meadow land, there would be effected an actual saving 

 of some 23 dollars, over and above the profits which would otherwise 

 accrue. Add to this, the advantages resulting to the farm from the 

 additional amount of manure made from the extra stock which might 

 be kept, and we have no very small inducement to the cultivation of 

 roots. I would not be understood to recommend the feeding of any 

 kind of stock on roots exclusively ; but with a proper proportion of 

 hay and other fodder, one half bushel, or a little more or less, of 

 roots, will, I am satisfied, make the animal thrive better, and effect a 

 saving of fodder, in quite as large a ratio as the one assumed above. 

 I am now so well satisfied with the experience I have had in raising 

 and feeding roots, and so well convinced of the advantages of root 

 culture, that I intend to plant at least 4 or 5 acres of these roots 

 next year. 



POTATOES. 



Martin Morrison's statement, of the mode of cultivating a crop of 

 Potatoes, yielding 496| bushels per acre, reported to the Clinton 

 County Agricultural Society. 



