314 ox THE ECONOMICAL USE OF TURNIPS 



former would require a greater quantity of straw both for fodder 

 and for litter. 



We had intended to present the comparison between the three 

 classes in another aspect, but our remarks on this part of the 

 subject are already too lengthened, and we must forbear. It 

 may be desirable, however, to indicate the purport of it in the 

 briefest possible terms, and the reader can follow it out for him- 

 self if he feels so disposed. Take a given number of acres of 

 turnips, say 10, at say 20 tons per acre, and calculate how 

 many cattle these roots would feed according to the quantity 

 allowed in each class, and an approximation may be made there- 

 from of the gross profit made from the specified acreage. Do 

 not let the critical reader suppose that we image it to be all sun- 

 shine and plain sailing. When circumstances are favourable, 

 satisfactory profits, such as we have indicated, may reasonably 

 be anticipated, but when cattle-feeding proves little more than 

 profitable, or positively unprofitable, through the high prices 

 paid for stores or otherwise, all such calculations are liable to be 

 disturbed. As we shall endeavour to show towards the close, 

 the system must be modified and adjusted according to circum- 

 stances. We merely depict its operations when the conditions 

 are normal. 



The 2fain in the enhanced value of the manure from the 

 purchased food opens up a question sufficiently wide and 

 important to be dealt with in a separate paper, and therefore 

 we must rest contented with turning this paragraph into little 

 more than a finger-post to. point to it. There is no surer, safer, 

 and, we believe, more economical plan of maintaining a farm in 

 high manurial condition than the consumption of a large quantity 

 of dry, concentrated feeding stuffs in the feeding of live-stock. 

 It is true that the liberal expenditure of money in such a form 

 must be gone about with care, discretion, and skill. It further 

 requires capital, and also patience, for the indirect profit de- 

 rived from it is not reaped for a time. But in comparing the 

 two systems of feeding animals upon turnips, with or without 

 supplemental food, the greater value of the farmyard manure 

 in the one case than in the other must have its due weight 

 attached to it in the calculation. There is one advantage which 

 superior farmyard manure has in this respect to the rank and 

 file of arable farmers which we would specify, because we are 

 persuaded that it is not sufficiently understood and appreciated. 

 In the absence of a chemical analysis of his soil, a farmer is so 

 far in the dark as to what he should apply with the view of 

 conveying to it the proper substances in their due proportions 

 to bring it to a state of fertility. He is liable to supply some 

 things which are not required, at least in such large proportions, 

 and he may omit others of which it is deficient, and the presence 



