SECRETARY'S REPORT. J^ lOT 



early tliis labor comes ia baying time, wliicli it is desirable to 

 avoid, besides the weeds grow with more rapidity late than 

 early. Carrots, then, should be sowed early, say middle of 

 May. Some sow in the fall with good results. No man should 

 be without a patch of one or both of these vegetables. To 

 fatten hogs, liorses, or cattle, the carrot is worth twice as much 

 per bushel as the turnip ; while to feed to cattle with straw or 

 poor hay, a few for a solvent and loosener, the turnip is quite 

 as valuable. As to the value, then, of each, compared with 

 hay, it will depend much on the use to be made of them, whether 

 they are to be fed sparingly, as a regulator, for which use they 

 • are worth far more than their intrinsic value or chemical ele- 

 ments of nutrition would indicate, or fed profusely, as a fattener 

 of beef or pork. If I were to be allowed one bushel to ten 

 head of cattle fed on straw and coarse fodder, per day, I should 

 choose the turnip ; if I were to feed on half hay and the balance 

 turnips or carrots, I should by far prefer the carrots, say two 

 bushels to three of turnips. 



With us, farmers and teamsters, who have used carrots for 

 horses, rate them the same as oats in value, while horses un- 

 used maj', with advantage, have more given to them than of 

 oats, and less hay. It is now considered settled that the pectic 

 acid of the carrot enables the horse to digest the hay used with 

 them far better than used with oats. The same is true of tur- 

 nips, but to a less extent ; and the effect of this is less on cattle 

 that chew the cud, than on the horse with single and low powers 

 of digestion. Making the variations above indicated, 1 shall 

 set down carrots worth as much per ton as hay, and turnips 

 two-thirds as much, though either may be of greater or less 

 value, according to the amount used, compared with the hay used 

 with them, whether it get above or below a certain ratio." 



Some brief statements are appended chiefly to show the esti- 

 mate which prevails in different portions of the State as to their 

 yield and value : 



mOM WALDO COUNTY. 



"Carrots, rutabagas, beets, &c., are cultivated as field crops to some 

 extent, by most farmers, and is increasing as the potato crop decreases. 

 Carrots are much more cultivated than either of the others. Average 

 yield of carrots per acre, from six to eight hundred bushels ; beets 



