SECRETARY'S REPORT. 105 



ill such a condition, and in such quantities, ought not to be ex- 

 pected. Indeed, no man can look on and see the great efforts 

 the animals have to u.se to masticate them, but must feel that it 

 will require all the nutriment they get to supply the waste 

 caused by their labor in eating them ! 



That any kind of turnip has not as much nutriment as a car- 

 rot, is well known to all intelligent agriculturists ; but even 

 the least nutritious sorts of turnip, if properly fed, with dry 

 fodder, are far better for animals, than nothing that is gyeen. 

 They will keep in better condition for it. Every intelligent 

 farmer who has made any experiments with them, knows that 

 animals may not only be kept alive with them, but if given in 

 sufficient quantities, they may be fattened even on the common 

 flat English turnip. 



But there are considerations that should induce the cultiva- 

 tion of roots, additional to their value as food for animals. They 

 are broad-leaved plants, that derive a large proportion of their 

 nourishment from the atmosphere, and are, therefore, not ex- 

 hausting crops. Indeed, land will improve under the cultiva- 

 tion of the carrot in particular. The same is true of the beet. 

 Besides, all roots that deeply penetrate the earth, are a kind of 

 underground laborers. They not only loosen the soil and sub- 

 ject it to atmospheric influences, but they act on it with a chem- 

 istry peculiarly their own, to elaborate food not only for them- 

 selves, but to prepare it for other plants. 



This is one great reason why the cultivation of roots plays 

 so conspicuous a part in English husbandry. It has been said that 

 turnip culture is the English farmer's ' shcet-achor.' From the 

 difference in climate between this country and England, that 

 being proverbially moist, and ours subject to frequent and sharp 

 droughts, this crop may not be economically or judiciously made 

 to play so conspicuous or prominent a part in a system of rota- 

 tion in crops as in that country. But that turnip culture for the 

 feeding of animals should occupy more attention, and that econ- 

 omy and good husbandry require that every farmer should 

 raise a few hundred bushels of rutabagas in particular, there can 

 be no doubt among intelligent and practical men. Nor can it 

 be doubted, that root cutters should be on every farm, properlj 

 to prepare them for feed, along side of hay cutters. 



