46 BOAllD OF AGRICULTURE. 



toes. A good crop is from five hundred to six hundred bushels to 

 the acre, but I sometimes get from eight hundred to nine hundred 

 bushels. 



Last year I ploughed up my ground in the fall. In the spring 

 ploughed again, spread on manure and harrowed it in. Sowed the 

 seed between the twelfth and twentieth of June. When up, I sowed 

 on guano mixed with plaster, broadcast, and cultivated it in, at the 

 rate of one hundred and fifty pounds per acre. I find planting on 

 ridges the best, especially if the land is wet. I am now feeding my 

 sheep on straw and turnips, and they look as well as those fed on hay 

 without turnips. With us, turnips do better than mangolds. 



Mr. Flint said he was troubled with the rutabagas rotting in the 

 field. He had the same trouble with the green globe turnip, more 

 than half of which rotted in the field. He did not think it strange 

 that differences of opinion should exist as to the various kinds of 

 root crops, for we have much yet to learn, both as to their culture 

 and comparative value with other articles of food. 



Mr. Hummatt strongly urged the mangold for late feeding. He 

 never saw an animal that would not eat them, though he had 

 known animals to dislike them a little at first. Very large crops 

 could be grown and without so much labor as for other roots. 

 They look feeble at first but soon grow vigorously and yield abund- 

 antly. 



Mr. Cushman had tried beets, carrots and turnips, and gave a 

 decided preference to carrots. He was desirous of learning the 

 comparative value of roots and hay. 



The Secretary said, it was not easy to give an exact answer to 

 this inquiry. So far as the simple amount of nutritive matter which 

 roots contain, is concerned, it could not be rated at over a quarter 

 or a third as much as good hay, and if used as the principal article 

 of food we must reckon chiefly according to this, but when fed in 

 smaller quantities as an auxilliary to hay and coarser fodder we 

 receive benefit not only from the nutritive matter they contain but 

 from the assistmce they render in the digestion and assimilation of 

 other articles of food. So great is this, that to the extent necessary 

 for this purpoie they are probably fully equal, pound for pound, to 

 good hay. Carrots contained a trifle the most of nutritive matter, 

 beets about the same, say twelve to thirteen per cent : Swedish 



