44 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Carrots, too, may be produced, sometimes, in great quantities and 

 at low cost, but our experience in their cultivation and consumption, 

 has led to the conviction, that the mangold-wurzel is better adapted 

 to our climate, and to the present manner of prosecuting our agri- 

 cultural operations. 



Upon the whole we cannot refrain from expressing the opinion, 

 that the interests of the farmers of Maine would be very much pro- 

 moted by a more extensive cultivation of root crops, as winter food 

 for stock. A liberal supply of turnips, beets or carrots, during the 

 winter, is sure to bring our stock out in the spring in good health 

 and flesh, so that when they are turned to pasture, they are in a 

 condition to receive that benefit from the young grass which it is 

 intended by nature to yield, instead of wasting the earliest and best 

 part of the pasturing season in recruiting their health and strength, 

 which have been wasted and prostrated during winter in the vain 

 endeavor to " hold their own " upon poor hay and straw. 



William C. Hammatt, ) 



Albert Notes, > Committee. 



John F. Anderson, \ 



Mr. True remarked, that we had a wide diversity of soils in 

 Maine, and one kind would prove better in one locality and another 

 in a different soil. In Aroostook and York counties, differences of 

 soil and climate are very great. The clays of Cumberland county 

 hardly exist in Oxford. Consequently widely different methods of 

 cultivation must prevail. 



It must also be borne in mind, that we have had three unusually 

 wet summers in succession. We may soon have a series of dry 

 summers which will dampen the arder of strong advocates of root 

 culture. lie had found the Norfolk white and purple strap leaf 

 turnips among the best varieties. 



His father once had a piece of land where the soil had been wash- 

 ed in to the depth of some four feet. This land he planted to pars- 

 nips. When he took off the crop he weighed it, and found its pro- 

 duce was equal to forty-two tons to the acre. Tlie parsnip requires 

 a very deep soil, and on rich soil they are very productive. 



Mr. Porter said the turnip crop was very important, not merely 

 on account of its value for stock, but as an agent to improve the 

 soil. He did not think there was any substitute for this root for 



