168 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



labor and travelling difficult, to say nothing of the fact, that 

 much hay is musty or mixed with weeds. The exclusive use 

 of hay-food induces constipation. A judicious mixture of 

 carrots with hay, is probably the very best fodder for working 

 horses. Their value for milch cows, was well understood long 

 since. Our acquaintance with the farming of the county has 

 not brought to our knowledge any other way in which so large 

 an amount of food can be raised upon the same quantity of 

 land, and with so little labor. The idea is familiar enough in 

 England, where land is dear and economy of space to be con- 

 sidered. Indeed, it was said long ago, that " the foundation of 

 good agriculture was the raising of roots, as winter food for 

 cattle." As land becomes more valuable here, the more clearly 

 will it be seen that the crop which yields from thirty to forty 

 tons of nutritious food per acre, must take precedence of 

 others, especially in a community where there is a growing 

 demand for horse fodder, and where new butter and milk bring 

 the highest prices. The cultivatioii required is attended with a 

 large outlay, but that is of no importance, provided the income 

 is in a far greater ratio. The crop pays for all, to say nothing of 

 the pleasure of seeing such great and decided improvements. 

 " Half the diseases from which cattle suffer, proceed from 

 obstructions occasioned by dry food." 



Several of our acquaintances have failed to raise large crops 

 of carrots, from forgetfulness of the necessity of deep plough- 

 ing and high manuring. Carrots require both, and will hand- 

 somely repay all the manure and cultivation they receive.* 

 The land should be ploughed three times to bring it into fine 

 tilth, and not harrowed, but simply brushed smooth, that it 

 may be light. The largest and proportionately cheapest crop 

 that we have seen, was manured with guano at the rate of over 



* An account of one of tlie largest growths of carrots in this county may 

 be found in Transactions of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society, vol. 1, p. 

 83. The crop amounted to one hundred and sixty bushels, on one-eighth of 

 an acre, or at the rate of more than thirty tons per acre. The only peculiar- 

 ity we can discover in the j^roceeding was, that the manure, three ox-cart 

 loads, was ploughed in, in November. As soon as the frost was out, the land 

 was ploughed again, and a third time in May. The most thorough culture is 

 generally rewarded with the most remunerating crop. The tendency of 

 men to attend to their own or their fathers' ways makes it hard for this truth 

 to be believed. 



