SECRETARY'S REPORT. 103 



A committee consisting of Messrs. Atwater, Brown and 

 Gardner, presented the following 



REPORT 



ON ROOT CROPS. 



Carrots, Sugar Beet, Mangold Wurzel, Swedish Turnips. 



The Board of Agriculture, knowing the value of the root 

 crop for stock feeding purposes, its value as a crop in cleansing 

 the land under a course of cultivation ; also the economy in 

 the use of root crops in comparison with other crops now culti- 

 vated for feeding purposes, and believing that information upon 

 the subject would encourage this general cultivation, asked (by- 

 circular letter,) of the farmers of Massachusetts, the following 

 questions, viz. : — 



. 



1. The kind of soil, its depth, and the nature of the subsoil 

 on which, according to their experience, the roots above named 

 had been most successfully cultivated ? 



2. The kind of plough used, mode of preparation of the soil, 

 kind and quantity of manure used, when and how applied? 



3. Variety of seed used, where grown, time of seeding, dis- 

 tance apart of the rows, and distance of the roots apart, left in 

 the rows for maturity ? 



4. Time of harvesting, manner of keeping, &c, &c. ? 



The answers received show that the practice in cultivation, 

 and the kind preferred, and the estimate placed upon the crop, 

 (for feeding to stock,) is as varied as the soils planted. It has 

 been generally cultivated and fed out without keeping any 

 record of the cost of raising, or of the results in its use. The 

 published Reports of the Board of Agriculture for the years 

 1851-8, inclusive, and the Industrial Statistics of the State, 

 1855, give the following information : — 



Total Product — Root Crops. 

 Carrots, 1,469 acres; average yield per acre, 427 



bushels," - 640,500 



Turnips, 2,267 acres ; average yield per acre, 231 



bushels, 523,677 



