PRACTICAL FARMING. 371 



have been brought to my knowledge which seem to lead to the 

 same conclusion, though further experiment is, perhaps, needed 

 to establish it as a fixed fact. 



The culture of turnips forms a most important part of the 

 system of rotation of crops, in Great Britain, where the turnip 

 is far more esteemed than any other root as a food for cattle. 

 This crop would undoubtedly do very well on many of our 

 soils, though the climate of Great Britain is better adapted to 

 it than ours. The reply of Daniel Webster, to the neighbor 

 who inquired how he should bring up his farm, is already 

 familiar to most who hear me. " Grow turnips," said he. 

 " To grow turnips the land must be well ploughed, highly 

 manured, and kept free from weeds. It is a crop which, in the 

 ordinary rotation, prepares the land in the best manner for 

 those which follow it. It will do well on light loams, though 

 better on heavier soils. Its yield is large and bulky, and to 

 dispose of it to the best advantage, it ought to be fed off to the 

 cattle in winter. This will force you to keep more stock, and 

 in this way you will increase your barnyard manure, which will 

 add to the fertility of the soil. You will have better cattle, 

 and if you keep a few sheep, your lambs will come early to 

 market, and will be in good condition and command high prices 

 instead of being sold for their pelts." 



The value of roots, as food for stock, is too well known to 

 need comment. About twenty tons of turnips can be raised to 

 the acre, and every ton of hay on the farm finds its equivalent 

 in about three and a half tons of turnips. You raise, therefore, 

 what is about equal in nutritive value to six tons of good hay 

 per acre, when you raise a good crop of turnips. It is not very 

 difficult to get eighteen tons of carrots to the acre on good land, 

 and every three tons of carrots are equal in nutritive value to 

 a ton of good English hay. Now some one will say, " But the 

 labor of raising an acre of turnips or carrots is much greater 

 than that of raising an acre of hay." This is true, to some 

 extent, but as an offset to it, we should remember that the 

 turnips are, at the same time, preparing the ground for a large 

 crop of grass or other crops in succeeding years. In other 

 words, it is a profitable and valuable fallow crop in the rotation, 

 while its beneficial effect on the health of the animal is sufficient 



