124 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



good profit in it. There is hardly a place in Massachusetts 

 that has not a manufacturing town near enough to it to take a 

 large portion of its vegetables ; and there is one article, 

 especially, which has a large sale for eating purposes, and that 

 is the Swedish turnip. Our friend, Dr. Loring, has occasionally 

 told us how good they are for horses ; the people in our region 

 have come to the conclusion that they are very good for men 

 and women. We are selling them at fifty cents a bushel, and 

 it does not take a great many to fill a bushel basket. Many of 

 our farmers are cultivating them carefully, in the best possible 

 manner, and producing very fine, nice and sound ones. They 

 are nearly as hard as a brick, and I suppose will keep about as 

 long. 



Dr. Loring. They will keep longer. 



Mr. Goodman. There is only one other point on which I wish 

 to say a few words, and that is in regard to hedging gardens. 

 Prof. Chadbourne knows as well as I do, that what chills us 

 men and women, as well as our vegetables, is the west wind„ 

 "We do not dread the east wind, as our Boston friends do, — we 

 rather like it, because it gets a little tempered before it reaches 

 the Berkshire hills ; but the west wind comes from the prairies, 

 it does not cross any water, and it is just about as fresh as our 

 navigators find it at the North Pole, and unless we hedge our 

 gardens, there are a great many things we cannot raise. I can 

 raise the egg plant, for instance, to that point where it will 

 blossom and the fruit begin to appear, but unless my garden is 

 hedged, it will never come to perfection. I have a very simple 

 way of doing that. I plant two or three rows of corn on the 

 west side of my garden, quite thick, and let it grow, and then 

 my egg plants, having the shelter of the corn, will grow to per- 

 fection. That is merely an illustration of the benefit of 

 hedging. People who can afford to put a permanent hedge 

 around their gardens, will find their fruit and vegetables much 

 better and earlier, and they will have a great deal more comfort 

 in working them. 



Dr. Loring. The subject that you have opened is one of 

 extreme importance, I grant, to man and beast ; but it is one 

 that I have discussed so often, that I crave the indulgence of 

 the Board, while I go back a few steps and commence upon the 

 preliminary chapter. 



