RUTA-BAGAS AND ENGLISH TURNIPS. 159 



good ; the next year they did pretty well ; but I could sec now 

 and then, in the crown of the root, a defect. The next year 

 they did not bottom near so well, and rotted a great deal more. 



Mr. Perkins. How large were they when they commenced 

 to rot, and in what season of the year was it ? 



Mr. Huntington. Along in September, after they got well 

 growing. Some of them would be quite large. I did not 

 observe much about it until a few weeks before I began to 

 harvest them. 



Mr. Bull. Were those crops grown upon the same ground 

 each year ? 



Mr. Huntington. No, sir ; new ground. 



A Member. What, in your judgment, is the value of the 

 common English turnip compared with the ruta-baga ? 



Mr. Huntington. I cannot tell anything about it from exper- 

 iment. All I judge from is by what chemists tells us. I think 

 that the ruta-baga contains only about ten per cent, of nutritive 

 matter. Is it not so, Dr. Loring ? 



Dr. Loring. So it is stated. I do not know the comparative 

 merits of the two, except that the ruta-baga is a root for storage 

 and long feeding ; the English turnip is not. It does not 

 amount to anything after the early part of the season. It is a 

 root you cannot keep to advantage. 



Mr. Huntington. I forgot to mention one way in which I 

 know of the English turnip being raised to pretty good advan- 

 tage very cheaply. I do not know whether it has ever been 

 practised in this part of the State or not. A neighbor of mine, 

 when he wants to lay down a piece of land to grass, where the 

 land is in pretty good condition, will sow turnip seed with the 

 grass seed. Of course he does not cultivate it at all, and in 

 that way he secures a pretty good crop of turnips without any 

 labor, except gathering them in the fall, and without any injury 

 to the grass next year. 



A Member. How do you prepare your turnips for the cattle ? 

 Do you take pains to remove the dirt from the roots ? If the 

 land is rather w r et when they are gathered, there will be quite a 

 quantity of dirt that will remain on the turnips. Do you take 

 pains to remove that dirt, or do you cut them up with the dirt 

 that adheres to them ? 



