190 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



crop for producing milk. Now I wish to turn the attention of 

 the Board more particularly to this question. 



Mr. Ware is peculiarly situated for raising roots, because he 

 gets a very large amount of his manure from the sea, which 

 those of us who are inland cannot get. I have formerly raised 

 roots, and put a thousand bushels or more of them into my 

 cellar ; and when I have had to bring them up myself in winter, 

 and feed them out, I have asked myself the question whether I 

 could not get along more easily by raising corn and feeding it 

 to my cows. It is a very easy thing to get a thousand bushels 

 into your cellar ; but it is some work, in a cold morning, to 

 bring them up, chop them, and feed them to the cows. Then 

 another thing. In turning our attention to roots, we have to 

 guard against excessive cold. A carrot, after it has been 

 chilled or frozen, is not healthy food for cows or any other 

 animals. I know cows in Danvers that have been made sick by 

 eating carrots that have been frozen. There is no such trouble 

 with Indian corn. That is the crop adapted to us. God has 

 given us this plant for our use. Agricultural writers have told 

 us much about English farmers. Their climate is milder than 

 ours, and roots may be adapted to their winters ; but here, in 

 our severe, cold climate, we have got to provide some animal 

 heat for our cows, and we have in our Indian corn just what 

 our animals need for this excessive cold weather. That is fol- 

 lowing nature. And if we can grow corn, there is no difficulty 

 about keeping it. If we do not want it the first year we are 

 sure to want it the next ; but most of us use it all up the first 

 year. Then, in connection with the corn itself, the amount of 

 fodder that is grown upon an acre is to be considered. I think 

 that, if you allow sixty bushels of corn to the acre, and six 

 hundred bushels of roots, which would be a good crop, take the 

 State through, the growing of Indian corn should be encouraged 

 rather than the growing of roots. I do not confine myself to 

 some particular localities, where they have an excess of manure, 

 aside from the farm, but include the whole State, where, as a 

 general thing, the farmers arc dependent upon their own 

 resources for manure to keep the land in good order. 



Mr. Slade. The most expeditious way of raising corn, after 

 all, is to raise roots. A thousand bushels of roots, which can 

 l»e raised as easily as a hundred bushels of corn, will buy three 



