SECRETARY'S REPORT. 35 



more commonly given to stock during the winter, is admitted 

 to be conducive to the health of the animal. 



Perhaps it may be more properly ascribed to the labor 

 required for their successful cultivation. In many instances, 

 this is, undoubtedly, a serious obstacle, and yet if these crops 

 were fully appreciated, this objection would not be allowed to 

 outweigh their advantages. 



The amount of nourishment contained in the various articles 

 used as food for cattle, is now tolerably well ascertained; 

 though from the nature of things, as the difference in climate 

 and temperature in which they come to maturity, and other 

 causes, there must, of course, still be some degree of uncer- 

 tainty about it. From recent experiments, very carefully and 

 skilfully made, it appears that two pounds of raw potatoes 

 aflford as much nourishment as one pound of good English hay. 

 So three and two-fifths pounds of beets, or three and one-half 

 pounds of ruta-bagas with the leaves, or three pounds of carrots, 

 are of the same value as one pound of the same hay. Thus, 

 if we suppose an animal to require twenty-four pounds of hay 

 per day, the place of half that amount of hay, or twelve 

 pounds, might be supplied by twenty-four pounds of raw pota- 

 toes, or thirty pounds of carrots, or forty-two pounds of ruta- 

 bagas with the leaves, or by sixty pounds of turnips with the 

 leaves ; with either of these equivalents, the animal would be 

 equally well fed. This calculation, of course, supposes the 

 articles used to be of ordinarily good quality. 



If these nutritive equivalents are correctly stated, it would 

 be easy to show the economy of a more extended use of root 

 crops. 



If we assume eighteen tons, or about seven hundred bushels 

 of carrots as the product of an acre, which for a good season, 

 and with good culture is a small yield, we have from this one 

 acre, what is equivalent to six tons of hay. Somewhat similar 

 results will be shown by an examination of the relative value 

 of hay and other roots. Land devoted to carrots would 

 undoubtedly require more labor than the same extent of mow- 

 ing land 5 and yet, with the aid of boys in weeding, or with the 

 simple and cheap implement, called the onion weeder, so 

 admirably contrived as to enable the operator to weed care- 



