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EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



to be increased. Access may be had to them, in such case, at 

 the southern end, which may be kept fortified against frost by 

 loose bundles of straw packed. In this way, with care, they 

 may be well preserved until spring, and be at hand through the 

 winter for the stock. They may be well kept likewise in bins, 

 in our barns, well packed round, top, bottom, and sides, with 

 coarse hay. This is an excellent and most convenient mode. 

 In our cold climate, the covering must be liberally and carefully 

 returned, if they are opened occasionally for a supply. 



I believe our farmers would find a very great advantage in 

 growing esculent vegetables for sheep and cattle, instead of 

 keeping them, as is now done, through our long and severe win 

 ters, exclusively upon dry feed. They would be most useful for 

 sheep in the lambing season, and for cows in milk; and though, 

 in fattening properties, I know no article, all things considered, 

 superior to our Indian corn, yet they certainly would come most 

 beneficially in aid of that. I do not assert that turnips are the 

 best crop, for this purpose, which can be grown, but Swedish 

 turnips are certainly among the best. Mangel-wurzel, carrots, 

 cabbages, parsnips, and potatoes, are all useful. I may recur 

 to this subject again ; but the conclusion to which I have my 

 self come, and in which I am daily confirmed, and with which 

 I wish the farmers of the United States could be more and more- 

 impressed, is, that an abundant supply of succulent food should 

 be provided for their stock during our long winters, first, as 

 conducive to the health of the stock ; and next, as contributing 

 essentially to the improvement of fattening stock, and as enabling 

 the farmer to keep more stock ; and lastly, as furnishing him 

 with the best means of enriching his farm, and extending and 

 improving all his other crops. These have been the striking 

 and universally-acknowledged results of such a system of hus 

 bandry here : and I have not a doubt that, in those parts of the 

 United States from which the markets in our cities arc to be 

 supplied with beef and mutton, though, from the severity of our 

 climate, it might with us be a more laborious process than here, 

 and we could not have the advantage of feeding off our green 

 crops on the lands where they grew, yet its great benefits would 

 be an ample compensation for any extra expense or labor to 

 which it might, in many situations, subject us. The difficulty 

 and expense of procuring labor may present itself as an objec- 



