IMPORTANT PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS. 583 



articles of cultivation. The cultivation of esculent vegetables 

 for stock, such as turnips, ruta-baga, carrots, parsnips, or beet 

 root, is a matter which I would strongly recommend. Besides 

 its being more conducive to the health of the animals, to their 

 increase in meat and in milk, it will enable the farmer, in the 

 feeding of his cattle, to consume his straw to advantage, and 

 save more expensive forage ; and so increase his stock. 



The improvement of plants, by the careful selection of the 

 earliest ripe, the fullest and the most perfect plants and seeds, 

 may be carried to an equal extent with the improvement of ani 

 mals. The fine barley called the Chevalier barley, and many 

 of the finest kinds of wheat which are cultivated in Europe, are 

 the product of some individual plants, selected in a large field, 

 and carefully cherished by the cultivator. The difference in the 

 time of ripening, the difference in the amount of product, the 

 difference in the quality of the grain, are all essential consid 

 erations. 



6. NEW ARTICLES OF CULTURE. The introduction of new 

 articles of cultivation is a point of much importance. The flax , 

 crop is not by any means so extensively cultivated in the United 

 States, as it may be to advantage, especially when the value of 

 its seed for fatting cattle is taken into the account. No article 

 is more nutritious nor fattening both for sheep and cattle. I am 

 diffident in advising the cultivation in the United States of the 

 oleaginous plants of Holland and Belgium, such as colza, rape, 

 poppy, &c. The expediency of doing this can only be deter 

 mined by experiment. The cultivation of beet-root for sugar, 

 considering the cheapness of the manufacture where it is well 

 understood, and managed on a large scale, and especially in con 

 nection with the value of the refuse for feeding and fattening 

 cattle, deserves much thought and inquiry. Without reference \ 

 to the production of sugar, the value of the crop for feeding stock, 

 considering that no crop yields more, is more relished by cattle, 

 or keeps sound to a later period in the spring, is great, and 

 strongly recommends it. Few crops yield more to the acre, 

 when well cultivated, or leave the land in better condition for a 

 succeeding crop of grain. My own views in regard to this crop / 

 have most essentially altered in its favor. 



Lucern, sainfoin, and vetches, are comparatively little culti- 



