336 THE YEAR-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 



practice. The principal reason for the extensive culture of root crops, the effect their growth 

 has on the soil, and the amount of fertilizing matter which their consumption furnishes for the 

 higher order of plants, is overlooked. Nearly, if not quite, as much nutritious matter can be 

 obtained from an acre cultivated with Indian corn as from the same acre cultivated with 

 turnips. In this respect, therefore, there is little advantage in growing turnips. But take 

 another view of the subject: suppose that one acre is planted with Indian corn, and another, 

 alongside, with turnips, and that the crops from the two acres are consumed by animals, 

 and the manures made from them returned respectively to each acre, and both are sown to 

 wheat : the wheat on the turnip acre would ue a better crop than on the corn acre. Wo think 

 there can hardly be the shadow of a doubt on this point. The value of roots, therefore, is 

 partly, if not principally, due to their fertilizing effect on the soil ; and in deciding which 

 root to cultivate, we must by all means bear this in mind. New York Country Gentleman. 



Beets vs. Turnips for Feeding Stock. 



TURNIPS are raised to a greater extent, both in Great Britain and this country, than any 

 other kind of roots, except, perhaps, potatoes. But water enters very largely into their 

 composition, so as to detract from nutritive qualities. According to Dr. Anderson, the 

 chemist to the Highland Agricultural Society of Scotland, the beet is much more profitable 

 for feeding than the turnip. He states that he has analyzed a crop of mangel-wurzel, 

 amounting to thirty-four tons per acre, and ascertained by that analysis that the nutritive 

 matter produced exceeded two and a half times that of a good, "and three and a half times 

 that of an average, crop of turnips. 



Mr. A. Y. Moore, President of the State Agricultural Society of Michigan, states that the 

 kind of root which has produced the greatest quantity of milk with him, is the sugar-beet. 



Others have found the sugar-beets of superior value, so much so, that one farmer within 

 our knowledge has raised them as a field crop for a great many years. He says they yield 

 as abundantly as any other root, and are at the same time more nutritive than others, with 

 the exception of carrots. He, too, thinks they are superior, for milch cows, to any other 

 root or vegetable whatever. He informs us that butter made in winter from cows fed on 

 this root, in addition to their dry feed of hay, is nearly as great in quantity as in the fall, 

 and of nearly, if not quite, as rich a color and quality. 



On the Art of Cultivating Fruit-Trees. 



THE absolute necessity of proper preparation and deep and thorough cultivation of the 

 soil, especially for certain fruits, is now generally admitted, though regard must always be 

 had to the natural activity in the sap of the species, and to the degree of fertility of the soil. 

 Surely it would be unwise to apply the same cultivation to the peach and the cherry as to 

 the apple and the pear, or to treat any of these on new and fertile grounds as in old and ex- 

 hausted lands. The influence of soils is remarkable. But by these we do not mean the 

 identical spot, the artificial bed in which the tree stands ; for, in time, the roots take a wide 

 range in search of food. Some fruits are good in nearly all places ; others, only in their 

 original locality : some succeed best on light, loamy, or sandy soils ; others, in stiff, clayey 

 soils. In the latter, many pears for instance, the Beurr^ bosc and Napoleon are as- 

 tringent ; while in the former they are entirely free from this quality. The Beurre" ranee, 

 in England and in some parts of France, is the best late pear. So it is also in some parts 

 of the soils in Belgium ; while with others, and with us, it is generally inferior. The flavor 

 of fruit is much influenced not only by soil, but also by climate and meteorological agents. 

 Thus, in a cold, wet, and undrained soil, disease commences in the root, and, as a natural 

 consequence, the juices of the tree are imperfectly elaborated, and unable to supply the 

 exigency of the fruit. Even injurious substances are taken up. A plum-tree has been 

 known to absorb oxide of iron, so as not only to color the foliage, but also to exude and 

 form incrustations on the bark, and finally to kill the tree. As an instance of climatic 



