193 THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 



that they are more than three-fourths water, and not worth 

 half as much as hay, which may be true enough. But 

 what do I care for these opinions, so long as roots make 

 flesh and milk cheaper than any thing else I can raise ? I 

 am after milk and flesh by the cheapest method, and if 

 giving water to the stock will bring them, I shall give 

 them water, Jake Frink and Mr. Retort to the contrary 

 notwithstanding. 



White turnips stand particularly low in the scale of 

 nourishment, and yet Cherry had white turnips, a half 

 bushel a day, until they were all gone, and gained flesh 

 upon them. She did better on sugar beets ; and for that 

 reason, I think they are worth more, and if they could be 

 raised as cheaply as turnips, I should prefer to raise them. 

 But I do not see how they can be. I can raise turnips 

 among corn, as a stolen crop, for four cents a bushel, and 

 I think all roots that require a whole season beets, car 

 rots, and parsnips will cost not far from ten cts. a bushel. 



My rule is to raise all the roots I can, of the several va 

 rieties, so that every animal may have a daily feed of them 

 from November until May. They like a variety of food, 

 and with hay as a staple, I think the greater variety the 

 better, feeding say two weeks upon one kind, then taking 

 another two weeks. Many think they can get more fod 

 der from an acre of land in grass or in corn than in roots. 

 Not so : An acre of land has to be highly manured to 

 produce seventy bushels of shelled corn, and four tuns 

 of dry stalks, worth at the market price not far from a 

 hundred dollars, which is perhaps a fair expression of their 

 value for feeding. The same acre, with rather more labor, 

 will produce 1,000 bushels of carrots, worth from two to 

 three hundred dollars in different markets, just as their 

 value is known and appreciated. I have raised all the 

 roots usually cultivated for feeding, and I come to the 

 bottom of the root bins every spring with a stronger con 

 viction of their value. The livinc/ commentaries tell the 



