324 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



and this way again the farmer loses both in the quantity 

 and quality of his manure. The cold and wet in the 

 fields, and bad feeding, soon make the cows dry, and 

 thus the farmer again loses in milk and butter ; so that 

 when a farmer has no turnips, instead of having the 

 milk and butter and manure of four well-fed cows 

 during the six winter months, he has scarcely any milk 

 and butter, and the manure of only two cows ; and he 

 only gets in his yard half their manure, that is to say, he 

 only gets as much manure as one cow would make if 

 always in the house, instead of getting the manure of 

 four cows. He has, therefore, only one quarter of the 

 manure for his potatoes the next spring, that he would have 

 had if he had sown turnips. And in fact, he has not so 

 much as one quarter, because, as I said before, there is 

 the greatest difference between the quantity of manure 

 that a well-fed cow and a badly -fed cow will make ; 

 and, therefore, I think I am not wrong in saying that 

 the farmer who grows the most turnips one year, will have 

 the best crop of potatoes the next year, and of course his 

 wheat crop afterwards will also be better. 



The plain fact is, that without turnips or mangel- 

 wurzel, or some crop of that kind as food for cattle in 

 winter, it is impossible to keep through the winter the same 

 number of cows, that your clover will enable you to keep 

 through the summer, or to make manure enough to keep your 

 land' in good heart, and this is the chief reason why 

 turnips are absolutely necessary for a farmer. 



I know it may be said, that he may as well grow 

 potatoes, and give them to his cows, instead of turnips, 

 but there are several reasons why turnips are better. 

 In the first place, a farmer is always tempted to sell his 

 potatoes, instead of giving them to his cows, and then 



