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YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 123 



oats combined. Sheep fatten astonishingly upon it, and all 

 grazing animals eat it with avidity. 



Agrestis vulgaris Red-top, grows about 2-j- feet long, and 

 yields about 1-J tons to the acre. It is not a first-rate grass, 

 but seems to be better relished by working oxen than by any 

 other stock. It grows in very moist land. 



Agrestes alba^ or white-top, seems better adapted to sandy 

 soils than the preceding, but resembles it very nearly in its 

 botanical character. 



Mr. Gould described many other varieties with much minute 

 ness, illustrating their peculiarities from specimens in his hands. 



The morning lecture by Mr. THEODORE S. GOLD of this State 

 was on Root Crops the field turnip, ruta-baga, beet, carrot, 

 and parsnip the soil they severally required, their culture, 

 composition, and uses. 



Root culture, says Mr. Gold, is the basis of successful Eng 

 lish farming. As a means of supporting an increased stock, of 

 supplying an abundance of enriching manure, and in thorough 

 culture thus preparing for other crops, its value there proves 

 inestimable ; and there is no doubt that its more extended in 

 troduction here must be one of the means of securing that high 

 degree of productiveness which constitutes the most successful 

 agriculture. The estimated value of the root crop of Britain 

 amounts to 20,000,000, or upward of $100,000,000, while its 

 subsequent advantages, as preparatory for other crops, vastly 

 exceed this sum. It was a remark of Daniel Webster that, 

 " Take away turnip culture, and England would become bank 

 rupt." 



The turnip belongs to the same botanical genus as the cab 

 bage, which also embraces in its varieties the cauliflower and 

 broccoli. Two or three species are made by some botanists 

 of the turnips, which exhibit such great variations in form 

 and color, while others embrace them all in one. No class of 

 plants exhibit greater adaptation to the various conditions to 



