No. 6. 



Rootjs. 



191 



iROOTS— Necessity of oilier prodjicts Ijc- 

 siilcs Indian Corn for stotk—Iinport- 

 ance of judicious Rotation— Farming 

 in Eni;Iaud« 



Maplewood, near Lexington, Nov. 23, 1839. 

 TV) the Editor of the Franklin Farmer: 



Dear Sir : — Much attention seems to be 

 directed at this moment, in this Slate and 

 elsewhere, to the importance of introducing 

 some auxiliary crops, to supply certain quali- 

 ties of nutriment, in which our old staples are 

 deficient ; and in case of a default of these, 

 to stand in the place of substitutes for them. 

 Those who have bestowed care upon any of 

 the domestic races of animals, well know the 

 advantage, summer and winter, of feeding, in 

 part, wfth succulent food. The vegetable 

 juices which it contains, seem to be as mncli 

 relished by these animals, as the most savory 

 ffravies by their intelligent owners. Tiiat 

 they aid in the preservation of health, is suffi- 

 ciently demonstrated in the superior condition 

 af animals which are fed upon them. The 

 skin of these, soft and pleasant to the touch, 

 is entirely free of scurf, and their hair, smooth 

 ind silky, shines with a natural oil. In this 

 section of Kentucky, we are, perhaps, as well 

 supplied as any other portion of the Union 

 with this valuable description of food. The 

 common rye, which is now generally used 

 for winter pasturage, appears to be exceed- 

 ingly nutritous, and stock of all kinds graze 

 it "with avidity ; and we have besides, a won- 

 derful resource in the beautiful bluegrass, 

 which, like a mantle of charity from on high, 

 covers our country, even in the bleakest wea- 

 ther, with an exquisite and delicious verdure. 

 Rye and bluegrass, in fact, upon large farms, 

 and when the season is propitious, are nearly 

 all that the great farmer wants. But our lall 

 and winter pastures, are not always equally 

 good ; snows are of uncertain duration ; and 

 many small farmers cannot allot a sufficient 

 portion of pasture for winter use: and in all 

 cases, especially where labour is more abund- 

 ant than land, the cultivation of a judicious 

 assortment of roots would well repay the 

 farmer for any trouble and expense that it 

 might cost. But another weighty considera- 

 tion, which may be mentioned in favour of 

 introducing the general use of roots as an 

 additional farm crop, is, that from the different 

 time of seeding and maturing, it is very likely 

 that the root crop would often hit when the 

 grain would fail, and thus roots which are 

 Biernselves sufficient for stock, without either 

 other food or water, would rise in the scale 

 from the second to the first place in the hus- 

 bandry of years of scarcity. It is unneces- 

 sary to enlarge upon this topic. Experience 

 has impressed it upon the minds of most of 

 us, that small grain, in our climate, is pre- 

 carious, and the annual variation of price in- 



dicates but too ])lainly that even Indian corn, 

 our staff and support, is not absolutely sure 

 to reward the tarmer with a full return. 

 During the present year, it is said, large 

 droves of our stock have been sent to distant 

 parts in quest of grain, and thus many farm- 

 ers in the present season have not only lost 

 the beneht of personal inspection and care of 

 their stock, but besides, have been obliged to 

 yield the great advantage they would have 

 derived from the manure of animals stall-fed 

 upon their own land. In the quality of man- 

 ure, aptly called " the sheet anchor of agri- 

 culture," roots are fully equal to other de- 

 scriptions of food ; and the great quantity of 

 liquid manure which they produce, tends 

 greatly to hasten the decomposition of all the 

 other contents of the farm yard. 



Were it only necessary to find new crops 

 to render the chances more promising of a 

 full return, I think it not unlikely that the 

 horse-bean would answer the purpose. It ia 

 greatly cultivated in England and France, 

 and I have often seen it growing in our 

 American gardens, with as much apparent 

 luxuriance as it attains in the fields of either 

 of those countries. In Europe it is of easy 

 culture, being sown in various ways, either 

 broadcast, drilled or dibbled. It is put in the 

 ground about the time of sowing oats, and 

 hundreds and thousands t)f acres teem with 

 the production of it. 



Roots, however, are superior to this article 

 for most of the purposeax^ which I have above 

 alluded ; and it is no doubt bad practice to 

 multiply greatly the products of a farm, ex- 

 cept when the condition of the land requires 

 it. But admitting the fact, that the wise di- 

 vision of labour and the application of atten- 

 tion and means to one or a few productions is 

 as essential in the conduct of a farm as in 

 any other branch of human affairs, still, in 

 different soils and exposures, different crops 

 may be expected to succeed, and it is only by 

 the success of the aggregate of a nation, that 

 the horn of plenty is made to overflow. 



Many farmers, unfortunately, have been 

 deterred from the root culture, or have aban- 

 doned it after insufficient trials. The chief 

 difficulty attending it lies in the proper selec- 

 tion of roots. A very safe mode to determine 

 which are the best in any particular situation 

 is, to apply the touchstone of experiment ; 

 and here we are greatly facilitated in our in- 

 quiries by the sister science of gardening. 

 Our gardens, in fact, answer nearly all pur- 

 poses of trial. In this section, for instance, I 

 find by reference to my garden, that beets, 

 carrots and parsneps succeed best of the 

 roots; that potatoes do well, and that tnrneps 

 are exceedingly precarious and could not by 

 any means be relied on. The familiar volume 

 of experience is therefore easily read and ap- 



