192 



Roots. 



Vol. IV. 



plied. But at this point, the investigation 

 becomes confused, and it is difficult to pro- 

 ceed. Among the numerous varieties of 

 these roots, which are of the easiest culture 

 and afford the greatest yield J What crops 

 do they best precede, and what should they 

 be made to follow '\ These interesting in- 

 quiries cannot yet receive a satisfactory solu- 

 tion in Kentucky. When the root culture 

 has been long practiced as a branch of agri- 

 culture, a new volume of experience may be 

 compiled, containing the best roots and the 

 best varieties of each root, for different situa- 

 tions. In this part of the Union, the science 

 is still to be ascertained and deduced from 

 faithful experiments. Perhaps it may not be 

 amiss to state that in foreign agricultural 

 works, the mangel wurtzel is maintained by 

 many to be superior to the Swedish or any 

 other turnep for farm purposes, and that it is 

 generally admitted to be better for a clay 

 soil. That carrots, though the acreable pro- 

 duct is not so great as is the turnep, are 

 thought to be the best food known for im- 

 proving the wind and endurance of horses — 

 that recent statements would seem to indi- 

 cate that the sugar beet, the white variety of 

 the mangel wurtzel, will answer well in 

 many parts of our State. 



In spite of a great desire to conclude tliis 

 desultory letter, with your permission, I will 

 cite as an example of the application of know- 

 ledge of the character I have been treating 

 of, the system of farf#ng pursued in a fine 

 farming district in England, which came un- 

 der my personal observation during a visit I 

 made that country in 1835-6. The district I 

 mean is in Yorkshire, not very distant from 

 the old city of York. The rotation of crops 

 is admirably adapted to the soil and climate, 

 and the stock which consume them are se- 

 lected with such judgment, and so used, that 

 they may, in fact, be said to labour in the im- 

 mediate melioration of the soil. Indeed I 

 saw here combined in an improved system of 

 husbandry, the results of a most extraordi- 

 nary success in culture and breeding, acting 

 and re-acting upon each other. In Kentucky, 

 we have always appreciated the skill which 

 is applied in breeding and rearing fine varie- 

 ties of stock, but we have, no doubt, general- 

 ly been too indifferent to the importance of a 

 judicious succession of crops. I think it was 

 remarked by General Washington, that " any 

 system in farming is better tiian no system ;" 

 and a Briton has truly observed, that a i)roper 

 rotation of crops " remedies all confusion, dis- 

 tinguishes and arranges the season and the 

 appropriate mode of work, economises labour, 

 reciprocates the improvement of both soil and 

 stock, and forwards the interest of both land- 

 lord and tenant." 



I am satisfied tliat no American could have 



seen with my eyes, without drawing the con- 

 clusion I did, that a good rotation of crops for 

 the different sections of our country, is a sub- 

 ject of momentous importance. But to return 

 from this digression. The practice pursued 

 in the district I have mentioned, is called the , 

 Norfolk system, and depends for its success 

 upon the alternation of green and white; 

 crops. From this circumstance it is called 

 by some " the alternate system." The most 

 common rotation is the following, viz. : tur- 

 neps, barley, clover, wheat. But besides the 

 principal succession of white and green crops, 

 in continuing this system, a change is made 

 for the purpose of resting the land, in the 

 particular green and white crop used in each 

 year, or otherwise the clover is suflered to re-' 

 main for two years, and is pastured instead 

 of being mown. On the clay soils, in this 

 district, liable to poach, the turneps are drawn 

 and carted, or the crop is omitted altogether, 

 and beans or some other substituted for it ; 

 but on sandy soils they are fed on the ground 

 to sheep folded upon them. On the latter 

 description of land, a wonderful improvement 

 is wrought, and it was upon such a soil that 

 1 saw the greatest melioration I ever beheld 

 effected by judicious culture. It elevated 

 very much the opinion I had formed of agri- 

 culture as a science. On one side of a hedge 

 I saw the finest crop of Swedes imaginable, 

 the drills twenty-eight inches apart, clean as 

 a garden, and the turneps touching in the 

 rows with scarcely an omission. On the other 

 side a howling waste of sand. This glorious 

 field of tu rneps was produced by the rotation 

 I have mentioned. 



The preparation for the turnep crop is very 

 simple. The drills are formed, and bones, 

 broken up in mills, are laid in them at the 

 rate of from fifteen to twenty-five bushels an 

 acre. They are oflen mixed with ashes and 

 distributed with regularity by a drill ma- 

 chine. The turnep seed is then sown on the 

 top of the drill at the rate of three pounds to 

 the acre. 



When the roots are ready for use the tops 

 are cut off and carried to the straw-yards to 

 be consumed by cattle, and a small fold being 

 formed of rope netting or hurdles, the sheep 

 are introduced. These eat all the bulb, ex- 

 cept the lower part, which is raised from the 

 ground with a small prong and also carried 

 to the straw-yards. The sheep are then re- 

 moved to another part of the field, and so on, 

 till the whole is gone over. The kind of 

 sheep which I saw used here were the New 

 Leicester, a sheep of great bulk, which yields 

 the much esteemed combing or long wool of 

 England, but of which the mutton, to my 

 palate, is coarse and rank. It is, however, a 

 profitable sheep to raise, both for its wool and 

 flesh, and I was informed that those who were 



