228 



Remittances by Mail — Root Crops. 



Vol. VI. 



voce, one at a time, when the former gentle- 

 men were duly elected for the ensuing- year. 



Resolved, That the Executive Committee 

 have power to receive subscribers to the list 

 for members between this and next meeting. 



Resolved, That the proceedings of this 

 meetmg be published in all the papers friend- 

 ly to agricultural interests. 



Franklin Comly, Chairman. 



John Bavington, Secretary. 



Remittances ^by Mail. 



The Post-Master General has decided : 

 " That a Post-master may enclose money in 

 a letter to the publisher of a newspaper, to 

 pay the subscription of a third person, and 

 frank the letter, if written by himself" Our 

 subscribers will see by the foregoing that they 

 cnn remit us their subscription money and 

 save the postage, by requesting the Post- 

 master to frank their letters containing such 

 money, he being satisfied that it contains 

 nothing but what refers to the subscription. 



From the Boston Times. 

 Root Crops* 



Of the various root crops, the Potato stands 

 No. 1. — It is the magnum bonum, whether 

 considered as an indispensable for the table, 

 or for the stye or stall. We do not say that 

 it is the most profitable root crop, labour and 

 every thing considered; but we do say it is 

 the most indispensable of all crops raised be- 

 neath the surface. Ruta Baga, Sugar Beet, 

 Mangle Wurtzel, and the like, may nominally 

 produce a greater value to the acre, without 

 so great an exhaustion to the land; but all 

 these can be dispensed with, while potatoes 

 cannot without great inconvenience and dis- 

 comfort. 



As a general rule, the actual exhaustion of 

 land by root crops — that is, understand us, by 

 the crops themselves — is almost in exact pro- 

 portion to the quantity of nutritious matter 

 contained in those crops. The quantity of 

 nutritious matter — farina, &c. — in the potato, 

 is nearly double to that of the other root crops 

 we have named. It is, in fact, the connect- 

 ing link between the root and the irrain crop; 

 for by extracting the water, and a certain 

 other disagreeable substance, it may be dried 

 and pulverized into flour of a very passable 

 quality for bread and other domestic uses. 

 None of tlio other vegetables that we know 

 of are capable of such a mode of treatment. 

 The sugar beet contains about nine per cent, 

 of firina, but little or no other nutritious 

 matter. 



It is with some surprise that we have no- 

 ticed the occasional remarks of the highly 

 intelligent and practical editor of the Culti- 

 vator, relative to the potato. He seems to 

 consider it on the whole as rather an unpro- 

 fitable crop, and a great exhauster of land. 

 We leave him to his own calculations as to 

 profit and loss in the crop itself; but that it 

 is necessarily a great exhauster of land we 

 den3^ We are no converts to the doctrine 

 of this and that exhausters ; but on the con- 

 trary we believe that soistitical heat is the 

 great exhauster of soils. Thus, in this part 

 of the country, potatoes are usually manured 

 in the hill, and early in the fall the crops dug 

 for market, the vines and weeds pulled and 

 piled in heaps, and the manure thus thrown 

 out and exposed to the direct rays of the sun 

 for perhaps two or three months before the 

 snow comes to the relief of the poor exhausted, 

 or rather exhausting soil. There is a far 

 greater loss of manure in this way than from 

 the crop itself When potatoes are dug, let 

 the vines be scattered over the ground as 

 much as possible, and so also the weeds, un- 

 less they are ripened sufliciently for seed — 

 in which case they should be thrown into the 

 compost heap to gather moisture and decom- 

 pose for manure at their leisure. In addition 

 to this, farmers would find it greatly to their 

 account if they would scatter the litter of 

 their barns, or leaves scraped fi-om the forest 

 over the potato field, after harvesting the 

 crop. This litter may be raked off in the 

 spring for compost, or ploughed in; in either 

 case it will pay its way, besides preserving- 

 the manure already in the soil from its great 

 enemy, the sun. 



For fattening cattle, swine, or children, the 

 potato is admirable. It contains just about 

 the quantity nutritious matter adapted to the 

 animal stomach in the best estate. True, a 

 little Indian meal mixed with potatoes is a 

 g-rcat lielp, but there is no necessity for it. 

 For horses, in the winter season, it is one of 

 the best antidotes against the common com- 

 plaint of constipation — as are also carrots, 

 ruta baga, or any other root crops which horses 

 will eat. Horses and cattle should attvays 

 be fed with fome root crops during the winter, 

 but not in quantities suflicient to create too 

 great a relax of bowels. They are better for 

 the blood than the cruel and unnecessary 

 practice of blood letting in the spring of the 

 year. Indeed, when a horse needs physic, 

 we are not sure but roots, in a larger quantity 

 than usual, answer every desirable purpose. 

 We have tried it repeatedly, and so far as 

 our experience goes, we arc satisfied that 

 such is the case. 



When more at leisure, we shall have more 

 to say about the exhaustion of soils; also 

 about alternation of root crops. We believe 



