1837] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



269 



Avcre weiirht^tl in 25t!i December, and the quiinli- 

 tics ol" tiirni|)> consiiimed were ascertained Irani an 

 averaixe of the weeks previous and sahsequent to 

 that day. The result was as follows: — For every 

 sione ihey were of live weight, ihe cattle ronsnni- 

 ed of Swedish turnips each dav, the Perthsiiire 

 Slots l.Stil Ih.; the File ditto 1.7S1 lb.; (he two- 

 year old queys l.SSSl lb.; lot 3d of our experiment, 

 fed on turnips alone, 1.94S lb.; lot 21 of our expe- 

 riment, assnmin<T the value of the liiod other than 

 turniji, as slaved in the previous part of this paper, 

 2.3; lot ls( of our experiment, under the same con- 

 dition as lot 2d, 2.07. We nuist not be under- 

 stood as presentinfr the above ratio of weiirht ol 

 beasts to weiijht of turnips as unil()rm. On the 

 contrary, the ratio varies acconlincr to condition and 

 food; we took the ratio at the end of December 

 as a medium period. These same cattle, in the 

 be<iitmin<x of November previous, when on com- 

 mon while turnips, consumed them in the Ibllow- 

 ing ratio: — The Perthshire stols 2.7 lb.; the Fife 

 stots 2.61. Lot 1st of our experiment, when on 

 turnips alone, bel!)re the experiment, 2.28; lot 2d 

 under the same conditions, 2.8; and lot 3d under 

 the same condiiions 2.772. No note was taken of 

 the white turnips consumed by the queys. It is 

 not uncommon lor a lean beast to consume more 

 than a Iburth part of his own weight of food every 

 day. while a very fat one will not consume one- 

 tenth. We kept two of the cattle of lot 3d until 

 the end of December, 1835, when I heir live weights 

 were increased to nearly double, and they then only 

 consumed 1.5 lb. of turnips for each stone of live 

 weiL''ht. 



We shall conclude by relatina: a sinsnlar flict, 

 which is in some degree connected with this sub- 

 ject: sheep on turnips will consu.'7)e nearly in pro- 

 portion to cattle, vveiiiht for weight, that is, 10 

 sheep, 14 lb. per quarter, will eat nearly the same 

 quantity of turnips as an ox of 40 stones; but turn 

 the ox to grass, and six sheep will be liiund to con- 

 sume an equal quantity. This great difliirence 

 may perhaps be accounted for by the practice of 

 sheep cropping the irra.«s much closer and oflener 

 than cattle, and which of course prevents its grow- 

 ing so rapidly with them as with cattle. 



NoTK. — [Mr. Stephenson, of date 22d May, 1S37, 

 writes thus: — "In the last number of the Transactions, 

 I observe fiom Mr. Boswell's Report, on Feedins; Cat- 

 tle, a remarkable coincidence of what is stated by me. 

 Mr. Boswell has given the live weight of his cattle, and 

 the quantity of food consumed by them, and from these 

 you will find the following results. In the cattle at 

 Kingcausie, 94.841 lb. of yellow turnip produced 1 lb. 

 of increased live weight in the hemmels, and 126.204 

 lb. in the byres; and every stone of live weight con- 

 sumed 1.411 lb. of turnips in hemmels, and 1.. 383 lb in 

 byres. In the cattle at Balmuto, 96 lb. of turnips and 

 potatoes produced 1 lb. of increased live weight in the 

 nemmels, and 112.678 lb. in the byres. And every 

 stone of live weight consumed 1.32.5 lb. of turnips in 

 the hemmels, and 1.262 lb. in the byres. These results 

 arise from taking the average weight of cattle at the 

 middle date, and the average weight of turnips con- 

 sumed each day." — Ed.] 



From the Sillc Culturist. 

 ONE BUD. 



In propagating the morus multicaulis from cut- 

 tings, most cultivators have hitherto considered 

 two buds to each cutting indispensable to the pro- 

 duction of a tree, on the supposition that one bud 



threw out the root, and another the shoot; but the 

 prevalent opinion now is. that one bud is as good 

 as two, and some think better. The notion that 

 the root proceed.s from a bud is now generally ex- 

 ploded, and most propaiialors use cuttingsvvith 

 one bud only, that beiuir sulficient to send out a 

 shoot, which is all that is necessary to the Rirma- 

 tion of a perlect tree. Our confidence in this the- 

 ory is so strong that we have ado|)ted it in our 

 own practice, having put out most of our cuttings 

 with a single bud. Oilier nurserymeti in this re- 

 irion, so far as we are inlijrmed, are Ibllowing the 

 same course, and the (juestion will be finally set- 

 tled the coming autumn by the results ol" nume- 

 rous experiments. 



But, we are not Avithontsome experience on the 

 subject. The trial has been made, and complete 

 success has attended it. The following extract 

 li-om a letter li-om a scientific and practical culliva- 

 torin Virginia, to hiscf)rres|!ondciit in this state is, 

 to our mind, conclusive evidence, not only that 

 two buds are not necessary, but that one is better 

 than two in most rases. He says : — " I put about 

 400 cutiinirs in a hot bed, on the 15lii of Februa- 

 ry, [1837.] The}' varied in size from a half an 

 inch to three inches in length, and li-om one and a 

 lialf inches to less than an eighth of an inch in 

 diameter, and I believe every one is growing — 

 more than, a dozen of them are already bearing 

 fruit. There are some with shoots not more than 

 three inches hiirh, wiih three mulberries to each, 

 the size of our common while mulberry. Some 

 of the cuttings, one and a half inches in diameter, 

 and two inches long, are sending up two shoots. 

 I was looking at others to-day not half an inch 

 long and one eighih of an inch in diameter, with 

 five vigorous shoots to each. 



It is often asserted in books, and in the periodi- 

 cals, that two buds or necessary to a cutting. My 

 own ejcperience, drawn from a close watching of 

 these cuttings, in my hot bed, is that one bud is not 

 only all that is necessary, but that one is better 

 than two, and I have accordingly put out all my 

 cuttings with one bud on each. They say that 

 the lower bud is necessary lor roots, and that it 

 turns into roots. This is not so. I have taken up my 

 cuttings in the hot bed repeatedly, and though I 

 planted in the first instance with two buds, and 

 have found that the lower bud, instead of turning 

 into roots, was trying to turn into a stalk, while the 

 roots were coming out just below tlie bud. So I 

 cut them all into two, and they are now all doing 

 well with a single bud. The roots come out just 

 below the bud, and are sufficient to the support of 

 the one shoot. If you have two buds, and but one 

 in the ground, the upper cannot put out roots, and 

 the shoots of the lower being insufficient lor it and 

 also for the shoot that is trying to form below, the 

 plant withers and droops under the hot sun, and 

 accordingly many persons shade their young trees 

 from 10 o'clock A. M. to 2 o'clock P. M, Give 

 each bud its roots, and this will not be necessary. 

 Thus I have reasoned, and have put my cuttings 

 at once into their place in the field, instead of a 

 nursery with conveniences for shading as is usu- 

 ally recommended. I have thus doubled my num- 

 ber of cuttings, and shall save the immense labor 

 of transplanting in the hot season. The roots 

 spring also, by and by. from the end of the cut- 

 tings ; but in the first instance only from the Httle 

 whitish knobs, which you may see, just below the 



