264 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 5 



fit would be the making on young minds impressions 

 wliich are the most strong and indelible, of matters of 

 useful agricultural instruction. Most of the boys thus 

 instructed, in country schools, would afterwards be 

 engaged in farming ; and these early instructions 

 would never be forgotten in after life. Besides— the 

 school-book of the young pupil, when no longer used 

 as such, would be left in his father's house, and would 

 serve perhaps to engage the attention of, and to in- 

 struct parents as well as children. And in the far 

 greater number of cases, both of the old and the 

 young, the agricultural instruction thus afforded would 

 be "iven to those who would otherwise be entirely 

 destitute of every such advantage. The private and 

 national benefits that would certainly be derived from 

 havin"- 10,000 or more of such persons, in Virginia, 

 every year thus induced to read agricultural books, 

 are beyond the powers of calculation. And there is 

 no reason wliy the benefits should be limited to Vir- 

 o-inia, as there would be nearly as strong inducements 

 for attaining the same objects in the other southern 

 states. 



If such a general plan as this were aslopted, the 

 first and the most useful publications would be ele- 

 mentary treatises on different agricultural subjects, 

 suitable to the least informed minds, and to the plain- 

 est understanding. But works of higher grade, and 

 exhibiting more of scientific research, might well fol- 

 low, though on the same cheap plan of publication ; 

 and indeed, some agricultural works might well be 

 adopted as text-books in our colleges, even in advance 

 of the future establishment (so much to be desired for 

 agricultural and national improvement,; of professor- 

 ships of agriculture or agricultural chemistry. No- 

 thing is required but to guaranty to the publisher a 

 sale of so many copies of a book, as to secure him 

 from loss, and the price of those and all other copies 

 may be made at not more than double the cost of so 

 much blank paper. 



We should be pleased to hear the opinions of others 

 on this plan of introducing cheap agricultural tracts, 

 and books, generally into common schools. If we 

 were to find it enough supported by such opinions, it 

 might induce the making a direct offer to the legisla- 

 tures of Virginia, and other neighboring southern 

 states, to furnisii such publications in the manner spo- 

 ken of above; even thougli that offer to furnish valu- 

 able and instructive works at less than half the cost of 

 the common northern scliool-books, (worthless except 

 merely for practice in reading,) might possibly sub- 

 ject the proposer to the charge of seeking his own 

 gain only, at the public expense. 



From Uie Gcncscc Fanner. 

 RUTA BAGA. 



The value of this excellent root is rapirlly be- 

 connuif^ properly appreciated amono; farmers, and 

 though the feeding out the roots is attended with 

 some trouble, (the only objection we have heard 

 made to them,) ihe advantages of their culture are 



so decided, that we may expect few farmers will 

 be Avillinir to fbre<To them. That they can be fed 

 out to any animal, or in any way, without some 

 profit, we do not apprehend ; and our experience 

 would go to corroborate the many testimonies we 

 have published fiom. various sources of their ex- 

 cellence, and the ease with which, under ordinarily 

 favorable circumstances, they can be cultivated. 

 in feeding them to animals, the least favorable re- 

 sults have been obtained when given in a raw 

 state to swine. In this respect, however, they 

 have not greatly diiiered li'om raw potatoes ; either 

 of which fed in this state to pigs seeming to be of 

 little value. The value of potatoes, as every one 

 knows, is nearly or quite doubled by cooking, and 

 some experiments would seem to indicate that a 

 similar result is efi'ected on the turnip by the same 

 means. 



Mr. Mayleet, near Montrose, Pa., who last 

 year raised turnips at the rate of 1333 bushels per 

 acre, boiled the roots, and with the addition of 

 some coarse ffrain provender, /Iiltened his pork 

 upon them. The pork, he says, was excellent. 



Mr. Bement of Albany, well known for his 

 successful endeavors to introduce superior animals 

 of difllerent breeds to the farming community, par- 

 ticularly the Berkshire pigs, kept twenty of these 

 hogs, mostly full grown, on six bushels of ruta 

 baga and one bushel of buckwheat bran, a day, 

 for the whole, divided into three meals, two fed 

 raw and one boiled. Fed in this way for three 

 and a half months of last winter, they were found 

 to thrive as well as when fed on four quarts of 

 corn, each, per day ; which at the prices of grairv 

 at that time, would give a value of 28^ cents per 

 bushel to the ruta baga. 



Mr. Mather of Scaghficoke, a flirmer of system 

 and enterprise, instituted an experiment in feeding- 

 cattle with turnips, to test their value in compari- 

 son with other kinds of food, and the result, as 

 communicated to the Cultivator, was as follows: 



"I fed two yoke of cattle on turnips for two 

 months — November and December ; feed, five 

 bushels a day a yoke. Average gain 115 lbs. a 

 yoke per month. The same cattle were fed 

 "through the month of January on potatoes and 

 meal, corn and oats, ground together in equal 

 quantities ; feed, two bushels of potatoes, one 

 bushel of meal. Gain 60 lbs. a yoke. Estimate 

 the value of the ruta baga by the price of corn, 

 oats and potatoes, and the respective gains, and it 

 makes the rata baga worth but a fi-action less than 

 •18 cents per bushel." 



For feeding or fattening piffs, we should, at pre- 

 sent, prefer cooked potatoes to turnips; but when 

 it is remembered, that on an average, three times 

 as many turnips as potatoes can be grown on an 

 acre, the latter, when cooked, may be found the 

 most valuable in the end, and experiments in the 

 case of swine, are needed to settle this point. As? 

 food for cattle or sheep, the turnip is superior to 

 the potato ; and fov making fine beef or rnutton, 

 the ruta baga has scarce a rival. We, in fhis 

 country, are yearly becoming greater imitators of 

 the Eniilish, in substituting beef and mutton for 

 pork ; a fact we attribute to two causes; — the par- 

 tial failure of the corn crop, without which it is 

 generally considered impossible to make first rate 

 pork,— and the increased culture of the ruta baga, 

 which has produced beef and mutton of unexcep- 

 tionable quality. 



