FARMERS.' REGISTER. 



uiaintaineiJ by many to be superior to the Swedish 

 or any oiher turnip lor fartii purposes and thai it 

 is ijen'Tally adniilied to be belter for a ci'<y soil. 

 That carrots, iliougli the acreahle product is not 

 so great, as ol' tlie turnij), arc ihoufrht lo be the 

 besl food known lor improving liie wind and en- 

 durance of horses— that recent statements would 

 seem to indicate that the sugar beet, the while 

 variety oflhe mangel wurtzel, will answer well in 

 many parts of our stale. 



In spite of a great desire to conclude this desul- 

 tory letter, with your permission, I wdl cite as an 

 example of the application of knowledge ol the 

 character I have been treating of the system of far- 

 ming pursued in a fine farming district in Eng- 

 land, which ciuue under my personal observation 

 during a visit I made that country in 1835-6. The 

 district I mean is in Yorkshire, not very distant 

 Irom the old city of York. The rotation of crops 

 is admirably adapted to the soil and climate, and 

 the stock which consume them, are selected with 

 such judgement and so used, that they may, in 

 lact, he said to labor in the immediate ameliora- 

 tion of the soil. Indeed I saw here, combined in 

 an improved system of husbandry, the results of 

 a most extraordinary success in culture and breed- 

 ing, acting and re-acting upon each other. In 

 Kentucky, we have always appreciated the skill 

 which is" applied in breeding and rearing fine va- 

 rieties of stock, but we have, no doubt, generally 

 been too indifierentto the importance of a judicious 

 succession of crops. I think it was remarked by 

 (General Washington, that "any system in (lir- 

 ming is better than no system ;" and a Briton has 

 truly observed, that a proper rotation of crops, 

 " remedies all confusion, distinguishes and arranges 

 the season and the appropriate mode of work, 

 economises labor, reciprocates the in)provement of 

 both soil and stock, and forwards the interest of 

 both landlord and tenant." 



1 am satisfied that no American could have 

 seen with my eyes, without drawing the conclusion 

 I did, that a good rotation of crops lor the dilierent 

 sections of our country, is a-subject of momentous 

 importance. But to return from this digression. 

 The practice pursued in the district I have men- 

 tioned, is called the Morlblk 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 com- 

 mon rotation is the tollowing, viz : turnips, barley, 

 clover, wheat. But besides the principal succes- 

 sion 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 su(- 

 iiired to remain lor two years and is pastured in- 

 stead of being mown. On the clay soils, in this 

 district, liable to poach, the turnips are drawn and 

 carted or the crop is omitted altog-elher and beans 

 or some other substituted for it ; but on sandy soils, 

 they are led on the ground to sheep folded upon 

 lliern. On the latter description of land, a won- 

 derful improvement is wrought, and it was upon 

 such a soil, that I saw the greatest amelioration 

 I ever beheld eflecied by judicious culture. It 

 elevated very much the opinion I iiad formed of 

 agriculture as a science. On one side of a hedge, 

 1 saw the finest crop of Swedes imaginable, the 

 drills 28 inches apart, clean as a garden, and the 

 turnips touching in the rows with scarcely an 



omission. On the other tide a howling waste of 

 sand. This glorious field of turnips was produced 

 by the rotation I have mentioned. 



The preparation lor the turnip crop is very sim- 

 ple. The drills are formed, and bones broken up 

 in mills, are laid in them at the rate of from 15 to 

 25 bushels an acre. They are oi'ten mixed with 

 ashes and distributed with regularity by a drill 

 machine. The turnip seed is then sown on the 

 lop of the drill at the rate of three pounds to the 

 acre. 



When the roots are ready lor use the tops are 

 cut off and carried to the straw-yards to be consu- 

 med by cattle, and a small Ibid being formed of 

 rope netting or hurdles, the sheep are introduced. 

 These eat all tlie bulb, except the lower part, 

 which is raised from the ground with a small prong 

 and also carried to the straw-yards. The sheep 

 are then removed 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 infor- 

 med, that those who were engaged in sheep-far- 

 ming were more prosperous than most other far- 

 mers. The new Leicester mutton bears, in my 

 opinion, about the same relation to the souih-dowu 

 or to our common Kentucky mutton, that the 

 middling of the hog does to the ham, and perhaps 

 might be useful here for the same purposes for 

 which middling is used. However this may be, 

 on a sandy soil the new Leicester sheep is a cap- 

 ital laborer. Besides the gieat value ofhis njanure, 

 which is equally distributed by the jjractice ot 

 folding, the land is very much improved by the 

 tramping and packing and incorporation of the 

 manure with the soil ett'ecied with his feet and 

 which is called in one word the management of 

 the land. 



Besides being fed to the new Leicester sheep, 

 the most artificial animal probably in existence, 

 the turnips raised on the farm on which my obser- 

 vations weiie principally made, were also fed in 

 censiderable quantities to the admired short horn 

 Durham cattle. When i'ed to these last they are 

 given about at the rate of two or three bushels a 

 day, together willi straw or hay to each full grown 

 sleer. 



The mode of farming above described, borrowed 

 originally from those excellent farmers,the Ffemish, 

 would not entirely apply in this part of the state, 

 but in many parts of Kentucky and the union, 

 particularly on light sandy soils, the practice of a 

 similar system would efiect a great change and 

 even here some of its principles might be used 

 with advantage. 



In viewing the many beautiful farms with 

 which this district of Yorkshire abounds, that were 

 once considered worthless, I was induced to be- 

 lieve that there is not so much difl'erence in the 

 intrinsic value of land, as is generally supposed. 

 Some lands, deemed dead for useful purposes, in 

 fact only lie dormant until the appropriate system 

 is applied, when they begin to reveal a wonderful 

 and unexpected fertility. 



The introduction of the turnip, suiting as this 

 root does her weeping climate and much of her 

 soil has been of incalculable benefit to England^ 



