FEEDING QUALITIES OF TURNIPS. 117 



tance to call to the attention of farmers who are raising man- 

 gold- wurzels, and that is, the practice of stripping the leaves 

 off before harvesting. I have raised more or less mangolds 

 for the last few years, and I have found difficulty in keeping 

 them. I have usually pulled the tops off and put them 

 immediately in the cellar, and, as I say, they have not kept 

 well. Mr. Hadwen, with whom I have talked on the subject, 

 says that he finds no difficulty in keeping mangolds after 

 storing them in the cellar. Mine commence to rot, frequently, 

 where the tops are pulled off. I think I have learned some- 

 thing from the suggestion of Mr. Hadwen, to give them a 

 chance to dry after stripping off the leaves, before storing 

 them in the cellar. 



In relation to the size of crops, I would say, that I have 

 this year raised, on the poor lands of Seekonk, in this State, 

 some fifty-two tons to the acre of the red mangold, which I 

 think is a profitable crop for farmers to raise. 



Mr. Lawton, of Pittsfield. I have been something of a 

 farmer, and I have raised a great many root-crops, — more than 

 I shall ever raise again ; and after trying the different roots 

 for feeding, I settled down on the ruta-baga. A great many 

 people who fed stock had doubts about that root making fat 

 or very much flesh. They agreed that it made considerable 

 heft in the animals fed with it, because they ate so much, but 

 doubted if it really made much fat or flesh. I had a barn- 

 cellar where I kept my roots, and after falling back upon the 

 ruta-baga, I used to raise a good many, — I can't tell you how 

 many ; but I used to fill up my cellar, and then, if I had any 

 more, I dug out a long trench in the field and tipped my 

 ruta-bagas in there, covered them up with straw and then with 

 dirt, and then, when I had fed the turnips all out of the 

 cellar, I used to dig them up and cart them into the cellar. 

 I used to keep sheep, sometimes as many as five or six hun- 

 dred, and I calculated to feed them once a day with cut 

 turnips, and they did extremely well. But, as I remarked in 

 the first place, there being a doubt as to their fattening quali- 

 ties, I thought I would test that point. I was fatting four 

 oxen with meal and hay. I took the meal from them, let them 

 get cleaned out well, and then I commenced with turnips. 

 I did not weigh nor measure the turnips, but gave them about 



