126 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



With regard to feeding cabbages to milch cows, that is 

 something I never do, unless my cabbage crop is a failure. 

 If I have raised a crop of cabbages that I cannot do anything 

 else with, I give them to the cows in the autumn ; but I 

 should no more think of raising an acre of cabbages for the 

 express purpose of feeding them to cows than I should of 

 raising an acre of tobacco for that purpose. In the fii'st 

 place, cabbages do not keep well. You cannot store them in 

 the cellar, and keep them until spring, to make green fodder 

 for your cows ; that is impossible : you must feed them in 

 the autumn, when your cows can be just about as well 

 engaged in cropping the meadows and fields and getting their 

 fall feed, without any trouble to you. When cabbages are 

 selling well, they bring from seven to eight dollars a hundred, 

 which is equivalent to two hundred and seventy-five or three 

 hundred dollars an acre, and at that rate a cabbage crop is 

 a profitable crop to raise and carry to the market ; and never 

 until they are down to two or three dollars a hundred, or 

 your crop is a failure, not worth gathering for the purpose of 

 carrying to market, can you afford to feed them to cows. 

 With all humility and modesty, I think a farmer ought not to 

 elevate himself to the raising of cabbages for the purpose of 

 feeding milch cows. They do not, as I conceive, come into 

 the great economy of agriculture. I would not, therefore, 

 class them among those products which the farmer would 

 naturally raise for the purpose of feeding his cattle. 



I have thrown out these few hints with regard to root-crops 

 because I was asked to do so, not because I desired to take 

 up any time, for I know it can be better occupied by other 

 gentlemen here. 



Question. I want to ask Dr. Loring if he has had any 

 experience in raising parsnips for cows? It has been recom- 

 mended in some parts of Europe very highly. 



Dr. Loring. The parsnip crop is an exceedingly difficult 

 crop to raise. We cannot get in this country, for some reason 

 or other, a satisfactory crop of parsnips. If you store them 

 in the cellar, by midwinter they have wilted and become 

 corky, dried up, and are utterly unfit for the purpose of feed- 

 ing. I do not think the parsnip comes into the general range 

 of root-crops for actual feeding at all. 



