488 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



increases tlie expense. Sometimes the weather is such through 

 November that the crop might be fed off. A farmer in Sara- 

 toga County, N. Y., has practised this with success. Turnips 

 are sown after a crop of rye or clover. About the middle of 

 October the sheep are put on, confined by hurdles to such lots 

 as they will eat clean, daily. They are kept in this way till 

 frost or snow prevents them from feeding — usually the time is 

 five or six weeks. The sheep, if in tolerable order at com- 

 mencement, get fat, and the ground gets rich. The cost of the 

 turnips in this case is not over four cents a bushel. 



It is a question, to be decided by actual experiment, whether 

 turnip husbandry can be successfully introduced here. I have 

 been told that a late eminent statesman and farmer, -^ose 

 residence was in your county, made extensive trials with 

 turnips for making beef, and that he found with these roots and 

 salt ha}^, cattle could be easily and cheaply fattened. I am 

 also informed that an officer of your society has made similar 

 trials with like results. 



I am aware that an impression prevails with some persons, 

 that the turnip is a great exhauster of the soil. Some isolated 

 facts in regard to particular soils, or the effect of the turnip in 

 reference to certain crops which follow it, may have given rise 

 to this idea ; but in its general application I do not regard it 

 as well founded. It is totally refuted by the great truth that 

 the turnip culture has been the means of vastly increasing the 

 meats and bread-stuffs of Great Britain. This culture has 

 indeed been well termed " the sheet-anchor of British hus- 

 bandry." Take it away, and the exodus which we have wit- 

 nessed from Ireland would spread over the sister kingdom, and 

 her 



"Bold yeomanry, their country's pride," 



would leave the land forever. 



We have now noticed, very briefly, the subjects which bear 

 more directly on the question, whether your soil can be made 

 to aid in the support of your population. 



