1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



201 



Mr. Abbot of Westford, was disposed to value 

 ruta baga much higher for milch-cows than Mr. 

 Brighain. In his own experience for the increase 

 ot" butter, where he had tried cows in successive 

 weeks upon pumpkins and ruta baga, the in- 

 crease of butter in the use of the latter root was 

 as 14 to 10. A gentleman of Portsmouth, N. H., 

 within his knowledge had compared the value ol" 

 carrots with potatoes in fattening beef; and in 

 this experiment, thirt}' bushels of potatoes proved 

 equal to sixty of carrots. It would have been 

 very instructive if Mr. Abbot could have given 

 the particulars of both of these experiments more 

 i'ully ; this we hope he will do, and we shall be 

 happy to make the *N. E. Farmer' the vehicle of 

 such communications. 



Mr. Perry of Bradford, spoke next of the value 

 of roots. In relation to the keeping of vegetables 

 he thought a good deal depended on the nature of 

 the soil in which the cellar, where they were 

 stored, was dug. It often happens, he says, that 

 ruta baga will not keep in the same cellar in which 

 potatoes and carrots may be kept. Of the value 

 of ruta baga he gave an illustrution by an anec- 

 dote in which he was a party. He had been ac- 

 customed to supply a neighbor of his with milk. 

 His neighbor inquired one time why the milk 

 was not as good and as rich as it had been. 

 Now this inquiry was made at a time when he 

 had ceased to give his cows ruta baga, with 

 which before they had been liberally supplied. 



Mr. Buckminster spoke highly of the value of 

 roots ; but seems to be as hostile to potatoes as the 

 late William Cobbett; from which it is but natu- 

 ral to infer that he has no Irish blood in him. He 

 deems grain crops an exhausting crop, and pota- 

 toes particularly so. He thinks the evil com- 

 plained of, by which the milk was injured in its 

 taste, was occasioned by giving the animals too 

 much. 



The chairman stated that within his experience 

 it would be safe to feed a bushel per day to an 

 animal, provided they were kept at the same time 

 on salt-hay. 



Mr. Buckminster pronounced potatoes a very 

 exhausting crop, and the cultivation not to be en- 

 couraged. To an inquiry as to the amount of po- 

 tatoes usually raised per acre, he replied from one 

 hundred to one hundred and fifty bushels, and 

 gave it as his belief that the crop in Framingham 

 did not exceed one hundred bushels. 



Mr. Bruce of Grafton was disposed to defend 

 the potato-crop ; and pleasantly remarked that if 

 he obtained not more than one hundred bushels 

 per acre, he should be quite disposed to give them 

 up. In his own cultivation he considered 200 

 bushels a light crop — 350 bushels a good crop. 

 He had raised 564 bushels to the acre, and was 

 accustomed to use 40 bushels of whole potatoes 

 for seed. He is accustomed to plant them in 

 hills. He said the crop of one of his neighbors 

 had exceeded 700 bushels to the acre. These 

 were certainly cogent arguments in reply to the 

 Framingham farmers. 



Potatoes are without question an exhausting 

 crop, and return little to the land, the tops amount- 

 ing to a small matter. In our practice they are 

 far from being an ameliorating crop, because 

 they are cultivated in the most slovenly manner ; 

 they are in many cases not hoed more than once, 

 and the weeds afterward usually abound, and cov- , 

 Vol. VII— 26 



er the ground with their seeds. This however is 

 altogether the fault of the cultivator, and not the 

 crop. In neat and clean husbandry and at a 

 yield of four hundred bushels to the acre, (and 

 with less than this even the Framingham fiirmers 

 ought not to be satisfied) they are a valuable crop ; 

 and an acre of potatoes will furnish a great 

 amount of most nutritious food for man and beast ; 

 though Cobbett insists upon it they are nothing 

 but so much dirt and water. 



Mr. Denney of Weslboro, stated that he had 

 fed his cows with carrots and ruta baga ; and that 

 in changing from carrots to ruta baga the quality 

 of the milk immediately became deteriorated. 



EXPERIMENT WITH THE MARYLAND TWIN- 

 CORN. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Chericoke, King William County, ? 

 March 23d, 1839. S 

 As I believe the merits and de.meriis of the Ma- 

 ryland twin-corn, is still a mooted point, among 

 my brethren of the corn planting and raising cralt 

 of lower Virginia, it may not be entirely uninte-" 

 resting to some of the vocation, that I should state 

 the result of an experiment made by me last year. 

 1 have now been planting the twin-corn four years, 

 procured from Col. Mercer, of West River, Ma- 

 ryland, and doubtless the same corn as recently 

 advertised by Mr. Sinclair, of Baltimore, as the 

 " true tree prolific corn." But with entire de- 

 ference to Mr. Sinclair's better judgment in the 

 matter, I think he has given the corn a misnomer, 

 and misrepresented some of its characteristics ; it 

 is undoubtedly a very prolific variety of corn, 

 and it is very white, but I have as yet disco- 

 vered nothing of a tree character about it ; and it 

 certainly matures fi-oin a fortnight to three weeks 

 earlier in the tide- water country of Virginia, than 

 the common corn grown with us. Like all other 

 corn that I have heretofore met with, it is true, 

 that it flourishes better, and produces more, in rich 

 land than poor; but still my experience leads me 

 to believe it as well adapted to the one as to the 

 other, and that it will bi; found to produce on any 

 land under similar circumstances, more than the 

 usual varieties. Its advantages, as I think, con- 

 sists in its being more productive, more forward, 

 less liable to rot in the field, heavier than any kind 

 we grow except the hominy corn, and consequent- 

 ly yieding more meal ; and certainly one great ad- 

 vantage it has over most other kinds, it yields from 

 five to ten per cent, more in shelling from the cob. 

 It will resist the weevil too, longer than most corn 

 grown with us, and the meal and hominy made 

 from it, is generally allowed to be very superior. 

 The stalk being smaller, it of course resists the 

 drought better than the larger corn, as I had 

 full proof the tvvo last summers. As before stated, 

 I have been growing the twin-corn for four years, 

 and for two years previous to the last, (1838,) I 

 had planted no other kind, and was well satisfied 

 with the results, but some friends, in whose judg- 

 .ment and experience I had great confidence, as 

 farmers, insisted upon it that I was deceiving my- 

 selfj that it would not produce as much as the 

 common corn of our country, determined me that 

 I would make a fair experiment with it, and one of 



