NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



213 



family of Indians had once camped — these they 

 pulled up and carefully burned on the cottage 

 hearth. The trees of all kinds were cut down and 

 the seed mentioned were produced on stems four 

 to five feet in height, which grew on this virgin 

 soil. It is pleasant to notice this degree of per- 

 fection in one of our most important crops. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 COWS AND CARROTS, 



BY JOHN W. LINCOLN. 



Gextlemen : — I experienced no little surprise 

 and regret occasioned by the perusal of a commu- 

 nication addressed to you, written by J. G. Hoyt, 

 under the above head, and published in the Febru- 

 ary No. of the New England Farmer, in which he 

 states the opinion of a large milk farmer of Brad- 

 ford, '•'•that carrots do not contribute in the slightest 

 degree to increase the amount of milk in a cow?" 

 that his informant maintains, "that while the 

 quality of milk may be improved by carrots, the 

 quantity is not perceptibly affected." He thinks 

 that "ike carrots, ivhenfedout in ordinary doses, do 

 not diminish in the least the quantity of hay neces- 

 sary for his cows ; but that they serve merely as 

 condiments." That "he is decidedly of the opin- 

 ion that $3 is quite as much as a man can afford 

 to pay for carrots to tickle the palate of a pet 

 cow." You may judge, sirs, how much I differ in 

 opinion from the Bradford farmer, when I inform 

 you that for several years past, in addition to the 

 quantity I have raised on my own land, I have 

 purchased the surplus carrots of my neighbors, 

 amounting to several tons each year, and paid for 

 them $9 per ton delivered at my barn, and have 

 then and now do believe that I paid no more than 

 their value, not to tickle the palate of a pet cow, 

 but to feed out to my stock. I was disposed to 

 inquire whether it was possible I should be so 

 greatly mistaken in my estimate of the intrinsic 

 value of carrots. I was aware that in the table of 

 Rham of the relative value of different vegetable 

 substances as compared with good hay, carrots 

 were not placed so high as by me ; so also in the 

 table of Boussingault, which has the approbation 

 of Professor Johnston in his Agricultural Chemis- 

 try, but this was in the production of muscle. I 

 knew that the books were full of commendations 

 of the culture of carrots for stock generally, but 

 particularly for horses, without one word of dis- 

 couragement, so far as I have knowledge. I had 

 full evidence that carrots were good food for swine. 

 For several years past I have kept my swine prin- 

 cipally on carrots through the winter months ; they 

 have been boiled, a small quantity of cob and corn 

 meal added, and with the slops of* the house, have 

 been the only food of my swine ; deprive them of 

 the carrots, and the remainder of their food 

 would have been insufficient to sustain life. My 

 winter stock of swine has usually consisted of 

 breeding sows, and they have uniformly been in 

 such condition, that I was entirely willing that my 

 piggery should be visited by any one disposed to 

 inspect it, or its tenants. The usual observation 

 has been, that "those swine are too fat, to do well 

 in having pigs." I formerly kept my swine on 

 potatoes, as I now do on carrots, and they have 

 never done better than of late years. 



That carrots contain much nutriment I cannot 

 have a doubt, sufficient as I apprehend to induce 

 farmers to grow them in considerable quantities 

 for the benefit of their stock ; that "when fed out 

 in ordinary doses" they may so far impi'ove the 

 health of the animal, as to enable it more com- 

 pletely to digest their hay, by which to add to the 

 covering of the ribs and the secretions of the milk 

 vessels. That either your Bradford friend or my- 

 self was greatly in an error was most manifest. 

 After carefully recalling to recollection what I had 

 been able to obtain from books on this subject, my 

 own experience, and that of others so far as it had 

 come within my own observation, without discov- 

 ering the fallacy of my former views, I was in- 

 duced to inquire whether the opinions of the Brad- 

 ford farmer were correct, although expressed w r ith 

 much confidence, and partially confirmed by the 

 approval of two of the editors of your valuable 

 publication, in whose agricultural knowledge the 

 public have placed so much reliance, that it seems 

 much like presumption to express a doubt. I was 

 desirous of further evidence ; I read the commu- 

 nication to Mr. Hawes, who has the immediate su- 

 pervision of my farm, and requested him to take 

 two cows then giving milk, as much alike as he 

 could find them, ascertain what quantity of hay 

 they were then eating, continue to them the same 

 quantity of hay, but add to one of them a peck of 

 carrots per day — that after a trial of a week to 

 change the carrots to the other cow, to watch the 

 effect carefulby, and to report to me the result. 

 He informs me that the milk of the cow eating 

 carrots was increased one quart or more each day, 

 on no day less than a quart, and on some days a 

 little more ; that the cow having hay alone, con- 

 stantly eat up her whole allowance, and the one 

 having carrots uniformly failed to do so, and this 

 was the case with both cows while having the car- 

 rots — that each cow, when deprived of the carrots, 

 at the close of each trial, fell off in her milk below 

 the quantity given at the commencement, occa- 

 sioned probably by their becoming dry preparatory 

 to having their next calf, which is expected with 

 both, about the first days of June next. 



Having thus obtained the testimony of two wit- 

 nesses that the use of carrots will not only tickle 

 the palate of a pet cow, but if administered in or- 

 dinary doses will increase the quantity of milk, and 

 diminish the quantity of hay necessary for food, 

 whose competency to testify on this subject, will 

 not be questioned, I will here rest the case, re- 

 peating that I have much regretted the publica- 

 tion, in the apprehension, that it might have the 

 tendency of deterring many from growing root 

 crops for the winter food of their stock. 



This difference of opinion furnishes evidence of 

 the importance to the farmers of Massachusetts of 

 having a school and farm where all similar practi- 

 cal questions can be settled under the direction of 

 a Board of Agriculture, to be established, as it is 

 hoped, by the present Legislature. 



Respectfully your most obedient servant, 



Worcester, Feb. 17,' 1852. J. w. h. 



Remarks. — We are under epecial obligations to 

 Col. Lincoln for the pains-talcing experiment which 

 he has instituted, and for the opportunity he has 

 afforded us of spreading the results broad-cast 

 through the land. We still have great confidence 



