18«6.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 75 



Analysis of Dry Matter. 



Crude Ash 4.63 



» Cellulose, 1.98 



" Fat (Ether Extract), .83 



" Protein (Nitrogenous Matter), 13.56 



Non-nitrogenous Extract Matter, 79.00 



100.00 



These results confirm the above expressed view, — the 

 potatoes were not matured. 



VI. 



Experiments with Eoot Crops. 



The importance quite generally conceded to the introduc- 

 tion of a lil)eral cultivation of root crops in a mixed farm 

 management, wherever a deep soil and the general character 

 of the climate favors their normal development, rests mainly 

 on the following consideration : they furnish, if properly 

 manured and cultivated, an exceptionally large quantity of 

 valual)le vegetable matter fit for fodder for various kinds of 

 farm live stock, competing in this direction fiivorably with 

 our best gi'een fodder crops ; and they pay well, on account 

 of large returns for the necessary care bestowed upon them 

 by a thorough deep cultivation to meet success. 



The physical conditions of the soil, however favora1)le they 

 may have been for the production of crops of a similar char- 

 acter, will suffer, if year after year the same system of culti- 

 vation is carried out. Diversity in the mechanical treatment 

 of the soil, and change of season for such treatment, cannot 

 otherwise but affect advantageously its mechanical condition 

 and the degree of its chemical disintegration, promoting 

 thereby its fitness for retaining inherent })lant food, as well 

 as its power of turning to account atmospheric resources of 

 plant growth. The roots of the same plants abstract their 

 food, year after year, from the same layer of soil, while a 

 change of crops with reference to a different root system 

 renders it possible to make all parts of the agricultural soil 

 contribute in a desirable succession towards an economical 

 production of the crops to be raised. Deep-rooting plants, 

 like our prominent root crops, for this reason, deserve a 



