1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



203 



One reason why grown grain sometimes does not 

 come up may be, its heating in the mow or stack 

 before threshing, in which case it cannot be expect- 

 ed to vegetate, as tlie life-principle is destroyed. 



Agawam, March 4, 1856. J. E. Feree. 



TENTH LEGISLATIVE AGRICULTURAL 

 MEETING. 



Reported for the Farmer by H. E. Rockwell. 



The tenth Legislative Agricultural meeting was 

 held in the Hall of the House on Tuesday evening. 

 Subject for consideration, "Root Crops." 



Dr. Fisher introduced Mr. Cooley, of Conway, 

 as the chairman of the meeting, who, on taking the 

 chair, stated that he was unexpectedly called upon 

 to officiate, and was consequently unprepared to 

 make any remarks upon the topic for consideration, 

 and he would therefore leave the conducting of the 

 meeting to others. 



Mr. Brown, of Concord, editor of the J^Tew Eng- 

 land Farmer, said he thought we did not yet fully 

 understand the value of root crops. In England 

 they are highly valued, because more can be ob- 

 tained from the same surface for the support of 

 cattle, by their cultivation, than by the cultivation 

 of grain, and because they are valuable in produc- 

 ing beef and mutton, which are in great demand 

 there. They are a favorite diet for sheep. With 

 us, there is a prejudice against the cultivation of 

 roots, perhaps on account of the amount of labor 

 required. They need a deep soil, and most farmers 

 have not got into the habit of cultivating deeply. 

 Not more than one farmer in a hundred, in Massa- 

 chusetts, had made any fair experiments in trench- 

 ing. There are sandy loams, and in some cases, 

 clay loams, that are well suited to raising roots. If 

 well cultivated, from six hundred to twelve hun- 

 dred bushels may be obtained from an acre. He 

 had raised parsnips at the rate of twelve hundred 

 bushels to the acre. The mangel-wurzel is very 

 easily raised ; it grows large, and is always an ex- 

 cellent root for stock. It grows much out of the 

 ground, and, therefore, seems to require a different 

 kind of cultivation from some other roots. In cul- 

 tivating, it is necessary to have the ground well pul- 

 verized, and then two furrows are turned together, 

 and upon the top of the ridge thus formed, the 

 seed is sown ; the ridge being first flattened a little. 

 The labor of harvesting them is less than that of 

 turnips, or ruta-bagas. Cattle are very fond of 

 them, and they are highly nutritious. He had not 

 succeeded so well with beets as with other roots • 

 but he had no doubt they could be raised at a hand- 

 some profit. 



Round turnips may be cultivated easily by sow- 

 ing them upon the land which is designed for grass, 

 the ground being first jjlowed in July, and thorough- 

 ly prepared for grass, and the turnip seed being 

 sown, along with the grass seed. From three hun- 



dred to seven hundred bushels per acre may be ob- 

 tained without any extra labor except that of gath- 

 ering them. This method impoverishes the soil 

 very little. He thought, in the eastern section of 

 the State, the potato must be thrown out of the 

 question as a root for stock feed. 



The advantages of feeding roots to stock were 

 next referred to. He had been told that milk 

 could not be made for market unless the cows 

 were fed on meal of some kind ; but he had found 

 it too expensive to feed Avholly with meal and 

 hay. Having determined to try roots, after an ex- 

 periment of feeding six cows with meal one season, 

 he fed the same six cows, with the same kind of 

 hay, and with roots the next season. The roots 

 were of various kinds, the mangel-wurzel, beet, ru- 

 ta-baga, round turnip, parsnip and carrot, and 

 these were mixed in feeding. After being milked 

 in the morning, each cow was fed with half a bush- 

 el of mixed roots, which they ate greedily. There 

 was no complaint of the turnip taste in the milk, 

 and his milk-man returned him cash for twice as 

 many cans of milk as he did the year before when 

 they were fed on grain. That experiment had sat- 

 isfied him that more milk could be obtained by the 

 use of roots than by feeding a certain amount of 

 meal a day, say three quarts a day, as he fed his 

 cows the first winter. The milk from roots is per- 

 haps of a poorer quality, but milk sellers rarely 

 have any qualms of conscience about that, if they 

 get a greatly increased quantity. Mr. Webster was 

 a careful observer, and although he never did a day's 

 work on a farm, perhaps, after he left the old home- 

 stead, he watched the operations of others in farm- 

 ing narrowly ; and there are many better farmers 

 who never did a day's work than some who have 

 been at the plow-tail all their lives, because they 

 have been close and accurate observers. They 

 would be able to go on to a farm, and direct its op- 

 erations well at once. So Mr. Webster rarely 

 talked about farming, any where, without bringing 

 in the root crops. He saw that their cultivation 

 would be of great benefit to New England farmers. 

 In closing, Mr. Browx expressed the opinion that 

 more could be made from a given number of acres 

 by the cultivation of roots, than by the cultivation 

 of gi-asses and grains. 



Mr. Williams, of Hadley, was next called upon. 

 The soil in his town, he remarked, was, in every 

 part of it, susceptible of cultivation. But root crops 

 are not generally raised there. The soil is so good, 

 and grain is so easily raised, that roots are neglect- 

 ed. They were probably too negligent in that re- 

 spect. He was, however, of opinion that they 

 might be raised with great advantage, not only in 

 his vicinity, but throughout the State. 



The chairman stated that his cultivation of roots 

 had been principally confined to potatoes. He had 

 had very little rot among them, and invariably had 



