66 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Fee. 



suggesting this to the Judge, he writes — "I have 

 already twice delivered a charge to the Grand 

 Jury on the Delays of the Law, in which I sug- 

 gest the improvements made in Old England, 

 especially in the system of County Courts. I 

 have been requested by the Grand Jury of Car- 

 roll County to furnish it for publication, which I 

 may do at some future time. It is not a sub- 

 ject adapted to an agricultural paper, but rather 

 to a law magazine." 



For the New England Farmer. 

 KAISING AND FEEDING BOOTS. 



Mr. Editou: — In the discussion of this sub- 

 ject there is one important point which, if I recol- 

 lect rightly, has not been made sufficiently promi- 

 nent by your correspondents ; that is, the great ad- 

 vantage to be derived from root crops, in lengthen- 

 ing out a proper rotation, and in affording a 

 change or variety of feed. I am not yet a be- 

 liever in turnips, or any other root, as an ex- 

 clusive feed, nor do I think it best to feed 

 them to any great extent, in severe cold weath- 

 er, unless warm shelter is afl'orded for the 

 stock to which they are fed. But I have, for 

 several j'ears, fed a few turnips to young stock 

 in the spring, and I am fully confident, that, not 

 only did it make them more healthy, improving 

 their coats and affording a gradual change from 

 liay to grass, but that the nutriment supplied 

 was amply sufficient to pay all expense of raising 

 the turnips. 



No one doubts the advantage of a little corn 

 meal, or oil meal, or oats, in addition to the usu- 

 al feed of hay, yet no sane man would think of 

 attempting to keep neat cattle entirely on either. 

 Why, then, do they expect any better results from 

 roots fed in like manner? Perhaps no one would 

 think of carrying it quite to this extent, yet I 

 think Mr. Emerson went nearly as far in some 

 respects, and I would respectfully suggest to him 

 to read an article in the November Agnculiurist, 

 by "Diogenes Redivivus," entitled "A Despond- 

 ing Farmer." 



I think highly of turnips, also, as a feed for 

 swine, to which I have been feeding them for a few 

 weeks in the following manner. I fill a barrel 

 kettle with one-fifth turnips and the rest pota- 

 toes, and boil with water enough to wet a half 

 bushel of meal, which I add when cooked soft. 

 I have not the means of weighing, to ascertain 

 the precise result, but they appear to be thriving 

 much better than I ever saw any when fed on 

 clear meal, and the way they take hold of it, cer- 

 tainly indicates that it suits their taste exactly. 

 I ought, perhaps, to add that I tried the potatoes 

 and meal without the turnips, and allowing pig- 

 gy to be a judge, the addition of the turnips is a 

 decided benefit. I have seen the experiment tried 

 of raising swine on corn meal, and on corn and 

 oat meal, repeatedly, and although either may 

 answer well for fattening swine previously grown 

 on other feed, or when mixed with a good sup- 

 ply of skimmed milk, it has invariable proved a 

 complete failure when fed to young animals, un- 

 less with the addition of a large amount of milk. 



My own experience, as well as the directions 

 of nearly all agricultural writers, indicates that, 



as a general rule, no one cultivated crop ought to 

 be taken from the same land two years in succes- 

 sion ; and in the cultivation of young orchards 

 especially, which is an absolute annual necessity, 

 and where grain crops are considered injurious, 

 the turnip is indispensable, and farther, as far as 

 my experience goes, it can be profitably grown ; 

 in proof of which, I will give the result of a small 

 patch which I raised the past season : 



ESPENBE OP CEOP. 



Use 16 rods land $1,00 



Preparing land and sowing 1,00 



Hoeing 2,00 



Harvesting 2,00 



Manure 1,00 



Total $7,00 



Amount of crop, 103 bushels, at 121 cts $r3,87 



Cost 7,00 



Profit ,.$5,87 



It is true the land was in good condition ; an acre 

 of such land would, with an addition of 30 loads 

 hog manure in the hill, have produced 80 bu. 

 corn, (GO pounds to the bushel,) and this leads 

 me to another point, viz., without this same hog 

 manure I could not raise over half that amount 

 of corn per acre, and I believe more than half 

 the farmers of the northern part of New Eng- 

 land are in the same predicament, unless they 

 substitute some of the concentrated fertilizers, a 

 plan which I consider to be of more than doubt- 

 ful expediency. 



I have liad plenty of evidence that we cannot 

 keep swine without roots or milk, the last of 

 which, after deducting for raising calves, &c., is 

 in many cases a minus quantity ; therefore I come 

 to this conclusion — no roots, no swine — no swine, 

 no corn. 



I should have stated that in harvesting turnips, 

 I cut off all the roots close to the bulb, which, 

 although adding one-quarter to the cost of get- 

 ting in, makes them much neater to feed. 



William F. Bassett. 



AsJifield, Mass., Dec. 13, 1858. 



For the New England Farmer. 



"WILL BABLEY TUEN TO OATS? 



In the Farmer of Dec. 11, "E. B." inquires if 

 barley cut down by frost or eaten down by cattle 

 will turn to oats. Some sixty years ago an opin- 

 ion prevailed extensively in the lower or sea- 

 board towns in this county (York, Me.,) that bar- 

 ley, under such circumstances, would turn to oats. 

 When a small boy, I heard farmers talk about the 

 matter, and my brothers made some experiments 

 to test the accuracy of this opinion, but could not 

 produce the effect. The first experiments I ever 

 made in farming was when a small boy, may be 

 less than ten years old. In going to school, to 

 save travel I crossed a field in a footpath through 

 a piece of growing barley, and as I passed, I 

 cropped it off in several places just before the 

 heads appeared, so as to touch the top of the com- 

 ing head. The mutilated barley, in due time, made 

 its appearance, or was destroyed entirely, but no 

 oats. Where I have lived the last forty years no 

 barley of any consequence is raised, and I have 

 heard nothing of such an improbable suggestion, 

 but a similar notion has prevailed here that win- 

 ter wheat will, when injured in the winter, turn 



