1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



157 



swer, ye wise men, who are the people's legisla- 

 tors, and for once try the experiment, and see if 

 you do not return to your homes in a full con- 

 sciousness of a duty nobly performed, and meet 

 your constituents with countenances radiant with 

 joy, uttering from the heart the pure salutation, 

 "well done, ye good and true men." 



Richmond, Jan. 24, 1859. W. Bacon. 



Remarks. — Capital suggestions — we hope 

 they will be put in practice. Town societies 

 should meet for discussion as often as once a 

 week, from the first of November to the first of 

 April, five months. The association should be 

 as thoroughly organized as is the legislature of the 

 State, and all its business conducted with gravi- 

 ty and decorum. We feel quite confident that 

 •premium paying has done about all the good it 

 is capable of accomplishing for the present. 



From November to March, inclusive, the 

 starch remains unchanged ; and as it is the ger- 

 mination or change into sugar, by keeping in a 

 moist place, that renders seeds unfit for plant- 

 ing, it would seem that the most proper time for 

 spring planting of potatoes should be early in 

 April. As at the time of sprouting of the tubers 

 the starch becomes changed into sugar, it may be 

 supposed that at that time of the year, that is, in 

 May, they might be profitably used for the man- 

 ufacture of sugar. We know not that any ex- 

 periments have been made for that purpose. 



STARCH—SUGAR— POTATO. 



The embryo of plants receives its nourishment 

 from the sugar contained in the seeds. This ar- 

 ticle is found in the seeds of all plants, — or rath- 

 er exists in them in the form of starch, and is 

 converted into sugar by the process of germina 

 tion, and serves for the nourishment of the 

 young plant. 



Starch and sugar are composed of the same 

 elements and in nearly the same proportion, — 

 starch having an additional quantity of carbon. 

 By the application of heat and moisture by which 

 oxygen is absorbed, some of this element of 

 starch is evolved, and it becomes sugar. This is 

 the process in germination, and in the malting 

 of barley. The skin or lower part of flowers, al- 

 so contains starch, which is changed into sugar 

 for the nourishment of the seeds. 



Starch is very abundant in the potato ; the 

 tubers of this plant being in large part composed 

 of it. The practice of nipping off the flower buds 

 of potatoes has been frequently adopted by gar- 

 deners, which they considered had a tendency to 

 increase the product. The effect of this practice 

 is to check the demand of the growing flower for 

 starch, and by thus preventing the exhaustion of 

 the store of this ingredient, it will be accumula- 

 ted in other parts, and principally deposited in 

 the tuber, the growth of which will be increased 

 proportionally. 



The amount of starch increases regularly with 

 the growth of the plant, and is in greatest abun- 

 dance at its maturity. It remains about the same 

 till the period when the seeds are beginning to 

 germinate, or the young parts of the plant to 

 grow, and is then converted into sugar. It has 

 been found that 100 parts of potatoes contained 

 in August, 10 lbs.; September, 14^ lbs.; Novem- 

 ber, 17 lbs.; March, 17 lbs.; April, 13| lbs.; May, 

 10 lbs. 



For the New England Farmer. 



ARE TURNIPS A PROFITABLE CROP? 



Mr. Editor : — Various opinions seem to pre- 

 vail in relation to the turnip crop, and as I have 

 read them from time to time, I am at last tempt- 

 ed to say a few words upon the subject of rais- 

 ing turnips. I have raised, of the various kinds 

 of turnips, for forty-five years. I raise them now, 

 where and when nothing else can be raised. I 

 do not lay out a spot or patch of land for turnips 

 where I can raise corn, for I do not believe they 

 pay ; or in other words, I do not believe them 

 a profitable crop. I have never been able to get a 

 good crop of anything after a crop of rutabagas, 

 and I should like to add to the many questions 

 already put to "W. F. P.," by Mr. Emerson, 

 whether he can show from experience or observa- 

 tion, that a crop of ruta bagas, on, say one acre of 

 land, and three succeeding crops of corn and 

 grass, is worth more than a four years crop — of 

 coi"n, first, and three years of barley and grass ? 

 I do not care to confine him to the crops named 

 which are to succeed the first year. But set acre 

 by the side of acre ; set down the expenses of la- 

 bor and of manure, and show how much is gained 

 by raising ruta bagas. I have raised five hundred 

 bushels of Swedish turnips upon one-half acre, 

 and that was an unprofitable crop to me, when 

 compared with seventy-five bushels of corn to the 

 acre by the side of it. The labor of feeding, any 

 one can settle. I think there are great mistakes 

 made in the estimations of the value of turnips 

 in this part of the country. I admit, however, 

 that when raised they are good feed for stock. 

 The question I would like answered, is, when 

 compared with other crops, are they worth rais- 



ing; 



Otis Brigham. 



Westboro\ Jan. 27, 1859. 



Drugging Animals. — Continual dosing ani- 

 mals is just as useless and injurious to them, as 

 is the constant swallowing of drugs and poison- 

 ous compounds to the human system. It is all 

 folly to allow your stables to become hospitals, 

 and to smell and appear like an apothecary's 

 shop. It is much more humane to shoot a horse, 

 or knock an animal on the head at once, than to 

 force down its throat doses of drugs whose qual- 

 ity of action you know little about, having the 

 effect to create disease when it did not exist, 

 and prolong suffering much beyond the time in 

 which nature would herself effect a cure. — Amer- 

 ican Siock Journal. 



