3G4 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



May 30, 1832. 



ricnlture. 



AN ADDRESS 



To the Essex Jigricullw-al Society, delivered at An- 

 dover, Mass. Sept. 29, 1831, at their annual Cat- 

 tle Show. By Henry Caiman. Published at the 

 request of the Society. 



ConcluJetl from page 357, 



Next, let us compare the value of liay with oth- 

 er crops for the feeding of stock. An acre of hay 

 yields one ton and a lialf of vegetable food ; an 

 acre of carrots or Swedisli turnips will yield from 

 ten to twenty tons, say fifteen tons, wliich is by no 

 means an exaggerated estimate. Crops at the rate 

 of tvventyfive tons of carrots and twentytwo of 

 Swedish turnips to the acre, have been raised 

 among us, and much larger crops than these are 

 upon record. 



By an experiment it has been ascertained, that 

 three working horses fifteen aiid a half liandsfcigh, 

 consumed at the rate of two hundred and twenty- 

 four pounds of hay per week, or five tons one thou- 

 sand five hundred and fortyeight pounds of hay 

 per year, besides twelve gallons of oats each per 

 week, or seventyeight bushels by the year. An 

 unworked horse consumed at the rate of four and 

 one quarter tons of liay by the year. The produce 

 therefore of nearly six acres of land in this mode 

 of feeding, is necessary to support a working horse 

 by the year ; but half an acre of carrots at six hun- 

 dred bushels to the acre with the addition of chop- 

 ped straw, will, while the season for their use lasts, 

 do it as well if not better. These things do not 

 admit of doubt ; they have been subjects of accu- 

 rate trial. 



It is believed, that the value of a bushel of In- 

 dian com ill straw and meal, will keep a licaltby 

 horse in good condition for work a week. An 

 acre of Indian corn, which yields sixty bushels, 

 will be ample for the support of a horse through 

 the year. Now it is lor the farmer to consider, 

 whether it be better to maintain his horse upon 

 the produce of half an acre of carrots, which can 

 be cultivated at an expense not greatly exceeding 

 the expense of half an acre of potatpes ; or upon 

 half an acre of ruta baga, which can be raised as 

 a second crop at less expense than potatoes ; or 

 upon the grain produce of an acre of Indian corn ; 

 or, on the other hand, upon the produce of six 

 acres in hay and grain, for six acres will hardly 

 do more than to yield nearly six tons of hay and 

 seventyeight bushels of oats. The same economy 

 might be as successfully introduced into the feed- 

 ing of our neat cattle. I have known a yoke of 

 oxen engaged in the ordinary labor of a farm, to 

 be kept three months in winter, in good working 

 condition, upon one bushel of Indian meal and 

 about twentyfive cents' worth of straw per week ; 

 and my own team has never been in better con- 

 dition both for appearance and labor, than when 

 fed wholly upon a liberal supply of ruta baga and 

 the coarsest (odder. But it has been ascertained 

 by accurate measurement, that an unworked ox 

 put up on goorl old hay, consumed at the rate of 

 thirtythree pounds per day or two hundred and 

 thirtyone pounds per week, which is upwards of 

 six tons per year of two thousand pounds to the 

 ton. There must then be a great saving between 

 feeding in the way referred to, or upon Enghsh 

 hay ; and English hay alone, in any quantity, 

 without grain or vegetables, is not sufficient for 

 any hard-working animal. 



We come next to the great article of produce, 

 the prince of vegetables, the bread fruit of our 

 climate, Indian com. In an agricultural view, 

 that country is signally blest, which has the ca- 

 pacity of ])roducing Indian corn. There is no 

 crop of more simjile and easy cultivation ; none is 

 subject to fewer casualities ; only in a single in- 

 stance for many years, (the year 181C,) has the 

 crop among us been generally cut ofl". There is 

 none ihat yields a greater quantity of feed, or of 

 belter feed to man apd beast ; which will make 

 more flesh ; which returns so much to the land ; 

 and bears more frequent planting upon the same 

 ground. 



Crops exceeding one hundred bushels to an acre 

 have been raised in this country. No farmer 

 ought to be satisfied with a less crop than fifty 

 bushels to the acre ; and, while pork is worth six 

 cents a pound, he may estimate his corn as equal 

 to seventy cents per bushel. Fifty bushels to the 

 acre, then, may be safely valued at thirtyfive dollars ; 

 and the fodder from an acre of corn, if well saved, 

 would do much towards paying for the labor of 

 cultivation. It will do more, when carefully man- 

 aged, than any other crop, towards supplying its 

 own manure. I do not speak at random. Mr VV. 

 p. Livingston, of New York, gives it as his opin 

 that the Ibdder will jiay for the cuhivatiou. Lo 

 rain, of Pennsylvania, obtained from an acre yield 

 iijg sixtysix bushels to the acre, (and the ground 

 was planted with potatoes as well as corn,) of 

 Ton. Cwt. Ills. 



Blades, husks and tops, 1, li, 13. 



Stalks or butts, 1, 7, 00. 



Total, 2, 13, 13,gross.« 

 Mr Phillips, an intelligent farmer of Pennsylva 

 uia, says, "that he is fully of opinion, that a field 

 of good corn will yield as much fodder and con- 

 taiu as much nutriment as afield of the best clover 

 of equal size."t 



The saving of corn fodder ought to be much 

 more matter of attention than it is. It is a slov- 

 enly and wasteful practice to leave our corn butts 

 in the field, to be browsed by cattle and so to serve 

 no use as manure, rather than carefully to gather 

 and feed them out in winter in our barn yards, 

 where what is not consumed by the stock, will go 

 at once to increase the compost heap. 



Of potatoes, as a profitable crop, I have great 

 distrust. Beyond what is wanteil for marketing 

 or family use they aflbrd small returns. One hun- 

 dred and fifty bushels to the acre is more than an 

 average crop throughout this country. These can 

 hardly be rated on the farm at more than one shil- 

 ling per bushel, which would be equal to twentyfive 

 dollars, out of which the expense of four or five 

 dollars for seed is to be deducted. For feeding 

 beef stock it is doubtful if they should be rated so 

 high. I have made no experiments with them in 

 this way, upon which I can rely. When steamed 

 they are represented as excellent feed for horses. 

 Many persons speak well of them in fattening beef; 

 but the best grazing counties in the State do not 

 deem them a very profitable object of culture. — 

 "To mix potatoes in the food of fattening pigs," 

 says an English agriculturist, "is deceptions, de- 

 teriorating the pork in exact proportion. Hence 

 the Irish pork and bacon are generally inferior to 

 the English, and the market price is in proportion. 



•Lorain's Husbandry, page 201. 



f N. Y. Memoirs, vol in. page 374. 



The inferiority was some years since stated at 

 three ounces per pound or upwards, by an emi- 

 nent dealer in Irish provisions."* But deducting 

 the expense of seed, the labor of manuring, plant- 

 ing, hoeing and gathering, which is always trouble- 

 some business, the profits of such cultivation must 

 be very small. They likewise return but little to 

 the ground, for the tops of potatoes can scarcely 

 be considered as of any value. 



Carrots are a more jirofitable crop than pota- 

 toes. This crop is of great value. "A bushel of 

 carrots for any stock, is equal to two thirds of a 

 bushel of potatoes, or of equal value, weight for 

 weight." It is little more expensive to raise six 

 hundred bushels of carrots than two hundred of 

 potatoes. Again, land which will produce fifty 

 bushels of corn to the" acre, will produce six hun- 

 dred bushels of carrots, or twelve for one; and a 

 New York farmer, by the name of Waring, says, 

 that "two and a half or at most three bushels of 

 carrots will make as much beef, pork, mutton, 

 milk, or horse flesh, as one bushel of corn. This 

 seems to be an extravagant estimate, but if they 

 will do half as much, the advantage is greatly in 

 favor of carrots. 



Of the value of English turnips I shall notsay 

 much. They are very easily raised. Cattle and 

 sheep are very fond of them, and will thrive iqion 

 them. In Great Britain many of their cattle are 

 entirely fattened upou them, and English beef is 

 celebrated all over the world. Upwards of eleven 

 hundred bushels have been raised to an acre, by 

 Jlr Featherstonhaugh, of New York ; and premi- 

 ums have been given, in Scotland, to crops of sev- 

 entyfiv.e and ninetysix tons to the Scotch acre, 

 which is one fourth larger than ours. As a second 

 crop they may be raised to great advantage. 



The ruta baga is a highly valuable crop. I have 

 raised nine hundred bushels to the acre at a less 

 expense than the same extent of potatoes could be 

 cultivated ; and four hundred and six hundred 

 bushels have been produced on sward land, from 

 which a crop of grass has been taken the same 

 season. A crop of four hundred bushels to the 

 acre was raised on a grass ley, and sowed on the 

 IStli of July. But I am inclined to believe that 

 the best mode of culture is to raise the plants in a 

 seed-bed, and transplant them either with a short 

 stick or by running a single furrow at the distance 

 at which it is desired the rov/ should be made, 

 dropping the plants on the land side of the furrow 

 and letting a man follow, to set them up and draw 

 the earth to them with a hoe. Where they are 

 transplanted a much longer season is obtained, as 

 this need not take place until the last of July or 

 even as late as the middle of August. 



They are said to be excellent food for horses ; 

 and, when steamed, valuable for swine. I know 

 them to be of great value for oxen and all dry 

 stock ; and for cows, abating unpleasant taste 

 which they give to the milk ; and both carrots and 

 ruta baga may he applied with great advantage to 

 the feeding of sheep intended for the butcher. — 

 The manure which has been made from sheep or 

 cattle fed on turnips, with their yards well Utter- 

 ed, from the extraordinai-y secretions of urine which 

 turnips produce, is of a superior quality. The val- 

 ue of carrots for milch cows is well understood, 

 not increasing the quantity of milk so much as po- 

 tatoes, but giving it richnessand sweetness, and con- 

 tributing to keep the animals in the best condition. 



* British Farmer's Magazine, vol. i. page 594. 



