292 



The Root Culture. 



Vol. V. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 The Root Culture. 



Mr. Editor, — It has been said by some of 

 the British agriculturists, that the introduc- 

 tion, and recent e.xtension of the root culture 

 in England, will effect as great a change in 

 the prosperity of the landed interest, as the 

 application of steam has produced in the re- 

 sults of mechanical ingenuity. 



To assert a proposition, is comparatively 

 easy — to have it sustained by facts, is quite 

 another thing. 



I have never been able to persuade myself, 

 that the rich promise held out by the enthu- 

 siastic supporters of the beet, the ruta baga, 

 &-C., would, in this country at lea.st, ever be 

 realized ; though, from what I can gather 

 from others, and from my own limited e.xpe- 

 rience, I believe the facts connected with the 

 production of root crops, to be of a most in- 

 teresting character to farmers, and should 

 claim their close attention. 



Great crops, from 800 to 2000 bushels per 

 acre, are talked of, and written about; and 

 statements of the greatest beneficial results 

 from feeding to milch cows, and other stock, 

 are frequently thrown before the public. We 

 want the greatest possible number of facts in 

 relation to all these things, that we may make 

 our calculations with more confidence, and 

 with less liability to be led astray by the spec- 

 ulations, or isolated results of a few. And I 

 know of no better way to come at this, than 

 for us occasionally to throw into common 

 stock our individual experience, and through 

 the pages of the "Farmers' Cabinet" give 

 the result of the year's crop, and what it has 

 done for our stock. 



About the middle of the first summer-month 

 in 18^39, I planted an acre of ruta bagas, in 

 ground where a crop of Indian corn had been 

 raised the preceding year. It was well pre- 

 pared by ploughing, harrowing, manuring, 

 &c. The soil was, as I thought, well adapt- 

 ed to raising the turnip, neither very heavy, 

 nor very light, but one of our good Jersey 

 light loams, with a clay subsoil. The ma- 

 nure — street dirt — was thrown in shallow 

 furrows, three and a half feet apart, and then 

 covered by running another shallow furrow 

 on each side. After being raked down a lit- 

 tle, a drill, say an inch deep, was made with 

 a hoe-handle, or some other suitable instru- 

 ment, directly over the manure, and the seed 

 dropped by hand. They were covered with 

 an iron rake, and a hand-roller passed over 

 them to bring the earth more closely in con- 

 tact with the seed. They came up well — 

 were thinned so as to leave them eight or 

 nine inches apart — were well formed, and in 

 the fall yielded about 350 bushels. In the 

 ninth month they had become very lousy, and 

 I could not perceive that they grew any for 



three or four weeks. They took a second 

 growth, however, and when they were pulled 

 some of them were vvliolly, and not a few 

 partially rotten. I was very apprehensive 

 they would none of them keep; but in this 

 I was a^freeably disappointed, as but few 

 were lost that were put in bulk in the cellar; 

 and I fed them to my cows till the middle of 

 the fourth month. I gave about three pecks 

 each per day to two cows, which had calves 

 — the calves were well fatted, and fine. The 

 milk and butter which we used in our family 

 from the other cows, fed in the same way, we 

 could barely eat. There was a bitterness of 

 taste about it that was e.xceedingly disagree- 

 able. It was with great difficulty the "gude 

 wife" could get the butter byciiurning, fre- 

 quently being at it four, six, or eight hours 

 before it came, and two or three times the 

 cream was thrown away, in despair, after 

 churning the greater part of two days. 



The cows, besides the turnips, were fed 

 with corn-stalks in the morning, oat-straw at 

 noon, and good hay at night, having a trough 

 of good water continually before tiiem. Now, 

 can the worthy Editor, or any of his friends, 

 tell how it happened that the milk and butter 

 were so worthless? Verily, I thought 1 paid 

 dear for my acre of turnips. Last summer 

 I raised about an acre each of ruta bagas and 

 sugar beets. The yield was about 300 bush- 

 els to the acre. I fed them alternately to 

 my cows — that is, in the morning beets, in 

 the evening turnips. The butter and milk 

 were good, and somewhat increased in quan- 

 tity; — though there was hardly a fair trial 

 of this, as the cows were all strippers. They 

 were healthy, and looked well, and there was 

 not much difficulty in obtaining the butter. I 

 also fed the turnips together with Indian meal 

 to some cattle that were fatting, and some of 

 the beets to my store hogs, and was satisfied 

 with the results. I am by no means discour- 

 aged from planting these roots; but I do 

 think we want more information in relation 

 to them. 



When the farmer is disappointed in the 

 amount of his crops, or is chagrined by a fail- 

 ure in the result of feeding them out, and 

 finds that he has not realized what the 

 "books" have promised, he expects the 

 "books" further to enlighten and advise him 

 whether the failure has been owing to his 

 own mismanagement, or to the emptiness of 

 their promise. 



Z. Y. 



It is not known where he that invented 

 the plough was born, nor where he lived or 

 died ; yet he has effected more for the hap- 

 piness of the world than the whole race of 

 heroes and conquerors, who have watered it 

 with tears and manured it with blood. 



