304 



Root Culture. — Lnproved Breed of Hogs. 



Vol. V. 



For the Fariners' Cabinet. 

 Root Culture. 



Mr. Editor, — Light and darkness are not 

 more opposite, than the testimony for and 

 against the vaUie of the beet as winter pro- 

 vender for stock; but the question, as to the 

 expediency of making some provision of this 

 nature for that trying season, ought long ago 

 to have been settled in the affirmative, for it 

 is "admitted by agriculturists in England 

 that the introduction of the root culture there, 

 has effected as great a change in the pros- 

 perity of the landed interest, as the applica- 

 tion of steam has produced in the results of 

 mechanical ingenuity ;" and this is not a 

 mere "assertion," as intimated by your cor- 

 respondent Z. Y. at p. 292 of the Cabinet — 

 it is a fact, fully sustained by most ample 

 proof. 



The past winter has been most trying; 

 many cattle and sheep have perished for 

 want of food, and the sufferings of their own- 

 ers must have been second only to tliose of 

 their poor animals. Young cattle have been 

 purchased at the price it has cost to winter 

 them, while cows have brought no more than 

 $15 a head ! If this state of things does not 

 operate as a caution, and induce us to culti- 

 vate some kind of root-crop for the coming 

 winter, we, and not our cattle, ouirht to bear 

 the consequences. In late numbers of the 

 Albany Cultivator, attacks have been made 

 against the sugar-beet, by men whose judg- 

 ment and veracity are above all suspicion: 

 they assert, that from fair experiment, they 

 have found it an almost worthless crop for the 

 feeding of stock, particularly hogs; while 

 Mr. A. B. Allen of Buffalo — whose judgment, 

 experience and veracity, no one who knows 

 him will call in question — declares, in answer 

 to these attacks, that he considers the beet 

 as one of the most valuable of roots for this 

 purpose. He says: 



" Now, I have not only my own taste for 

 three years, to prove that the sugar beet 

 raised in and about Buffalo is exceedingly 

 sweet and nutritious, but can bring an hun- 

 dred witnesses, any time, to corroborate the 

 assertion, from their own daily experience. 

 The blood-beet cannot compare with the 

 sweet Silesian, and they are never boiled in 

 a pot by themselves, that there is not a sweet 

 syrup left at the bottom, almost of the thick- 

 ness and agreeable taste of sugar molasses; 

 which, in my opinion, requires only to be 

 clarified and granulated to make good sugar. 

 And as food for stock, I know that, even 

 when fed raw to cows, they considerably add 

 to the quantity, and especially to the quality 

 of the milk, making the butter as sweet, and 

 almost as yellow as that produced from fresh 

 summer grass, keeping them, with the addi- 



tion of hay alone, in the best possible order; 

 and the young stock on the same food were 

 as fat, as fine and glossy in the coat, as when 

 on summer pasture. But their most import- 

 ant use is as food fur hogs: the first winter 

 I fed them with potatoes to my grown t^wiiie, 

 when raw; the second winter, on beets alone, 

 thrown on the ground, and I did not notice 

 any difference whatever during these two 

 seasons ; each time they were kept in as good 

 flesh as I ever wish to have breeders. Ti.e 

 third winter — the last — I commenced cooking 

 them, and have steamed beets alone, and fed 

 them to the pig of two montlis and the giovvn 

 animal of four years; but to the last-men- 

 tioned I gave a stinted allowance, or they 

 would get too fat for breeding, while to the 

 former, with the addition of a trifling quantity 

 of corn, I never saw animals thrive better, or 

 remain more contentedly; — they would fill 

 themselves and lie in their straw, as content- 

 ed as puppies and whist as mice: I iiave 

 sometimes steamed a mixture of carrots, po- 

 tatoes and beets, and found as a general rule, 

 that the pigs would first pick out the beets, 

 next the potatoes, and only cat the carrots 

 last — and this is experience, and not mere 

 theory. I like not this jumping at conclu- 

 sions from partial experiments. It has been 

 maintained, that ruta baga, by analysis, was 

 but little else than wood, and therefore, as 

 food for man and beast, almost totally worth- 

 less! And yet this despised root, with a lit- 

 tle straw, makes most of the English beef and 

 mutton! I once told a neighbour that I cul- 

 tivated pumpkins a good deal, and found them 

 good food for swine: he replied, 'They never 

 did any thing for mine but scour them.' I 

 would ask, what would be the probable ana- 

 lysis of clover] Not much, I fancy, but wa- 

 ter; and yet my hogs will keep fat upon it 

 in summer and grow well. I conclude, there- 

 fore, by saying, if these gentlemen's stock 

 does not thrive on sugar beet, they must have 

 been deceived in their seed, or they have not 

 the right sort of stock to feed upon them." 



Much, however, no doubt depends on soil 

 and circumstances ; and in all probability it 

 will be found that the crop will be more nu- 

 tritious and keep better, if the sowing be de- 

 layed until June, the cleanest and most con- 

 venient seed-bed being a rye stubble, well 

 dunged, and planted the moment the crop is 

 removed. J. G. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Improved Breed of Hogs. 



Mr. Editor, — "You may buy gold too 

 dear," is an old maxim that has been verified 

 in many ways, and the refinement in which 

 so many indulge themselves at the present 

 time in hog's flesh, may be pointed to as an- 



