36 



Boots vs. Hay — Grass. 



Vol.111 



Roots vs. Hay. 



We take the following' from a report made 

 to the Massachusetts Agrl. Society, by the 

 Messrs. Colts, of Pittsfield, Berkshire Co., and 

 we do it to show the immense advantage made 

 in substituting roots tor hay in feeding cattle, 

 as well as in tlie quantity of ground necessa- 

 ry to produce a given quantity of food. 



The writer says — " My stock now consists 

 of 1000 sheep, 6 young o.\en, (i cows, a pair 

 of horses, and a single horse. I have raised 

 this season for the use of my stock 5544 bush- 

 els of vegetables, and all to be grated and fed 

 out with cut straw, the cattle constantly, the 

 sheep one feed a day, which seems to be a 

 necessary food in our long cold winters: it 

 keeps them in health and also in flesh. — 

 As to the respective value of the vegeta- 

 ble food the following statement will per- 

 haps best exhibit it. I have commenced feed- 

 ing and shall continue to feed — 



14 head of horned cattle with 20 lbs. of cut- 

 straw each per day, 4 cents for each twenty 

 lbs. 56 cents. Also to each, 8 lbs. of roots 

 grated, mixed with straw, 3 cents, 42 cents. 

 And now allow 150 days for the season of 

 feeding at 98 cents, is $147. The same 

 stock would require 20 lbs. of hay each per 

 day for 150 days ; they would consume 42,- 

 000 lbs., equal to 21 tons; at the moderate 

 price of ^10 per ton, $210. Balance in fa- 

 vor of root feed 63 dollars, and I am sure the 

 stock will appear far better at the opening of 

 the spring. 



You will perceive that the respective val 

 ue of vegetables for food is six cents a bushel, 

 while hay is at ten and straw at four. It may 

 be said that there is some cost in preparing 

 food, but this is more than compensated if 

 properly done, by the extra quantities of ma- 

 nure made." 



Thus it appears that 20 lbs. of straw and 8 

 lbs, of roots mixed afford more nutriment, 

 and of course are more valuable than 20 lbs. 

 of good hay, while the actual co.st is much 

 less. Fourteen tons of roots are a moderate 

 crop per acre, while the average of hay will 

 fell considerably below two tons to the acre. 

 The advantage in favor of the turnep is thus 

 perfectly apparent, and the farmer who per- 

 sists in mowing his twenty or forty acres 

 which would furnish roots sufficient if mixed 

 with the straw which might be grown on the 

 remainder, to keep his animals far better than 

 the hay, and leave the grain crop nearly as a 

 clear profit, is clearly acting against his true 

 interests. Again we say to our farmers, you 

 did well last year by so extensively entering 

 upon the culture of roots; you will do better 

 this year by greatly extending their cultiva- 

 tion. 



! On Orchard Grass — Manner of Cultivation 

 — securing the seeds — Quantity soujti— 

 Season and mpde — Causes of failure — 

 Product andvalue for pasturage and hay — 

 its nutritive qualities, and superiority over 

 timothy, both when green and dry. 



BY LOYD JONES, ESQ. 



Dear Sir, — 1 have cultivated orchard grass 

 for five and twenty years. My crops (ailed 

 from the bad quality of the seeds, until they 

 were secured by myself. When they are in 

 the state at which they can be shaken from 

 the heads, the stems are cut by a skilful cra- 

 dler just above the tops of the under grass. — 

 AiYer some practice, he is enabled to catch 

 with his left hand the porlions taken by the 

 cradle, and to place them regularly as he ad- 

 vances. They are inmiediately bound in 

 sheaves large as a man's leg. Double swarths 

 are afterwards mown with a naked scytlie to 

 remove the under grass, and leave at proper 

 distances throughout the field, openings upon 

 which the sheaves are shocked. They re- 

 main in this state from eight to ten days, until 

 sufficiently dry to be carried to the barn,where 

 they are forthwith threshed to guard against 

 heating, the great source of injury to the 

 seeds of this valuable crop. The usual man- 

 ner of securing them, by putting the sheaves 

 into the mow, is, I am satisfied, the most ef- 

 fectual mode to destroy the principle of vege- 

 tation, as they can rarely be so treated with- 

 out being mow-burned. 



At\er having been threshed, they should be 

 strewed upon the barn floor — occasionally 

 stirred if the quantity be large, during eight 

 or ten days, until they are perfectly dry — 

 without this precaution they would inevitably 

 be heated 



The under grass should all be mown for 

 hay as soon as possible, after the seeds have 

 been harvested. If it be allowed to stand but 

 for a few days, it loses its nutritive properties, 

 — in fact dies, after having lo.'^t the heads. — 

 The hay thus made, and properly secured, 

 although necessarily harsh from having been 

 allowed to pass the stage of its growth when 

 most succulent and nutritiou.s, I have found 

 good fodder, for both horses and neat cattle. 



The product of seeds varies from ten to 

 twenty bushels per acre. I have had in a 

 very favorable season, twenty bushels upon 

 land which would not have afforded, I think, 

 ten of wheat. The product of this, as of all 

 crops, depends much, of course, upon the sea- 

 son, and the preparation of the land. The 

 crop to which I advert, was purposely grown 

 upon a poor soil, to show the excellence of 

 the plant, and the fallacy of the assertion, 

 that it required very rich land. 



1 sow from eight to ten quarts of cloyer 

 seeds, and a bushel of orchard grass seeds 

 per acre in February, upon wheat or rje land. 



