AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 62 NORTH M.'^RKET STREET, (Aqricuitukai, Warehoube.)— ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



vol,. XXI.] 



BOSTON, WEDNRSDAY EVENING, FERRUARY 15, 1843. 



[NO. 33. 



N. E. FARMER. 



THIRD AGRIcaLTURAL MEETING AT 



THE STATE HOUSE. 



Subject, Root Culture. 



[Continued. 1 



Col. Jaques was invited to speak: ho declined 



spenkiiig, but made the single reinarl;, that labor 



ivilli MS costs so much, that ho doubts whether it 



s protitable to cultivate roots for stock. 



Air p>encl), of Braintree, was asked to speak, 

 fje came to learn, not to teach. But the potato 

 Top ho had found a poor one: it almost necessa- 

 ily nude slovenly cultivation; the weeds will get 

 ip aniouQ: the tops and escape detection. Potatoes 

 nay increase the quantity of milk, but they make 

 Its quality poor. 



The cattle like the beet in all its varieties. And 

 the beet will often grow well on a field for one 

 ear; but after that there is a great falling off; — 

 1 three or four years they will dwindle to almost 

 othing. The beet does not e.xhaust the land so 

 luch as the turnip. The turnip is a great e.xhaust- 

 r. When feeding cows upon ruta baga, he does 

 ot find that they affect the flavor of the milk. He 

 !eds in the morning, Thinks better of the carrot 

 lan of other roots. 

 In the year 1841, he subsoiled a field. In ]84'2, 

 owed near 10 inches deep, turning up some 

 F the subsoil that was loosened the year before, 

 owed in about 8 cords of manure per acre. Ridg- 

 , with ridges 20 inches apart; but when the tops 

 the ridges had been raked, the ground was near- 

 flat. Sowed the white carrot. Hoed, wed, and 

 inned twice, leaving the plants 3 or 4 inches 

 )art. Hoed deep between the rows. Obtained a 

 tie over 22 tons, or 800 bushels per acre. His 

 ws have each a iialf bushel of these per day, and 

 e doing well. In autumn he fed out the tops for 

 considerable time, and the cows did well upon 

 em. This carrot grows partly above ground, and 

 n generally be pulled by the hand alone. 

 Subsoilmg, he thinks, prepares the ground well 

 • this crop. We ought not to expect a good crop 

 these long roots on land that we plow only a 

 w inches deep, and where the subsoil is so hard 

 at one cannot force down an iron bar. He had 

 jsened his subsoil to the depth of 16 or 18 inches. 

 Mr Merriam inquired the expense of subsoding. 

 Mr French. Two yoke of oxen and a horse, or 

 ree yoke of oxen, will carry the subsoil plow at 

 out the rate that a good yoke of oxen will plow 

 3 soil : — (cost, any one may calculate.) 

 Mr Putnam asked what crops Mr F. had put on 

 ter luiniiis, which induced him to call them great- 

 exhausters than other roots. 

 [If Mr French specified any one, I have forgot- 

 ) wliat it was. He gave me the impression that 

 held this opinion, but could not specify the par- 



ulars of his observations Ri^P-] 



Mr Putnam. I will state the reason of my ques- 

 n. I once saw barley following turnips, and it 

 i better than on adjoining land. But when In- 

 in corn follows, I have seen that suffer, compara- 



tively. The grass, however, in following years, 

 has made up what was lost on the corn. 



Mr French. In England, barley follows tur- 

 nips, usually, and perhaps we here get the reason 

 why no complaint is there made of the turnip as an 

 exhauster, (n one instance he had known English 

 turnips and grass seed grown together late in sum- 

 mer, and the grass did well the following season. 



Bone manure is excellent fur turnips : where he 

 has applied a bushel per row of ](i or 18 rods in 

 length, has found it to do well. 



Dr. C. T. .Tackson inquired whether salt had 

 been used by any one present as a manure for tur- 

 nips. From some Shakers in New Ilampsliire, (the 

 reporter did not hear the town,) he learned that 

 2 -]2 bushels of salt per acre had been highly bene- 

 ficial to this crop, while 4 bushels had done less 

 well. 



Mr Putnann said he had made some trials — on 

 one square rod had put .5 qts. of salt, or 25 bushels 

 per acre: this was too much. Nothing did well 

 on this bed. But he had used various composts, 

 several of them containing salt, and would state as 

 a general result, that salt was good for turnips and 

 bad for potatoes. 



Mr iMerriam said he liad long known that salt is 

 good for turnips ; — and the roots are valuable on 

 the farm, especially where we have to feed much 

 with cheap, coarse hay. He would give half a 

 peck daily to young animals, and a peck to grown 

 ones. 



Mr Cole wished, he said, to bring to the notice 

 of farmers the cnbbage-turnip. This is much like 

 the ruta baga, but will yield 25 per cent. more. 

 He has had roots of this kind that weigked 15 lbs. 

 each. This is white. Its taste is like the pith of 

 the cabbage. stalk. It is not injured by frost ; may 

 be left out all winter. Its seed is raised easier 

 than that of the ruta baga ; it will keep perfectly 

 good until May, and at that time is much like a 

 good English turnip in autumn. 



Thinks he can grow two bushels of carrots as 

 easy as one of potatoes and prefers the carrot. 



On rich lands the parsnip docs well, and in the 

 island of Guernsey, it is much used for stock. 



The Yellow Globe mangel wurtzel, ho thinks 

 good and productive. Salt is good for the turnips 

 themselves, and is serviceable in destroying insects. 



Mr Nash, of Hadley, said he was satisfied of 

 one thing — that the comparative cost of the diffe- 

 rent crops varied riuicli in different sections of the 

 State. We (on the Connecticut river — heavy, rich 

 lands — Rep-) can raise potatoes, bushel for bushel, 

 about as che^p as we can carrots. The potato is 

 the best. We {of that section,) have been much 

 disappointed in the value of root crops. Carrots 

 are next in value to potatoes. 



We should choose our books as we would our 

 companions, for their sterling and intrinsic merit — 

 not for their accidental advantages. For with 

 books, as with men, it seldom happens that their 

 performances are fully equal to their pretensions, 

 nor their capital to their credit. — Lacon. 



For the N. E. Fanner. 



CARROTS. 



Mn Editor — You inquire why the Plymouth 

 Agricultural Society offer premiums for .'300 and 

 400 bushels of carrots: the quantity is so much 

 less than many reported crops, some answer seoma 

 demanded in the case. 



It has been said, if a man will daily lift a calf 

 from the time of its birth, he will be able to do it 

 after the calf has grown into a large ox. This 

 may not be true to the extent of the supposition, 

 yet there can be no reasonable doubt that (Uir skill 

 and powers increase in good measure proportionate 

 to the continuance of efforts. On this idea, the 

 minimum quantity of a premium crop of carrots 

 was fixed. 



The carrot was scarcely known in this county, 

 as a field crop, when premiums were first offered. 

 It was judged best to make the conditions suffi- 

 ciently easy to induce experiments. No inconve- 

 nience could arise from the small number of bush- 

 els required until the number of claims might grow 

 perplexing — a contingency which has never hap- 

 pened. M. A. 



Pembroke, Feb. 4lh, 1843. 



QJ^We put in our query, why a premium for 

 carrots was offered on so small a crop as 3 or 400 

 bushels, hardly expecting an answer. But we are 

 glad to get one. We have thought it singular that 

 a list of premiums prepared with so much judg- 

 ment as that of the Plymouth County Society, 

 should, year after year, offer a premium for a quan- 

 tity of carrots no greater than they require of pota- 

 toes. The reason why to vs it so appears, is be- 

 cause we and our neighbors usually get twice as 

 many carrots per acre as potatoes. But such re- 

 sults as we are used to, are far from being univer- 

 sal. The reasons given by our esteemed corres- 

 pondent, show that there is no less wisdom in Ply- 

 mouth county on this point than on others. 



We would take this occasion to say to the gov- 

 ernment of the Plymouth Society, that we should 

 be pleased to be favored with such of the state- 

 ments of applicants for their premiums as, in their 

 judgment, are worthy of publication. The MSS. 

 (if the original,) should be carefully preserved and 

 returned to order. — Ed. N. E. F. 



Coal. — One of the most important subjects be- 

 fore the Legislature, relates to the coal beds in 

 Mansfield, Mass. The demand for fuel is con- 

 stantly increasing among us, while our forests are 

 gradually disappearing. It is of interest to every 

 citizen in the Commonwealih that our coal resour- 

 ces should be speedily and fully developed ; and 

 we trust that the Legislature will give the subject 

 a candid hearing. — Bost. Trav. 



Among the 178,000,000 individuals who inhabit 

 Europe, there are said to be 17,900,000 beggars, or 

 persons who subsist at the expense of the commu- 

 nity without contributing to its resources. In Don. 

 mark, the proportion is five per cent., in England 

 ten per cent., in Holland fourteen per cent. 



