274 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



MARCH 1, 18 43 



For Ihe N. E. Farmer. 



TURNIPS AND OIL-CAKE FOR FATTEN- 

 ING CATTLE. 



Mr Edttor — Dear Sir — I enclose an article on 

 the turnip, and another on the use of oil-cake for 

 faltenino; cattle and as an article of food. They 

 ore both from the pen of the same gentleman who 

 furnished the article on " Pigeon Manure," in your 

 journal of Feb. 8. 



I have always thought favorably of the turnip 

 culture, as a highly profitable article of food ; but 

 from it.=i very bulky and diluted nature, 1 have al- 

 ways doubted its fattening; qualities, except only 

 and when combined with other substances of a 

 more nutritious kind. Anon. 



Effects of Turnip Feed in England. — By an Eng- 

 lishman. 



In the winter of 1833, I had occasion to visit for 

 a few days, a little village in the vicinity of Roth- 

 erham, Yorkshire, but was soon glad to leave, for 

 the reason that the meat — mutton and beef — milk 

 and butter — were but so many preparations of tur- 

 nips ; and I was unable to obtain any other. How. 

 ever, before leaving, I happened to meet with one 

 of the farmers of the place, and inquiring why they 

 fed all their cattle on turnips, his answer was, 

 " The fact is, we are loo poor to give them any 

 tiling else; hay is up, and the turnips are the 

 cheapest." I had the curiosity to look at this gen- 

 tleman's sheep, and a more miserable looking flock 

 I never saw. Sheep will never fatten on turnips, 

 and a turnipy taste is not more the milkman's than 

 the farmer's enemy. 'J'hey have but little or no 

 bitter principle, and in their nutritive qualities bear 

 no comparison with the carrot. 



If further testimony is required, take that of Mr 

 Sinclair, gardener to the Duke of Bedford, whose 

 observations are to be found in that " invaluable 

 work," as it is termed by agriculturists, the " Hor- 

 tU3 Gramincus Woburnensis." 



As to Mr Stephens' assertions, that the stock in 

 Scotland is fed upon turnips from November to 

 January, and that it is not till February that such 

 feeding seems to produce any improvement, they 

 are true so far as they go — but let them not lead 

 us into error ; for farmers, not unlike physicians, 

 not knowing more than half the facts of the case, 

 although knowing them well, may still go wrong. 

 The true exposition of the matter is this : Cattle 

 are fed from November to the latter end of Janua- 

 ry or middle of February — or, in other words, till 

 the young grass begins to spring — when they im- 

 prove wonderfully, if you like — and yet no wonder, 

 considering how long they have been kept upon 

 "short commons." 



I have seen many a flock of sheep, but never 

 saw one in the middle of a turnip field, that was 

 not penned there. The turnip is always forsaken 

 for the miscea herbage on the hank side, of which 

 there is always more or less in England, even in 

 the depth of winter. 



Let it be remembered, ol.'so, that there is scarce- 

 ly any hitler extract in turnips, which is as necessa- 

 ry to cattle as salt is to us ; and without which, as 

 Sinclair says, they must inevitably become diseased 

 and die. 



Oil for Fattening. 

 Corroborative of Mr Prince's communication, in 

 your paper of last week, on feeding cattle with oil 



it is so universally used in Engl.and in the form of 

 oil cake, that to me it appeared strange that there 

 should be any doubt about its powers, or propriety 

 of its use, in this country. In fact, I have so re- 

 peatedly heard farmers in England talk of exhibit- 

 ing it in preference to any thing else, and never 

 having discovered any unpleasant flavor in the 

 ir.cat so fed, I feel confident, in recommending it 

 to the farmers of America, that a trial is all that is 

 wanting to success. As to any scruples about eat- 

 ing oil-fed meat, they must vanish before the fact, 

 that fiU meat is but little else than oil itself. 



H. St. Aubtn. 



QI/^Wc are happy to receive these communica- 

 tions from one who for many years has been an 

 observer of English farming. In our own remarks 

 upon the effects of feeding upon turnips in Scot- 

 land, as described by Henry Stephens, in the Book 

 of the Farm, wo did not intend that the inference 

 should be made that no otiier food was given in 

 connection «ith them: straw is daily given to the 

 animals as well as turnips. The first of February, 

 which we named as the time when the turnip-fed 

 animals begin to thrive, is not, we think, iji Scot- 

 land, the time when their anhnals begin to get a 

 supply of fresh spring feed, though it may be in 

 the south and centre of England. We have not Mr 

 Stephens' book at hand, or we would quote what ho 

 says as to the time when their animals are turned 

 out to pasture. If we remember correctly, it is 

 about the first of April. 



The question in regard to the value of root cul- 

 ture in this country, we consider so far an open 

 one, that we are very willing to insert facts, expe- 

 riments and observations that make either for or 

 against the general and extensive cultivation of 

 roots. 



Should it be found true, as it doubtless is, that 

 roots do not contain enough of bitter extract to 

 make them a sufficient food for fattening when 

 used alone, it will not follow that they are not val- 

 uable in connection with hay, straw, corn-stalks, 

 &c Ed. N. E. F. 



For the N. E. Farmer. 



FEEDING HERBIVOROUS ANIMALS WITH 

 OIL. 



Can it conduce to the health of herbivorous ani- 

 mals, Mr Editor, to be fed with oil ? Why, it is a 

 disputed question, to say the least of it, whether 

 oil is the best food, even for jnan — in America or 

 in Greenland. Yet man is claimed to be, in part, 

 an eater — constitutionally so — of substances con- 

 taining oil. 



I have been led to make these remarks, or rather 

 queries, by the statements of Mr Prince, of Jamai- 

 ca Plain, in your paper, concerning the use of oil 

 in fattening cattle. Reasoning a /)non, as well as 

 from analogy, I am led to oppose such a practice. 

 That cattle may be fattened faster in this way, I 

 have no doubt : but that they are rendered sickly 

 in the same proportion, is equally certain. Indeed, 

 the statement of the English butcher, cited by Mr 

 Prince, about bleeding once or twice for a week or 

 ten days before slaughtering an animal fed in this 

 way, confirms the view I take of the subject. Why 

 would a physician bleed a man under such circum- 

 stances ? Would it not be to reduce the inflamma- 

 tory or febrile action .' 



Few persons rejoice more than I, at every real 

 improvement in the great and important department 



of philanthropy of which your paper is so worthy a 

 representative ; and this is one reason why I occa- 

 sionally drop a thought or two, for the considera- 

 tion of those whom it may concern. Besides, no 

 person, as I suppose, would prefer to eat diseased 

 flesh meat, merely because it is a little fatter, or — 

 being a little nearer to a state of putridity when 

 killed — is a little more tender. 



Yours, WM. A. ALCOTT. 



Dedham, Feb. 20, 1843. 



(15^ Dr. Alcott seems, in his opening questions, 

 to imply, that oil is an animal product only — and 

 that it therefore must be unsuited to nourish her- 

 bacious animals. The oils from fla,\seed, from the 

 olive, from Indian corn, &c. &c., are purely vegeta- 

 ble products, and therefore there might be propriety 

 in arguing their unfitness to be the food of carnivo- 

 rous beasts, — but none, that we can see, in hinting 

 that they are improper for such animals as find 

 corn and flaxseed a natural and wholesome food. 

 Our correspondent is usually awake; but he was 

 apparently napping, when he thought to make a 

 valid argument against the use of linseed oil to 

 feed herbaceous animals. The oil of the herb is 

 their natural food; — not the oil alone and uncom- 

 bined, it is true — but yet the oil of vegetables, igi 

 the natural food of the ox. It was such oil — lin- 

 seed oil — that Mr Prince used. Were the Green- 

 lander's train oil, mutton tallow, or hog's lard re. 

 commended, there would be pertinence in our cor- 

 respondent's remarks ; but we see none now ; nor 

 can we see a reason for inferring that vegetable oil 

 will naturally give disease to an animal whose 

 natural food is vegetable. 



We will welcome an explanation or rejoinder.— 

 Ed. N. E. F. 



Tight Dressing — It is not tight lacing alone 

 which is objectionable, but all lacing. In our 

 dress, not a pound weight — no, not an ounce, were 

 it possible to avoid it, should ever rest on the sur- 

 face of the human body. Every where should the 

 skin and muscles have lull, free and perfect mo. 

 tion. * * Have you not seen — some of the 

 oldest of you, at least — here and there, a grand- 

 mother of the last century ? Then you have seer 

 chests and the representatives of chests such as 

 are seldom to be found now. It is impossible fo: 

 females to be degenerating as females now are 

 from errors in dress and other multiplied infraction! 

 of God's natural law, and the whole race not sufie 

 by it. We are all deteriorating, at least physical 

 ly ; and tight dressing is one of the causes. Ant 

 if consumption and scrofula, and heart, stomach 

 and liver diseases are increasing with rapid etridei 

 among us, this, too, is Ihe result, in no trifling de. 

 gree, of the same cause. The mother, in conse- 

 quence of a feeble organization, and especially « 

 slender and feeble chest, transmits to her childrei 

 a tendency to the same state. Mothers, then, b« 

 admonished. The world rests, as it were, on you 

 Shall it or shall it not rise ? It has fallen by wo 

 man, so we are told ; if ever raised again, it cai 

 hardly be raised without her influence. — Dr. .'11 

 coWs Teacher of Health. 



To find one who has passed through life witliou 

 sorrow, you must find one incapable of love or ha i 

 tred, of hope or fear ; one who hath no memory o 

 the past, and no thought of the futurerr— one tha 

 hath no sympathy with humanity, and no feeling i,,, 

 common with the rest of the species. 



