542 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



ears are so beautiful, that one can hardly have 

 the heart thus to " cast pearls before swine." I 

 think a farmer feels rich so long as he can show 

 his neighbor his corn barn filled up above his 

 head all round vrith this substantial treasure. 



Are turnips good fur Pigs ? Are pigs any the 

 better for turnips t One man said turnips were 

 good for nothing for any critter, for one of his 

 neighbors, last winter, fed out a cart load to a yoke 

 of oxen, without doing them the least good in the 

 world. Another said turnips were first-rate for 

 fatting cattle, because he tried it last winter, on a 

 yoke of oxen and cow, and he never saw animals 

 gain faster. A third had tried it on pigs ; and 

 they eat the turnips well enough, and in great 

 quantities, but he was convinced that they ate 

 jast as much meal with the turnips, as when kept 

 on meal alone, and that the turnips were a total 

 loss. 



I had three shoats in September, one a full blood 

 Suffolk, one a half blood, and one native American, 

 from a drove. I had also a crop of white flat tur- 

 nips, sowed with my grass seed in July, which 

 cost me nothing but the troubte of picking up. For 

 the past six weeks, I have fed these pigs with the 

 turnips principally. We boil in a portable boiler, 

 out of doors, two bushels of turnips at once, until 

 they are soft, then take them out and put them 

 nto a barrel, and adda pailful, about ten quarts of 

 coarse shorts, and mash them together hot, adding 

 a handful of salt. We have slops from the house, 

 not quite enough to keep one of them, and these, 

 with two kettlefuls of the boiled dish, last them 

 one week. I never saw pigs thrive better. They 

 are getting too fat to be kept over the winter, and 

 two of them are in danger of an early death. From 

 this single experiment, it would seem, as if a bush- 

 el of turnips is worth fas much for swine, as the 

 same quantity of potatoes, but it is not time to 

 draw that conclusion. Many farmers have tur- 

 nips on hand, and I hope the experiment will be 

 thoroughly tried, so that if results be favorable, 

 we may all lay down our land in July and August, 

 with grass seed and turnips, sell part of our hay, 

 and keep the homestead in good heart, by raising 

 swine, at a profit. My rutabagas, which will 

 keep good till spring, will many of them be turned 

 to the same account. I have another old porker, 

 which fed on turnips until within a month, but as 

 he wo.a expected to aid the festivities of Thanks- 

 givin;x in the house, it was thought best to put 

 him on a corn-meal diet. 



It is said in the "Complete Body of Husban- 

 dry," published in England a hundred years ago, 

 that sheep fattened upon turnips, should be fed on 

 other food, two weeks before they are killed, or 

 the mutton will taste of the turnips. It probably 

 would he prudent, for those who prefer their pork 

 and turnips on separate dishes, to attend to this 

 hint. 



The Genesee Farmer has a notice of an article 

 from the Irish Farmer'' s Gazette, in which an expe- 

 riment was tried of feeding swine upon turnips, 

 both cooked, and raw, by which it was found that 

 the pigs all gained remarkably well, but that they 

 ate twice as much of the cooked, as of the raw food, 

 and gained most on the raw. The raw turnips 

 were "pulped" or grated, and allowed to fer- 

 ment. 



Let us have the experiment tried, and reported 

 in the N. E, Farmer. I think the value of tur- 

 nips is by no means appreciated in this country. 

 It has been said that "the national power of Great 

 Britain has its root in the turnip." It is there, 

 the great crop, for fattening cattle and sheep, and 

 so maintaining the fertility of the soil. 



Exeler, N. H., Nov. 17, 1853. h. f. f. 



For the New England Farmer. 



MONTHLY FARMER FOR NOVEMBER. 



The November Farmer may well be termed an 

 Encyclopedia of Agricultural Fairs. Need we re- 

 gret the change which has substituted these anni- 

 versaries for the old "Harvest-home" of England, 

 the "Lambs' Wool" of Ireland, and the other sen- 

 sual jollifications of ancient times, which sought 

 merely to rouse the physical, while the intellect- 

 ual faculties slumbered and slept 1 Can any one 

 look over the accounts of the various Fairs which 

 are given in this number of the Farmer, — the re- 

 ports of Committees, Sketches of Addresses, 

 Speeches, &c., — and not feel conscious that the 

 "good time coming" has actually arrived ; that the 

 Mind as well as the Soil is cultivated ; that science 

 is already shooting into the dark path of the far- 

 mer a few scattered rays, which, like the "break- 

 ing of day," are precursors of the rising sun that 

 is to illumine the whole earth ? 



AGRICULTURAL FAIRS. 



Taking them in the order of the pages, we have, 

 connected with interesting notes of "A Trip to the 

 Connecticut Valley," a description of the Fair or 

 Cattle Show, held 



In Springfield. Then, of those held 

 In Westminster, Vt. (Windham Co.) 

 In Worcester, (Worcester Co.) 

 In Framingham. 

 In Dedhain, (Norfolk .Co.) 

 In Lawrence, (Essex Co.) 

 In Milford, N. H. (Hillsboro' Co.) 

 In Lebanon, N. H. (Grafton Co.) 

 In Concord, (Middlesex Co.) 

 In Greenfield, (Franklin Co.) 

 In Northampton, (Hampshire, «&c. Co'a.) 

 Premiums of Middlesex Exhibition. 

 Fruits at Essex Exhibition. 

 Keep the Farmers' Festivals Pure. 

 Premiums and Regulations of the Exhibition of horses 

 At Springfield. 



To those who had th'e time and money to attend 

 these fairs personally, these reports, which occupy 

 so much space, may be less interesting than they 

 are to that much larger class who found ourselves 

 obliged to be digging potatoes instead of marching 

 in procession. While therefore we regretted our 

 inability to participate in the festivities of any of 

 these occasions, it is no small comfort to read such 

 full and minute accounts of them all, as we find in 

 our Monthly Farmer. But ample as is this de- 



