THE QENESEE FARMER. 



RuTA Baga — What is a maximum ckop? — Last year I received the first premium at our County 

 Fair, for my crop of ruta baga, yielding at the rate of sixteen luuidrcd and sixty -six bushels per acre 

 — the largest crop ever reported in this country. My report of this crop has been extensively copied, 

 and ha.s been received by some with distrust. An attempt to sustain that report seems to be justi- 

 fied by the importance of the subject, and demanded in self-defence. 



It is objected that so large a crop has never been produced even in England, and it is inferred 

 that therefore I must have been mistaken. 



Now, in the first place, I protest against this inference ; it is a non sequitur. Why may I not 

 raise a larger crop than England ? England has no svperior 7iatural advantages. The only advan- 

 tage claimed is that of climate ; and that is u mere assumption, and has not been proved. Our 

 climate has been unjustly condemned without a trial. All the advantages were on my side. By 

 beginning where England left off, I had the full benefit of her experience. Iler crops are cultivated 

 by the ignorant. Intellect and science may plan and direct, but do not plow or lioe. Her laborers 

 do not reason; they only work. My crop was cultivated entirely by myself, and not a blow struck 

 without a reason. My motive was an inflexible purpose to advance the agricultural art, while 

 theirs was to secure their dinner and their rent. In competition with such human machines, ought 

 not I to excel? The soil of England has been worn for two thousand years ; mine was new. Hers 

 almost entirely artificial ; mine as formed by the laws of nature ; in it God has been collecting and 

 garnering up the elements of fertility for six thousand years. To believe it inferior to the man- 

 made soil of England, is absurd. We ought, then, to produce better crops than Eno-land. 



This objection, then, proves nothing, if it were true; but it is not. Larger crops than mine have 

 been raised in England. My crop would probably weigh forty tons; but the Woi-Jcing Farmer for 

 1851, page 176, alludes to an experiment producing forty tons six hundred weight; and ao-ain, in 

 the volume for 1850, page 148, it is stated that Mr. Nesbit, in the Farmers' Club in London, alluded 

 to a crop of his own, weighing 44 tons, and another crop of his neighbor, still krger. A book so 

 common as Johnstons Agricultural Chemistry publishes, App., p. 46, a crop of small white turnips, 

 tlie largest weighing only from 5 to 8 lbs., yielding 39 tons 15 cwt. This is equivalent to at least 

 50 tons of ruta baga. The same author, page 48'7, quotes from the secx)nd report of the Royal Ag- 

 ricultural Improvement Society of Ireland, j)age 51, a crop of turnips weighing 56 tons, and inclu- 

 ding tops, 76 tons. "An acre in our island," saj-s the same autlior, "has been known to produce 

 sixty tons of turnips, and perhaps that is not the maximum"! 



" But," says the correspondent of the Germantown Telegraph, " I can not imagine how forty tons 

 of turnips can possibly stand on an acre." This question is not one of imagination, but of arithme- 

 tic. The maximum weight of the ruta baga is twenty pounds each. The largest of mine weighed 

 fourteen. My neighbors had some weighing twenty. J. Mecih, London, says : " Plenty of mine 

 weighed seventeen pounds. Turnips are planted in rows two feet apart, and from eight to twelve 

 inches in the rows ; the most liberal allowance being two feet surface to each root An acre is 

 43,560 feet, and of course will sustain 21,780 plants. Multiply tliis number by one-half the max- 

 imum weight of roots, that is ten pounds, and we have the weight of what ought to be a medium 

 crop — 217,800 pounds, or more than 100 tons. Surely, then, a crop of 40 tons is not incredible. 



I wish to say to farmers who may notice this statement — 



1. Our cattle always suffer more or less from the violent change from the green grass of summer 

 to the dry hay of winter. 



2. Roots ai-e in their composition, like green grass, and may be kept all winter in their green 

 state ; and a portion of root feed is the most economical policy. 



3. In this climate there is no substitute for roots for cattle. 



4. They cost only from two to five cents per bushel. 



5. A larger quantity of root food may be fed from a given quantity of land, than of any other kini 



6. The larger the yield per acre, the lower the cost per bushel. 



The plowing should be deep, manuring high, and hoeing frequent and thorough. J. T. Andrew. 

 — West Cornwall, Conn. 



It will be recollected that in the April number of the Farmer for 1852, we gave an 

 abstract of Mr. Andrevf's method and success in cultivating ruta baga, saying that his 

 results " gave encouraging evidence of the successful application of skill and science to 



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