ROOTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 



To compensate for this loss of the cream of their 

 farms, wasted in cities, farmers must soon charge two 

 or three prices for their wlieat, corn, hay, potatoes, 

 pork, beef, and mutton, or quit their occupation. 



In the interior of an Atlantic State where this ar- 

 ticle is written, guano is selling at sixty dollars a ton, 

 and sodit-ash is used for agricultural purposes at a 

 cost of one hundred dollars a ton. At these prices 

 for fertilizei-s, corn should sell at a dollar a bushel, 

 and wheat at two dollars ; and to this complexion 

 the agriculture of all the older States is fast tending. 

 The price of commercial manure will ere long govern 

 that of all the great staples of the country The one 

 thing needful in farming is the raw material of crops; 

 for the solid bones of domestic animals, and of menr 

 can not be formed of simple water, nor of carbon, or 

 moonshine. Bread and meat can never be cheaply 

 produced on poor land until their elements are pro- 

 perly understood, and husbanded by nearly all con- 

 sumers. With cheap and rich manure at hand, most 

 cultivators would undertake to grow grain and stock 

 at very moderate prices. But good manure is high 

 wherever arated land is unproductive, and it will be 

 higher before it is lower, for it is wasted in all cities 

 and most villages in the most reckless manner. It is 

 also wasted on a large majority of farms to an extent 

 equally injurious to the public. A general reform 

 both in town and country must take place, before 

 agriculture can rest on a safe, or an improving sys- 

 tem. Necessity will ultimately compel Legislatures to 

 pay more attention to the farming interest, and to the 

 difl'usion of rural knowledge, than has yet been done. 



EOOTS AND THEIB CULTUKK 



Of the importance of a good supply of roots for 

 the winter feed of cows and sheep, it is unnecessary 

 at the present time to speak. 



All good farmers will take suitable measures to 

 provide liberally for their stock, the different varieties 

 of food which are most conducive to thrift, and pro- 

 fit in feeding. At the prices hay and grain have 

 borne the past season, fattening stock on them ex- 

 clusively, has been, or would be, a losing business, so 

 far as regards the matter of dollars and cents; but if 

 the fattening of neat stock is mostly done by means 

 of roots, and a little grain fed before the time of sell- 

 ing for the shambles, then in most cases, the reverse 

 is true, and the manure left by fattening animals is 

 80 much additional gain. 



It is necessary, also, to secure a variety of roots, as 

 well as a sufficient quantity. The appetite of man 

 and beast is cloyed with any one particular kind of 



aliment, and a change of food is indispensably neces 

 sary to secure the greatest possible benefit. 



"What kinds of roots should a farmer cultivate ' 

 Carrots, and sugar beets are an excellent food fo) 

 milch cows ; mangel wurtzels and ruta bagaa fo 

 stock feeding generally. Carrots require to be sowi 

 in a light, deeply-tilled, loamy soil, and if it has beei 

 well manured the previous year for a crop of Indiai 

 corn, it is all the better. If manure is used to pre 

 pare the giound, let it be as well decomposed as ma; 

 be, and thoroughly incorporate it with the soil by th 

 roller and light harrow. 



Be sure your seed is of the previous season's growtl) 

 if you would have a good stand of plants. Tou wi 

 want about two pounds per acre ; sow in drills 1 

 inches apart, at a dej)th of about half an inch. A 

 carrots are usually a long time in appearing abov 

 the surface, weeds have time to get the start if you 

 ground and manure be not especially free from the 

 seeds. To avoid this difficulty, the French transL 

 tor of VoN Thaik's principles of agriculture, says 

 "I am in the habit of spreading the seed after it In 

 been rubbed between the hands, on a table in a war 

 place, but protected from the direct rays of the su 

 It is then constantly covered "with stable dr.aiuings (• 

 eight or ten days, in order that it may germinate ; 

 soon as put into the ground. To prevent the uppi 

 portion of the seed thus spread out from dryixg tc 

 quickly, and becoming deteriorated, instead of ii 

 proved, I cover it with a small quantity of ashes, I 

 which means the moisture is more completely retai 

 ed. I also take care to keep the seed constant 

 moistened up to the time when it is put into tl 

 ground, and then quickly cover it up." 



We have ourselves at times been much annoya 

 at the failure of seed to germinate; and the seedsma 

 who will mix 40 per cent, of old carrot seed with nev 

 is really doing the cause of agriculture a great injur 

 What can be more provoking than after having take 

 pains to prepare ground, sow the seed, and find yot< 

 labor and pains all of no account, by reason of ba. 

 seed? An excellent way to test seeds of all kinds 

 to put them between the earth sides of two sod! 

 moisten with water, and in the course of a few dajj 

 you can easily determine their worth. As soon i 

 they can be perceived above the grounds, commeiii 

 weeding. A few days delay may add one hundrt 

 per cent to the labor. When fairly up, thin to tl 

 distance of four or six inches according to the variei 

 used ; and if your ground is in proper tilth and cone 

 tion, you will have but little more to do until tl 

 time for gathering. 



