COMMITTEE ON ROOT CULTURE. 141 



the Swedish turnip and the mangold-wiirtzel are de- 

 cidedly the best crops that can be raised for feeding 

 and fattening cattle. 



The committee have no doubt that the sugar-beet 

 and the carrot offer advantages nearly or quite equal to 

 th€ roots above recommended. Their product and 

 nutrient properties are very similar, and the expense 

 of culture is not very dissimilar. The sugar-beet is 

 probably richer in nutriment than the mangold-wnrtzel, 

 though its product is ordinarily less. The carrot may 

 require more labor in the cnltnre, but is superior as 

 food, particularly for horses. 



Arthur Young highly extols the carrot. Upon the 

 product of three acres of this root he assures us he 

 kept, for more than five months, twenty work horses, 

 four bullocks, and six milch cows ; nor did the animals, 

 during that period, he adds, taste any food, except a 

 little hay. Our enterprising fellow-citizen, Col. Mea- 

 cham, of Oswego, has gone largely into the culture of 

 carrots, as cattle-feed, as well as many of his neigh- 

 bors ; and they speak highlj'' of the profits of the 

 culture. 



Some highly satisfactory experiments have also been 

 made among us, on a limited scale, in cultivating and 

 feeding the sugar-beet. There seems to be but little 

 doubt, from the high state of perfection and of profit 

 which the business has arrived at in France and Ger- 

 many, that the culture of this beet will soon be exten- 

 sively gone into in this country, for the purpose of 

 making sugar; and if so, the residuum of the beet will 

 form an important item in the material for fattening 

 cattle. 



There are other advantages resulting from root cul- 

 ture which should not be overlooked. It tends greatly 

 to increase the quantity of manure on the farm, to 

 meliorate the texture of the soil, and to furnish excel- 

 lent alternate crops in convertible husbandry. In se- 

 lecting for culture, the farmer should choose the roots 

 13 



