WHAT SHALL WE DO ? 173 



them into tobacco. They arc sacrificing all the rest of the 

 crops to the tobacco crop. It is because there is money in it. 

 Why should they not raise it ? Somebody is going to raise it. 



Now the question with Massachusetts farmers is, what shall we 

 do to make money ? Can we, with labor that costs us two dol- 

 lars a day in summer, raise turnips at fifteen cents a bushel ? 

 Can we do it profitably ? Mr. Webster, it is true, made his 

 great turnip speech, as Col. Wilder says, but Mr. Webster was 

 not a practical farmer. He could talk like an oracle on farm- 

 ing, he could talk like an oracle on finance, but what was the 

 result of his financiering and his farming ? Did he earn-a great 

 farm ? He left no farm at all that was not encumbered by a 

 mortgage. He spoke about turnips, and saw turnip culture in 

 England. It is a wonderful thing there. But did he take into 

 account the difference between labor in England and here, and 

 the difference between the climate of England and our climate ? 

 The English farmer does not have to harvest his turnip crop and 

 carry it into his cellar, to protect it against frost, and the cost 

 of cutting it up and feeding it to his cattle is very much less 

 than with us. He does it in a climate where the turnip is twice 

 as long growing as in ours, and it contains fifteen or twenty per 

 cent, of nourishment, while ours contains but eight per cent. 

 And after it is grown, what then ? Why, the turnip is fed to 

 the cattle mainly on the ground where it is raised. They put 

 what are called " hurdles " round their fields, and the cattle 

 and sheep harvest it themselves, on the very ground where it is 

 grown. Here is labor that costs not more than a third as much 

 as ours, a turnip that contains twice as much nourishment, and 

 not half as much labor required in handling it as here. There- 

 fore, the turnip crop is more important in English agriculture 

 than any other crop. But I say that here in New England, 

 with our severe climate, our scarcity of labor, and the difficulty 

 of getting educated labor, or any labor but that which you must 

 go and stand by if you expect to have a day's work done and 

 done right, no experienced farmer, who ever expects to pay for 

 his farm by what he produces upon it, will ever follow the 

 raising of turnips more than two years. I have noticed it for 

 forty years, and I have never known a hardworking farmer to 

 continue the raising of root crops. 

 But you say you must have, some turnips to feed to cattle ; 



