FARMS. 59 



cultivation of roots, carrots, ruta-bagas, &c, a? food for cattle. 

 Farmers, like other men, experience difficulty in changing their 

 course ; and although practical men had learned that roots 

 could be raised at the rate of from thirty to fifty tons per acre, 

 and scientific men had proved that carrots from one acre •would 

 make more beef than hay from three, perhaps four, acres, still 

 farmers hesitated at making the experiment. This was natural 

 and right. The growing of roots is expensive; it was some- 

 thing to "which farmers "were not accustomed: and until the 

 experiment was successfully performed under their eyes, they 

 ■were justified in going forward with great caution in the new 

 path. From the success that has attended the efforts of sev- 

 eral of our most distinguished cultivators, it may reasonably 

 be expected that more attention will be paid to this branch of 

 agriculture, and that it will prove eminently profitable. 



In this connection we would mention Mr. Motley's last year's 

 crop of ruta-bagas — twenty-four hundred bushels from three 

 acres. We have also seen the same land devoted to the same 

 root this year. From its appearance in September, we judged 

 it might yield an equal amount. We have observed good fields 

 of ruta-bagas elsewhere, but, for extent, for evenness and 

 thoroughness of cultivation, for its clean and beautiful appear- 

 ance, none that equalled this. 



We are gratified to notice the increasing patronage of agri- 

 cultural papers, and the multiplication of books treating of 

 farming, gardening, implements, and education. Farmers un- 

 derstand that, if they would improve their business, they must 

 first improve themselves, and learn to cultivate the soil on 

 principles established by science. The time has gone by when 

 men laughed at book-farming. Agriculture, as an art, cannot 

 be improved without a competent knowledge of its theory. 

 The practical sagacity that accomplishes so much in difficult 

 conditions has no insight into the mysteries of science. With 

 a soil but moderately fertile, with high-priced and incompetent 

 farm laborers, with the continued emigration of enterprising 

 young men to cities or to the west, the farmer would do well 

 to avail himself of all the resources of science, so that, with 

 the same labor and outlay, he may largely increase his crops. 

 Observation teaches that the best cultivated farms are the 



