14 MR. colman's address. 



It is belie\'ed that the value of a bushel of Indian Corn in straw 

 and meal will keep a healthy horse in good condition for work a 

 week. An acre of Indian Corn, which yields sixty bushels, will 

 be ample for the support of a horse through the year. Now it 

 is for the farmer to consider, whether it be better to maintain his 

 horse upon the produce of half an acre of carrots, which can be 

 cultivated at an expense not greatly exceeding the expense of 

 half an acre of potatoes, or upon half an acre of ruta baga, 

 which can be raised as a second crop at a less expense than 

 potatoes, or upon the grain produce of an acre of Indian Corn, 

 or, on the other hand, upon the produce of six acres in hay and 

 grain ; for six acres will hardly do more than to yield nearly six 

 tons of hay and seventy eight bushels of oats. The same 

 economy might be as successfully introduced into the feeding of 

 our neat cattle. I have known a yoke of oxen engaged in the 

 ordinary labor of a farm, to be kept three ' months in winter in 

 good working condition upon one bushel of Indian meal and 

 about twenty five cents worth of straw per week ; and my own 

 team has never been in better condition both for appearance 

 and labor than when fed wholly upon a liberal supply of ruta 

 baga and the coarsest fodder. But it has been ascertained by 

 accurate measurement that an unworked ox put up on good old 

 hay consumed at the rate of thirty three pounds per day or two 

 hundred and thirty one pounds per week, which is upwards of 

 six tons per year of two thousand pounds to the ton. There 

 must then be a great saving between feeding in the way referred 

 to or upon English hay ; and English hay alone in any quantity 

 without grain or vegetables is not sufficient for any hard working 

 animal. 



We come next to the great article of produce, the Prince of 

 Vegetables, the bread fruit of our climate, Indian Corn. In an 

 agricultural view that country is signally blessed, which has the 

 capacity of producing Indian Corn. There is no crop of more 

 simple and easy cultivation. None is subject to fewer casualties ; 

 only in a single instance for many years (the year 1816,) has the 

 crop among us been generally cut ofi'. There is none that 

 yields a greater quantity of feed, or of better feed to man 



