49 



sively cultivated, in consequence of the uncertain yield of pota- 

 toes. We have noticed several instances of what appears to be a 

 blight or rust of the tops, checking the growth of the roots. 

 Whatever tends to facilitate their early and rapid growth, will 

 tend also to diminish their liability to this disorder. Carrots re- 

 quire a good soil, very deeply and finely ploughed, and furnished 

 with well-rotted manure. The land may be laid in ridges with a 

 plough, the centres of the ridges being two feet apart. The 

 seed is best sown with a machine. In good land, with a favorable 

 season, twenty tons may be grown on an acre. It may be assum- 

 ed that seventy-five pounds of carrots are equal in value to eigh- 

 teen pounds of good hay. This estimate will make twenty tons of 

 carrots equal to four tons and sixteen-hundredths of hay. When 

 we have ascertained the cost of both crops, with the expense of 

 feeding them out, and the condition in which the land is left, we 

 have some of the elements of a judgment respecting the compara- 

 tive profitableness of carrots and grass. Not all ; for besides the 

 immediate and beef-making or milk-making results, we are to 

 consider the effect upon the health of cattle and horses, as well 

 as the general idea of all root crops, namely, to increase manure 

 by means of stock, and to invigorate the land exhausted by grain. 

 It is admitted that a mixed diet, as of roots and hay, is better for 

 animals than a diet of any one article. Various ingredients enter 

 into the composition of the body, — oil, fibrin, earthy phosphates, 

 lime, &c. — and to produce these, different articles of food are re- 

 quisite. Neither starch, nor oil, nor grain alone, will increase the 

 weight and preserve health and the capacity of labor. Fat may 

 be laid on while the health of the animal suffers, and this pro- 

 cess may be carried so far as to render the animal unfit for 

 human food. For fattening purposes, for improving the quality of 

 milk, and as alterative for horses, carrots may be regarded as 

 occupying the first place. 



Within a few years a new impulse has been given to the cultiva- 

 tion of cranberries, and many trials are being made of upland and 

 of artificial meadow culture. Some of these experiments are on a 

 large scale, and promise the best results. On some natural 

 meadows the crop has this year been injured by worms. One 

 farmer, whose annual yield averages three hundred bushels, had 

 this season but thirty. This was almost a solitary instance of such 

 extremely unfavorable result. Generally the crop was good, and 

 though selling at a less price than last year, amply rejiays the 

 expense of cultivation. Some growers, fearful lest the early frosts 

 should injure the cranberries, gather them long before they arc 

 ripe, in consequence of which they lose much of their value. But 

 such accurate and ample information touching the cultivation of 

 this crop is contained in former reports and in separate contribu- 

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