ESSAY 



ON 



ROOTS AND VEGETABLES AND THEIR CULTURE. 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE FARMERS' IXSTirUTE, 1879, BY JESSE L. DELANO 

 OF SUNDERLAND. 



Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Institute : 



In the clays of primitive agriculture two Iji-others, whom most 

 of you have read of and whose names are familiar to us all, com- 

 menced farming on their own account. One made a specialty of 

 sheep husbandry, while the other tilled the soil. Our knowledge of 

 their methods of labor and of their success and profits, is rather lim- 

 ited, but we know that while they both had good returns for' their 

 labor, so much rivalry and jealousy found place in the heart of the one 

 who raised roots and vegetables, that he rose up and took the life of 

 the other, who was quietly attending to his flocks, and tlien became a 

 vagabond and fugitive himself. We hope that this lesson of Cain 

 and Abel may restrain any unhallowed feeling that may rise in our 

 bosoms towards those who have to-day pictured before us the pleas- 

 ures and profits of sheep husbandry. Let us also remember that as 

 great improvements have been made in the quality of roots and cereals 

 and in tlie method of their production, as has been accomplished in re- 

 lation to any class of tlie animal kingdom. For instance, the beet 

 was originally a red-rooted weed, wiiich we would try to get rid of as 

 soon as possible, and which even the swine would not eat. The tur- 

 nip came from the wild turnip of tlie woods, one taste of which will 

 make a person's tongue smart for several hours. The onion descends 

 .from the leek, whicli will perfume a lady's breath for a fortnight with 

 only one application. And the long golden eai's of corn of the pres- 

 ent day are entirely different from the little nubbins raised on these 

 valleys and plains by the Indian squaw only two hundred years ago. 

 And so on, through the whole catalogue of roots and vegetables, grain 



