42 ROOT CROPS. 



EOOT CROPS. 



The Committee on Root Crops have attended to the duty assigned 

 them, and would submit the following report : 



There were twelve entries of Root Crops and Cabbages, only one of 

 which reached the required standard, all others having been withdrawn 

 or failed to reach the standard recjuired. 



To Cyrus Kilburn of Lunenburg, for his crop of Potatoes, 



we award the 1st premium of $8 00 



To Ebenezer Bird of Leominster, for his crop of Carrots, 



we award a gratuity of Grasses and Forage Plants. 



Your Committee would inquire, does the cultivation of Roots re- 

 ceive that attention which its importance demands ? We believe that 

 every one who knows the value of Roots for Stock, will answer in the 

 negative. This being true, would it not be well for every farmer ta 

 look about him, and not let another seed-time pass without attending 

 to this important branch of husbandry. All who find it necessary to 

 winter store cattle on rather inferior fodder, have become satisfied that 

 the root crop can do more than anything else to increase the nutritive 

 qualities of hard fare. We doubt whether any man among us who has 

 learned these facts by experience, could be made to believe that twen- 

 ty-five tons of Carrots on an acre of land, or twenty tons of Ruta Ba- 

 gas, are not a profitable crop. But beyond all this there is the prac- 

 tical fact, known to every farmer, that the health of his animals, and 

 their capacity to digest other kinds of food, is greatly benefitted by the 

 use of roots. Aside from the actual nourishment which the roots con- 

 tain, they possess the faculty of so combining with the acids of the 

 stomach and with the chemical constituents of hay, grain, straw, &c., 

 as to aid very materially the business of feeding. 



ABEL MARSHALL, Chairman. 



Statement of Cyrus Kilhi 



POTATOES. 



My Potatoes grew on a reclaimed swamp, formerly covered with 

 brush, trees and stumps, and water running across the whole of it, be- 

 ing about one acre in this lot. The crop in 18G6 and 1867, was hay, 

 and not any manure used ; the nature of the soil is vegetable muck. 

 It was not plowed but inverted with a prong or tined hoe ; cost of the 



