ROOTS FOR, CATTLE. 



By R. T. Underhill, of Croton Point. 



It may be useful to repeat, and it is too important not to be tho- 

 roughly understood, that the carrot and the sugar beet are particu- 

 larly adapted to the dry climate of our country. This beet, perfectly 

 oultivated, acquires an enormous size; it is very nutritious, exceed- 

 ing fattening to cattle, and yields more vegetable matter on an acre, 

 than any other, not excepting the turnep; is preferable to mangel 

 wurzel, but its saccharine is not quite so much concentrated as that 

 in the carrot. I hope that our agriculturists will try them both 

 effectually. A crop of these is absolutely certain, drought or no 

 drought. No insect injures either of them. I have had sugar beets 

 on my farm, which weighed twelve or thirteen pounds each. In 

 France, cattle are fattened on them, (although they have been sub- 

 jected to the process of extracting the sugar from them,) to an im- 

 mense extent. Some have failed here from not having the right 

 good seed. This beet is of a yellow color. On a rich damp soil, 

 there has been raised from one acre, one thousand to twelve hundred 

 bushels of them. It is proper to have both carrots and this beet, 

 for the beet not keeping so long as the carrot, must be fed to the 

 cattle first, then use the carrot, which keeps until late in the next 

 spring. It is believed that the carrot may be left in the ground all 

 winter without injury to it; that in this respect it is like the pars- 

 nep, keeps as well as that does. These two roots are excellent for 

 soiling purposes. 



They must be well separated in cultivation. I plant carrots in 

 rows, one foot apart, and the carrots in the rows four or five inches 

 apart. I plant the sugar beets in rows eighteen inches apart, and 

 the beets in the rows from eight to twelve inches apart. These 

 must, of course, be well weeded and tilled. 



The turnep is a very valuable crop. The ruta baga and yellow 

 Aberdeen are best to fatten cattle; sheep feeding on them, lose that 

 [Assembly, No. 151.] 24 



