19G 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



In order then to direct our labor aright, we | Regularity in feeding is the life of stock, and 

 should accustom ourselves to calculate the ex- it is far better that they should not have green 

 pense of raising a given amount oi' each article food at all through the winter, than to have it 

 of produce — to ask for instance, how much cap ' ' ' ' j > :.u.... 



ital, viz. hoiv much land and labor, are required, 

 to produce one hundred dollars north of grain 

 or stock of any kind, and what is the expense 

 of sending it to market; and we may thus ascer- 

 tain pretty nearly which may be rendered most 

 profilable. 



From the above reasoning too, we should en- 

 courage labor-saving machines in hu-^bandry ; as 

 this tends to give us an advantage over those 

 countries where lands are dear, by enabling a 

 smaller capital to yield a greater profit. Thus, 

 if labor in England be worth two -hillings per 

 day, and here it is worth four shillings, then a 

 machine performing the labor of two days in 

 one, is of double the value to us that it is there. 



Again, from a neglect of reasoning, we often 

 waste our labor, and of course throw away so 

 much of the active capital of the country, by di- 

 recting it to unproductive objects, from a defer- 

 ence io authority. We adopt foreign produc- 

 tions and modes "of farming, without inquiring 

 why they are valuable abroad, or whether these 

 reasons do not fail here. 1 might mention ma- 

 ny cases of this kind — for instance, in England, 

 turnips form a cheap and invaluable winter I'ood 

 for stock : they are therefore male a leading 

 crop. We are thence led to think them equally 

 important here for the same purpose, while we 

 neglect to remark, that there the ground is open 

 nearly the whole winter, and the t'rost never se- 

 vere ; so that most of the turnips arc fed with- 

 out even the labor of removing tbem from the 

 ground ; but that here, they must be secured 

 I'rom iVosts at great risk and expense, for months, 

 and are moreover useless for feed at the time 

 whenmost needed, from the severity of the 

 weather. The ruta baga is of the same class — 

 it is valuable there, as wintering better than the 

 turnip, and thus supplying a chasm in feeding 

 between turnips and grass in the spring. To 

 us, as a crop for feeding, it tills no chasm, and 

 .serves no purpose that is not equally well done 

 by potatoes, which are as easily raised, more 

 easily preserved, and nearly four times as nu- 

 tritious; and vet, to support a theory, we are 

 asked bv an individual* to believe that the po- 

 tatoe (which to us is of more worth than the 

 collective value of all other esculents,) _is a 

 mere compound of " dirt, water and stra-u'. ' 



Our climate is such that we can never expect 

 to have a supply of green feed for our stock 

 through the winter on a large scale, because, 

 (aside from the difficulty of preserving it,) it is 

 impossible that it should be eaten in the open 

 air, at those times when it is most needed. t 



n moderate weather, and do without it in sea^ 

 sons of extreme cold, when it is impossible to 

 eat it. A small quantity of oats or corn meal, 

 fed regularly through the winter, will do equal- 

 ly well, may be fed in all weathers, and will 

 keep stock oi' any kind in health and strength. 

 Sheep do perfectly well in this way ; and if 

 their lambs are not suffered to fall before the 

 twenty-fifth of April or first of May, when they 

 are secure from cold storms, and when the 

 ewes may find a supply of green feed on our 

 rye-lields and early pastures, they do equally 

 well as if fed wilh turnips or ruta baga through 



that case grass should make one in a rotation of crops ; 

 aud the plough will become the implement in most 

 constant requisition. In short, no general rule on this 

 subject can be given, which has not about as many 

 exceptions as coincidences. 



"Mr. Cobbett. 



t But perhaps it is as dilBcult to preserve potatoes, 

 and apply them to the feeding of stock in very cold 

 •weather, as it is to preserve turnips, ruta baga, or man- 

 gel wurtzel. We have already given a mode of pre- 

 serving these roots, [N. E. Farmer, No. 14, page 106] 

 which has not only been successfully practised by Mr. 

 Buel, of Albany, from whose ess.iy it was copied, but 

 has been iu use by a gentleman in this vicinity for a 



number of years, and as we are informed wilh perfect 

 success. On the whole, we will copy again this mode, 

 to save our readers the trouble of turning over our files 

 (which we wish may be preserved to the third and 

 fourth generation) any oftener than is necessary. 



" Be it known, therefore, that mangel wurtzel, tur- 

 nips, ruta baga, and we presume potatoes and other 

 roots, may be preserved by digging about one foot deep 

 upon the side of a hill, leaving the bottom inclining, 

 and sulTiciently broad each way to be able to pile in 

 the space, in the form of a cone, 100 bushels [not more 

 lest they heat, ferment and spoil.] Place the roots iu 

 it, aud bring the top to a point as far as practicable. 

 Cover with straw and then dirt. They will bear con- 

 siderable frost without injury. Take care to dig a 

 trench round the mound to turn off water. In March, 

 or perhaps February, you may break through the frost, 

 and take out the roots, lay them on your barn floor, 

 and cover them with hay or straw ; from whence they 

 may be fed to cattle." 



When the roots are placed in their winter quar- 

 ters care must be taken not to heap too much dirt on 

 them at first, lest they should heat and spoil. More 

 may be added as the weather becomes colder. 



In the last number of the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 Repository [June 1822, page 165] .Mr. Prince, a prac- 

 tical farmer, of Roxbury, Mass. says, " 1 really wish 

 farmers generally, would be prevailed on to raise a 

 o-reater quantity of vegetables for the use of their stork 

 than they have been in the habit of doing. Swedislj 

 turnips, and mangel wurtzel (of the true sorts.) are 

 very easily raised, and every farmer has land suitable 

 for them. These roots with care, even in pits, out of 

 doors, may be preserved till May or .Tune, and yield 

 generally double the quantity that the same land would 

 yield iu potatoes. Indeed, with me I have usually had 

 more than three times as many bushels to the acre, 

 and with, I think, no more labor. Mangel Wurtzel 

 will by their thinnings and trimmings, if done with 

 care, pay all the labor of the crop, and give a fine 

 evening food for the cows, and is also an excellent food 

 for swine.'' 



The Hon. Timothy Pickering lias given his opinion 

 likewise in favor of .Mangel Wurtzel, and we believe 

 the credit of that root is too firmly established to be 

 easily shaken in this part of the country. 



With regard to potatoes being nearly " four times 

 as nutritious" as well as being " as easily raised" as 

 the other roots above mentioned, we must beg leave to 

 enter our dissent ; and in addition to our preceding re- 

 marks would observe, that, although according to fir 

 Humphry Davy, the quantity of soluble or nutritious 

 matter in a thousand parts of potatoes is from 260 to 

 200, while the soluble or nutritious matter in the same 

 aumber of parts of the Swedish turnip, or ruta baga, is 

 but. 64, yet the saccharine matter or sugar iu the Swed- 



the season. And though the practice of grer 

 feeding through the winter is much talked ■ 

 by theorists, it is presumed there is not a pr 

 tical farmer in the state, who pursues it re^' 

 larly to any great extent. j" 



.So with regard to leguminous crops, as* f 

 starting poiiit in our rotation of crops, whi( "' 

 are so constantly recommended. They a 

 profitable in England, for reasons before givei 

 but with us, with the exception of peas, ai ' 

 in some few of beans, they are utterly inadm 

 sible on a large scale, in any general system 

 farming — for two reasons, first because th( '] 

 cannot be regularly fed through the wint< - 

 when most needed — and secondly, because thi 

 require too much labor in their cultivatic 

 We have not the labor to spare, and half o ■ 

 fields would lie waste, if we had first to cov ' 

 tliem with turnips, cabbage, ruta baga, or C3 -': 

 rots, before we were permitted to sow the 

 H'ith wheat. 



IMuch is said of a proper rotation of cruj 

 but I apprehend it all results in this — that en 

 larmer should regard his own peculiar ph. 

 and vary his crops to his wants, taking ca ■■ 

 never to exhaust his lands by long continu 

 cropping, or by successive crops of the sat 

 l<ind; and above all, being careful to lay I 

 lields down often to clover or other g'rasses. 



In Great Britain, and in some of the old 

 parts of our own state, ^/?ux forms a valual 

 staple for market, and we, overlooking mater 

 tacts, are thence led to think it equally vah 

 hie here, where the expenses of raising, rotfi 

 and dressing, are equal to its whole value 

 market. We neglect to mark, that labor is de 

 er with us than them, and that as a large p 

 of the capital expended on the crop is labor, 

 is therefore profitable to them, but loss to v 

 we expend more capital on the crop than Ih^ 



These remarks u[ion flax, are of course p 

 dicated on the jiresent tedious and expens 

 mode of rottino; and dressing it. Should the i 

 chines now offered to the public, answer t 



ish turnip exceeds that in the potatoe in the proporl 

 of 51 to from 20 to 15 ; and the sugar in the man 

 wurtzel exceeds that in the potatoe in the proport 

 of 119 to from 20 to 15, and every one knows that 

 gar is perhaps the most nutritious of any vegetali,. 

 product. 



it will also appear by the report of the Comraittei 

 the Massachusetts Agricultural Society on Agriculti 

 Kxperiments [published in our paper No. 23, p. V, 

 that Payson ^V■illiams, Esq. received a premium 

 raising the greatest quantity of Potatoes, being 

 bushels on one acre ; and that the expense of cultii 

 ing the acre of potatoes was $54. And that Mr. Da 

 Little received a premium for raising 970 bushels i 

 one half a bushel of Mangel Wurtzel on an acre, 

 sides two bushels of carrots and 109 cabbages, at 

 expense of but $23,06 — That six swine were mo 

 fed with the thinnings from the beginning of wce<l 

 until about the first of October, that all this was exi 

 sive of the produce of apple trees on the same lot 

 These, and many other experiments which might 

 cited, equally conclusive, lead us to believe that pi 

 toes are not generally so easily nor so cheaply rai 

 as Mangel Wurtzel. Aud we are constrained to 

 lieve, notwithstanding the "authority" of Mr. Burr 

 that potatoes may be less profitably raised as food 

 stock than Mangel Wurtzel. We may, however, 

 in an error, and if so, are open to conviction, and ri 

 to acliiiowledge our aberrations. 



