222 



NEW ENGLAKD FARMER. 



Mat 



Mr. Reed called two or three times during the 

 season to examine the crops, and noticed the same 

 difference in the tops which I did. He was also 

 present at the digging of them. When we dug 

 them, we were careful to count the number of hills 

 which it took for each bushel, and likewise the 

 number of diseased potatoes in each. The result 

 w.is as follows : 



EASTPORTS. 



From 1 bushel of seed prepared I dug 8 bush- 

 els ; the average number of hills to the bushel 

 39 J, average number of diseased tubers to the 

 bushel 20,^. From 1 bushel unprepared I dug 10 

 bushels ; average number of hills to the bushel 

 40 0-10 ; average number of diseased ones to the 

 bushel 10. 



DAVIS SEEDLING. 



PREPARED. 



Seed. Yield. 



1 bush. 13 bush. 



bush. 8 bush. 



Ap. No. of Hills. Diseased Ones. 

 :i2i 23 



UNPREPARED. 



15 22 



It will be seen by the result that the prepara- 

 tion had not the desired effect of preventing the 

 disease, and consequently was a failure. I have 

 furnished you with the result of this experiment 

 that others may learn wisdom. From this I draw 

 the conclusion that all the patents got up to pre- 

 vent potato rot are humbugs. However, I should 

 like to learn the experience of other farmers in 

 this matter as well as many others, for it is by 

 such experiences that we are to get knowledge in 

 farming as well as in other things. I think it is 

 the duty of all farmers to lay before the public 

 the results of all such experiments for the benefit 

 of their brother farmers. Being a young farmer 

 myself, I like to learn from the experience of 

 others. C. H. Cumings. 



Harvard, Mass., March 7, 1861. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 ECONOMY IN" USB OF KOOT CUTTEKS. 



Messrs. Editors : — I have often noticed in 

 the Farmer communications in regard to the best 

 way to relieve cattle that were choked, and as of- 

 ten wondered at the "folly of sinners," and que- 

 ried why it was that farmers, feeding out from 

 25 to 500 bushels of potatoes, carrots or turnips 

 annually, and almost yearly losing or having in- 

 jured by choking one or more creatures, besides 

 considerable expense in attending upon them, 

 were so slow to learn that there is a better way. 

 They will cut their coarse fodder, and many of 

 them their hay ; paying for a machine with which 

 to do it from $10 to $25 ; they will have their 

 provender for horses, cattle, hogs and poultry, 

 ground at an expense of about one-tenth part, 

 and many will in addition cook it before feeding 

 out ; and yet they will feed out their potatoes, 

 carrots, turnips, &c., whole, "dirt and all," or 

 perhaps will give them a little hacking with an 

 old axe or shovel ! 



The vegetal:)le cutters in market cost only about 

 $10 each, and I have never heard of any crea- 

 tures being choked by eating vegetables cut by 

 any kind of cutting machine, though undoubted- 

 ly there is a preference in the machines. It is 

 but a few years since vegetables, except potatoes, 

 have been raised considerably hereabouts for feed- 



ing to stock ; but yet, there are now five kind* 

 of root cutters here, and any of them better than 

 none, and a sure remedy for choking cattle. 



It is but a few days since I heard a very enter- 

 prising and thrifty young farmer, (who this past 

 season raised 300 bushels wheat, 700 bushels oats,, 

 with corn, potatoes, turnips and 8cc., to match,) 

 say that he had no doubt that there had been loss 

 enough, by cattle choking in this town within 

 fifty years, to supply the whole town with root 

 cutters for a hundred years. Some two years 

 since, I received a letter from a gentlen^an in 

 western New York, in which he mentioned that 

 he had the day before lost his best cow out of a 

 lot of twelve, by being choked while eating tur- 

 nips cut with a shovel ; and that just about a year 

 previous he lost one in the same way ; and there 

 was scarcely one of his neighbors who had not 

 l()st one or more in a similar manner ; and he add- 

 ed, "Now I am going to have a root cutter, if I 

 can get one this side of Jordan," and wished my 

 advice as to kind. 



Of the kinds of root cutters in use m this vi- 

 cinity, two of them leave the roots in rectangular 

 shaped pieces, superior only to those cut wi:h a 

 shovel, in that they are generally smaller, and cut 

 with greater facility. One kind cuts them in 

 gouge-shaped bits, about three-fourths an inch 

 wide, and one-fourth in thickness, and quite rap- 

 idly ; I think about a bushel per minute, if forced 

 a little. The other kinds are used chiefly, and 

 preferred because they not only cut, but clean the 

 roots ; they also leave them in thinner and more 

 pliable shape, better to be mixed with meal, grain 

 or "cut feed," cutting also equally fast. It is as- 

 tonishing to see what an amount of dirt may be 

 taken off from apparently clean roots, without 

 water, too. From actual experiment, in hundreds 

 of instances, in this town, it has been ascertained 

 that these vegetables have adhering to them as 

 they are brought from the cellar, from one to two 

 quarts of dirt to every bushel, most of which is 

 necessarily eaten, Avhcn fed in the ordinary way, 

 without cleaning. Now, besides the great injury, 

 both medicinal and mechanical, to teeth, stomach 

 and bowels, caused by so much dirt, there is ncv 

 doubt that dirty vegetables are more likely ta 

 stick in the throat than clean ones. 



The construction of this machine is very sim- 

 ple and durable, the cleansing part, consisting of 

 a revolving cylinder so arranged that the dirt falls 

 out on one side, and the vegetables are dropped 

 from the other into the hopper, from whence they 

 are cut by semi-eonical shaped knives upon a co- 

 nical shaped, hollow cylinder, through which they 

 fall by a spout into a basket. 



This last machine has not been in the city mar- 

 kets, I believe, for which reason I thought it 

 might be neighborly to describe it more particu- 

 larly, and the invention,! think, has been secured 

 by a resident of this county. 



Now, brother farmers, don't be so cruel and 

 foolish as to let your cattle choke, and then run 

 broom handles, forked sticks, et cetera, down 

 their throats, or rack your brains to find some 

 other way to get out the obstruction. Be wise 

 enough not to let it get in there, and if you do 

 not grate your roots before feeding, as is done in 

 European countries, do for mercy's sake cut them 

 up in respectable shape, and this will also en- 

 hance their value and useful effects, as much as 



