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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mat 



LEGISLATIVE AGRICTTLTURAL SOCIETY. 



fREPOETED FOR THE N. E. FaBMEE, BY ThOMAS BEADLEY.] 



The eleventh meeting of the Legislative Agri- 

 cultural Society took place on Monday evening 

 last, a good company being present. The meet- 

 ing was called to order by Dr. Mason, of Dart- 

 mouth, and Charles L. Flint, Esq., Secretary 

 of the Board of Agriculture, was introduced as 

 Chairman of the evening. 



On taking the chair, Mr. Flint said that the 

 statements with regard to the economy of root 

 culture in New England have often been too in- 

 discriminate and unqualified. If, as Mr. Webster 

 asserted, the failure of the turnip crop a single 

 year would bankrupt England, it does not then 

 follow that its extensive culture is of the same 

 relative importance to us. If root culture is the 

 basis of successful English farming, it does not 

 follow, as a matter of course, that it would be for 

 us. If the English farmer could raise 75 bushels 

 of Indian corn to the acre as easy as we can, it 

 might possibly modify his present system, to 

 some extent. He did not mean to convey the idea 

 that the extensive culture of roots is not equally 

 profitable for us as for the British farmer, but 

 merely to suggest tlie difference in our situations. 



The perfect development of most of our culti- 

 vated roots requires a moist and equable climate. 

 This the English farmer has, and we have not. 

 The point of profit for him lies in the fact that 

 root culture forms the most admirable prepara- 

 tion for wheat and other crops, and not in the 

 intrinsic value of roots themselves. He might, if 

 he could, be glad to dispense with the culture of 

 so large an area as he generally devotes to the 

 turnip, but then his wheat would soon fall off. 

 Root crops, in other words, are cultivated chiefly 

 as a means of making manure and to keep up the 

 fertility of the land. Considered by themselves 

 simply as food for cattle, they are not thought 

 even by English farmers to pay the cost of culti- 

 vation. But as a change of food, either for 

 horses, milch cows or sheep, the culture of roots, 

 to a limited extent, and no doubt to a greater ex- 

 tent than is common with us, ought to have a 

 place in every good system of husbandry. 



Carrots, for horses not overworked, are worth 

 pound for pound, nearly as much as oats. That 

 is, a hundred bushels of carrots and a hundred 

 bushels of oats are worth about as much to feed 

 to horses as two hundred bushels of oats alone. 

 The actual practical value for feeding purposes, 

 does not always corres])ond with the theoretical 

 value based on the comparative amount of nutri- 

 ment in each. 



Carrots are not so important to feed to cows 

 in milk as to horses, though they improve the 

 quality. The short-horn and the long orange 

 are among the best varieties, though the white 



Belgian will yield the largest. It has been pro- 

 duced at the rate of two thousand bushels to the 

 acre. To cultivate carrots to any profit the ut- 

 most care is required to keep the land free from 

 weed-seed, and unless the land is clean as well as 

 the manure, the labor of taking care of this crop 

 is enormous, and the expense too great to be 

 borne. 



For feeding to dairy cows the mangold is one 

 of the best roots now cultivated. Though its nu- 

 tritive qualities are far less than those of the car- 

 rot, and less even than those of the turnip, it is 

 well settled that it excels those roots in produc- 

 ing a large flow of milk. ' 



The mangold is a variety of beet, and has been 

 extensively cultivated for feeding to stock in Eng- 

 land and France, and to some extent in this coun- 

 try. William Birnie, of Springfield, raised 95 tons 

 of mangolds the last season on two acres and a 

 half, or at the rate of 3S tons to the acre. This is 

 a large yield to be sure, more than could be ex- 

 pected in oi-dinary culture, but it shows what can 

 be done. The Silesian beet, or the sugar beet, is a 

 variety, that is cultivated to some extent, though 

 he thought to less profit with us, than either 

 mangolds or Swedes. The ruta baga, sometimes 

 called Swedish turnip, is a variety of rape. It is 

 one of the most profitable roots to cultivate, es- 

 pecially for feeding to sheep. It is more apt to 

 taint the flavor of milk and butter than mangolds 

 or carrots, but if boiled, or cut and salted, this 

 objection to it may be avoided. 



The root crop, generally, requires a good sup- 

 ply of phosphates in the soil or in the manure, 

 and bones ti-eated with diluted sulphuric acid, or 

 the vitriol of commerce, or guano, or other con- 

 centrated manures rich in phosphate of lime, are 

 more effective on this crop than on most others. 

 These substances have the advantage of perfect 

 freedom from weed-seed, a consideration of the 

 utmost importance to this crop. The work on 

 root crops should be accomplished so far as pos- 

 sible by machinery. Hand labor on them is ex- 

 tremely laborious and expensive. Carrots, for 

 instance, sown as soon as practicable after the 

 15th of April, in drills from two to two and a half 

 feet apart, may be cultivated with the horse hoe 

 two or three times, and then a row of turnips or 

 ruta bagas sown in the intermediate spaces. A 

 large amount of expensive hand labor may also 

 be saved in the culture of mangolds by the use of 

 the horse hoe. 



Mr. Hartwell, of New Marlborough, said 

 he had experimented to a limited extent in rais- 

 ing root crops, but had not met with much success. 

 We have, said he, the corn crop, for a tillage crop, 

 which they had not in England, but this was not 

 a sure crop, from the variableness of our climate, 

 and if farmers could cultivate a crop that would 



