1863. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



323 



THE AGRlCUIiTUI.AIj DEPARTMENT. 



From an article in the August number of the 

 Wisconsin Farmer, by the Editor, Mr. J. W. 

 HoYT, who has recently spent several weeks in 

 Washington, we learn that the working force of 

 the newly established Agricultural department of 

 the General Government, is at present about as 

 follows : — Commissioner, Chief Clerk, Chemist, 

 Entomologist, Superintendent of Experimental 

 Gardens, Statistician, with some 15 clerks. Of the 

 incumbents of these several offices the follo^ving 

 sketch is furnished by Mr. Hoyt : 



Commissioner Newton is understood to have 

 been a Pennsylvania farmer of much experience 

 and good success. Of this we know nothing per- 

 sonally. We arc fully satisfied, however, that he 

 is a man of earnest desires for the progress of in- 

 dustry, and withal so identified with the origin of 

 the Department that the country is sure of the 

 best efforts of all his energies. His plans, as far 

 as unfolded, give evidence of sagacity and his 

 nominations for the several official positions in his 

 Department are further proof of good practical 

 judgment. We shall continue to look for results 

 during his administration. 



James S. Grin.nell, Esq., appears to us es- 

 pecially well qualified for the important position 

 he holds. An attorney by profession, but also the 

 successful manager of a good Massachusetts farm, 

 and for several years secretary of one of the most 

 flourishing county agricultural societies of that 

 commonwealth, he readily makes himself at home 

 in both the business and the practical departments 

 of the office. He is, moreover, possessed of those 

 graces of temper wliich, although so essential in 

 such a place, are too often quite wanting on the 

 part of those who must deal extensively with the 

 public. Moreover, his course, thus far, has been 

 characterised by a most commendable promptness, 

 energy, and faithfulness to the discharge of his 

 arduous duties. 



Prof. Wetherell we have never seen. As a 

 chemist he has something of a reputation in the 

 country, and, we doubt not, is quite competent to 

 the important duties of his office. 



Prof. Glover, of Philadelphia, the Entomolo- 

 gist, is an enthusiast, and (if he does not now) is 

 destined to stand at the head of this department 

 of Natural History in this country. He had pur- 

 sued the study of his profession and the work of 

 making collections many years previous to receiv- 

 ing his present appointment, and is now prepared 

 to give to the Agricultural Department the rich 

 fruits of a lifetime of laborious research. He is 

 about completing a valuable work on entomologi- 

 cal classification, which appears to us very superi- 

 or to anything now extant. 



Mr. William Saunders, long and favorably 

 known as a leading landscape gardener and a pop- 

 ular writer on horticultural sulyects, is, by late 

 appointment, Su])erintendent of the Experimental 

 Gardens. Trained to his profession in Great lirit- 

 ain, endowed with good natural capacities for ad- 

 vancing the art and science of gardening, and fit- 

 ted by many years of ])ractice and study in this 

 country to serve the public in this new field, we 

 rejoice in his appointment as an important ele- 

 ment in the prospective success and popularity of 



the Department. Instead of a mera fancy garden, 

 growing useless ])lants by the thousand, and yield- 

 ing scarcely anything more than a crop of boquets 

 for Washington officials, he will make it a garden 

 for proving, in the most economical manner, the 

 qualities of really promising foreign plants, and 

 for determining, l)y carefully conducted experi- 

 ments, the best methods of culture. 



Mr. BOLLMAN, of Indiana, lately appointed to 

 to take charge of the Statistical Bureau, has ar- 

 rived and entered upon his duties. By profession 

 he has been a farmer, newspaper correspundent, 

 legislative reporter, &c. He seems to be a man 

 of sound practical views, with habits of thought on 

 all the important industrial topics of the day ; and 

 imbued as he is v.ith a strong sense of the great 

 importance of his bureau, we have good hopes of 

 his success. The ])lan instituted by Mr. Grinnell 

 for collecting and ])ublishing monthly statistics of 

 the most important crops, in all parts of the coun- 

 try, meets with his cordial approval and will en- 

 gage his best endeavors. 



For t/ie Xeir KnL'larnl Frimier. 

 CULTURE OP THE TURNIP BEET. 



While pulling some turnip beets from my gar- 

 den the other day, I could not but be impressed, 

 as I have often been before, with the value of this 

 beet as a root crop for stock. It is now the sixth 

 or seventh year in succession that I liave raised 

 beets upon the same ground, with the addition 

 each year of a slight amount of compost manure 

 to the soil, and the crop was never larger or hand- 

 somer than it is now. My usual course has been 

 to spade up the ground, make a small drill with 

 the hoe, scatter a small quantity of compost in the 

 drill, sow the seed, and cover it about an inch in 

 depth. When the ]ilants were of a suffiicient size 

 for greens (for which, by the way, they are excel- 

 lent,) I have usually thinned them out so as to 

 leave the plants about three inches apart, hoed up 

 the weeds, and then let the crop take its course — 

 which course has uniformly been satisfactory. I 

 have always found this crop the most certain of 

 all root crops. No insect except the cut worm 

 (and that can easily be eradicated,) seems to touch 

 it. In this it has a great advantange over the ru- 

 tabaga or Swedish turnip, which it is almost im- 

 possible to produce an old land, on account of in- 

 sects. 



Some twenty odd years ago, the late Mr. Joseph 

 Wind, who then owned what is now called Wy- 

 oming — a large farm on the easterly shme of Spot 

 Pond, in Stoneham — experimented successfully in 

 the manufacture of beet root sugar. He pro- 

 cured the seed of the genuine sugar beet from 

 France, and raised the roots and seed in consider- 

 able quantities. He sent me some specimens of 

 the roots, which I found quite too hard for a suit- 

 able food for cattle. In return I gave him some 

 specimens of turnip beet, with a request that he 

 would ascertain the comparative amount of sugar 

 in the two kinds. Apparently, very much to his 

 surjirise, he found the turnip beet contained the 

 most sugar, pound to pound. 



There is an objection to feeding milch cows with 

 any considerable quantity of turnips of any kind, 

 on account of the bad taste which they impart to 

 milk, butter or cheese. This objection does not 

 apply, (certainly not to the same extent) to the 

 turnip beet. The comparative number of tons 



