168 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



intelligence with which he treats his subject. This 

 we consider one of the prime excellencies of the 

 work. Every feeling person must read his works 

 upon the horse with pain, when he learns how 

 cruelly he is often used, but with admiration, also, 

 for the humane and noble sentiments everywhere 

 expressed in his pages by the author. We hope 

 the work will fall into the hands of a million of 

 boTse-owners, and that they will read, ponder and 

 "inwardly digest" the excellent suggestions con- 

 tained in it. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 BOOT CROPS. 



The season is at hand when every judicious hus- 

 bandman begins to look over his plowed fields for 

 the purpose of ascertaining their adaptedness to 

 different crops, with a desire to appropriate to 

 each such a growth as will not only bring a re- 

 munerative return for the labor invested, and leave 

 the soil in an improved condition, but also affect 

 favorably the general interests of the farm. At 

 this season, a word of encouragement in regard to 

 the cultivation of roots will not be out of place, and 

 may awaken an interest in the subject which will 

 materially affect the aggregate number of bushels 

 to be harvested the coming autumn. 



In the spring of 1855, Solon Robinson wrote 

 an article for the New York Tribune, entitled 

 "Plant one acre more," in which he reminded the 

 farmers of the high price of breadstuffs, and of 

 the multitudes in large cities who suffered from 

 the scarcity of provisions, and urged the impor- 

 tance of putting in as much grain as could possi- 

 bly be attended to. It was estimated that his 

 simple request increased the crops of the United 

 States one million of acres. At the present prices 

 of labor it may not be expedient to j)lant an acre 

 more, but it is an important point to ascertain 

 how to plant the ground we have so as to increase 

 the value of our crops. 



In 1843, Daniel Webster asserted that the cul- 

 tivation of the turnip within the last fifty years 

 hfid revolutionized English Agriculture. It had 

 trebled the number of bullocks and sheep, and 

 he had no doubt it would produce a similar re- 

 sult in this country. The opinion has been ex- 

 pressed in this this paper, that by proper atten- 

 tion to the cultivation of roots, the capacity of 

 the farms of New England for keeping stock may 

 be doubled. If this is true, which no one has at- 

 tempted to deny, the subject deserves more at- 

 tention than has yet been given to it. That roots 

 are a valuable food for dairy stock no one doubts 

 who has made a trial of them. A careful study of 

 the tables of experiments published in the "Agri- 

 culture of Massachusetts," in 1858, will be profita- 

 ble to any who are skeptical upon this subject. A 

 horse that is driven on the road will thrive better 

 on five quarts of meal and three quarts of carrots 

 than on eight quarts of meal. Every fifty bush- 

 els of carrots fed in this way supplies the place of 

 fifty bushels of corn, and can be grown or bought 

 at one-fourth the cost. 



In the "Agriculture of Massachusetts" for 1853, 

 (page 223,) the reader will find a tabular state- 

 ment of twenty crops of carrots raised in Wor- 

 cester County, and entered for premium from 

 1846 to 1853 inclusive, giving the name of each 



grower, number of rods planted by each, cost and 

 yield. It appears that the average yield was 

 2066 tons per acre. It is not expected that every 

 farmer will secure a premium crop, but ordinary 

 pains will secure six hundrea bushels to the acre, 

 and this will highly pay the cost of cultivation. 

 Most people magnify the labor attending the cul- 

 tivation of roots, having had no experience, ex- 

 cept with the little garden bed which was per- 

 mitted to mat itself over with weeds before any 

 effort was made to subdue them, and then after 

 one spasmodic effort which resulted in destroying 

 more carrots than weeds, it was given over, and 

 weeds and vegetables struggled hard for the 

 championship. "A stitch in time saves nine." 



A neighbor of mine has sold one hundred bush- 

 els of French turnips at fifty cents per bushel the 

 past winter. It has been practically demonstrat- 

 ed that, at ordinary prices of labor, turnips can 

 be raised at from twelve to fifteen cents per bush- 

 el. Dr. Loring, of Salem, raises 1600 bushels of 

 mangold wurtzel per acre, and at the present 

 prices of meal and scraps, it becomes every farm- 

 er who indulges in the luxury of keeping swine to 

 inquire if this root properly cooked cannot be 

 substituted, in part, for more expensive food. 



It has been objected that roots leave the soil in 

 bad condition ; but every one knows that no crop 

 pulverizes the soil more perfectly than roots, and 

 the heavy hay crops, which have been taken from 

 ground upon which carrots have been previously 

 cultivated, are sufficient evidence that roots im- 

 prove rather than impoverish the soil. As to the 

 effect of these crops on the general interests of 

 the farm, it is only necessary to add that any sys- 

 tem of husbandry that increases the stock on the 

 farm, is sure to' increase its fertility. 



If the enterprising farmers of this section, who 

 are selling butter at fifty cents per pound, and 

 are anxious to make much more than they now do, 

 would enter into this matter with half the zeal 

 with which the farmers of the Connecticut Valley 

 are engaging in the cultivation of tobacco, I am 

 of the opinion they would reap a more satisfacto- 

 ry harvest, and deserve a higher place in the mem- 

 ory of those who are to come after. Viator. 



Hopkinton, April, 1864. 



PLANT PEAS DEEP. 

 In an article recently written on the culture of 

 early peas, we recommended that they be planted 

 deep, say as low as four to six inches. We find 

 the following in confirmation of these views : 



The theory recently advocated of planting j)ea8 

 very deeply in the earth, in order to prolong the 

 bearing capacity of the vines, has also been well 

 tested and found to be correct. A farmer told 

 me that he ploughed a furrow beam deep ; then 

 scattered the seed peas at the bottom after which 

 he turned a deep furrow upon them with his 

 plough, covering them, if possible, to the depth 

 of twelve or fourteen inches. They pushed their 

 way up through the thick mass of earth very 

 soon, and, instead of turning yellow at the bot- 

 tom and dying after the first gathering, they 

 blossomed and bore until he was tired of picking 

 the pods. If such a result will uniformly be 

 realized from the plan, pea culture may be more 

 profitable than hitherto. 



