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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 





transplanted if care be taken to remove with it a 

 sufficient quantity of soil ; but this necessity — for 

 such it is, opposes a serious obstacle to the adop- 

 tion of the practice, as a general rule, and the 

 farmer acquainted with the habitudes of the plant, 

 and studious of his own interests, prefers sowing 

 them where they are to stand. 



The ruta baga, and the. various other individu- 

 als of the turnip family, are too well known to re- 

 quire any description here. They are all hardy, 

 grow vigorously and rapidly in suitable soil, and 

 are highly prized as food for almost every descrip- 

 tion of animal ordinarily kept upon the farm. 

 They require a generous, but not over rich soil, 

 and the best stimulants for them are bone manure, 

 ground oyster shells, ashes, gypsum, and perhaps 

 guano. 



We have referred above to the high value which 

 English farmers place upon root crops. Brown, 

 in his "Treatise on Rural Affairs," says "that the 

 introduction of the improved turnip culture into 

 the husbandry of Great Britain occasioned one of 

 those revolutions in the rural art which are so con- 

 stantly occurring among husbandmen. Before 

 the introduction of this root it was not possible 

 to cultivate light soils successfully, or to derive 

 suitable rotations for cropping them with advan- 

 tage. It was, likewise, a difficult task to support 

 live stock through the winter and spring months ; 

 and as for feeding and preparing cattle and sheep 

 for market during these inclement seasons, the 

 practice was hardly thought of, and still more 

 rarely attempted, unless where a full stock of hay 

 was provided, which only happened in a few in- 

 stances. The benefits derived from it are of very 

 great magnitude. Light soils, before useless, are 

 now cultivated with -facility and profit ; the earth 

 is turned to the uses for which it is physically cal- 

 culated ; and, by being suitably cleared with this 

 preparatory crop, a bed is provided for grass and 

 other seeds, wherein they flourish and prosper 

 with greater vigor than after any other prepara- 

 tion." 



The reader will, perhaps, observe, in the above 

 extract, that the English custom of wintering cat- 

 tle was widely different from ours. Brown says 

 that a "full stock of hay was provided only in a 

 very few instances." Our practice among good 

 farmers is, to crowd large barns with good, sweet 

 hay, to overflowing, and give every animal as 

 much as he will eat with a good appetite, and oc- 

 casionally stimulate that appetite with a mess of 

 some kind of roots. Each country, it seems to 

 us, practices upon extremes — one depending main- 

 ly upon roots and the other upon hay. What is 

 most economical and best, is, undoubtedly, a com- 

 bination of both systems — a happy mingling of 

 both modes of feeding, so as to temper the dry 



fodder with the tender and juicy roots, and the 

 roots with the sweet and nutritious hay. This is 

 the point to which we desire to call the attention 

 of our farmers, and especially of those who are 

 constantly fattening cattle and sheep for the mar- 

 ket. Their chief reliance has probably been corn 

 meal. This is now very high and will remain so 

 for some time. We believe its place may be sup- 

 plied in a considerable measure by a plentiful sup- 

 ply of a variety of roots fed alternately with as 

 much sweet herds-grass, clover and red-top as 

 the animals will eat. We do not know how it 

 would result in a number of cases, but the best 

 beef we ever ate was fatted in this way, — a plen- 

 tiful supply of roots and as much English hay as 

 the animal would eat, fed at regular times. The 

 beef was tender, juicy and finely mingled, or mar- 

 bled, as the butchers term it. We hope that more 

 attention will be given to the culture of roots, and 

 that more thorough experiments will be made of 

 their use in fattening animals. 



EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. 

 Habits of the "Wild Goose. 



Thinking that your readers would be interested in 

 a brief description of the wild goose and its peculiar 

 habits, I will give a few of them. This splendid bird 

 is no Mormon, or at least does not believe in a plural- 

 ity of wives, for the gander will never have but one 

 mate at a time, and never forsakes his first love unless 

 separated by some cause which he cannot prevent ; 

 nor will he allow his mate to take grain from the same 

 dish with him until he has finished his meal and then 

 he will allow her to eat hers. Although they are na- 

 tives of America they are not "know nothings," for if 

 there is not one of their own nation that they can get 

 they will mate with one of foreign birth and other 

 colors, rather than remain single. Their noise is quite 

 musical, and especially so just before a storm. Though 

 wild in their nature, they are easily domesticated and 

 quite fond of being caressed. The female goose lays 

 about ten eggs, is a good sitter and very careful of her 

 young. Her mate does constant sentinel duty, and 

 fears nothing while protecting its young. Though not 

 as large as the African and other foreign birds, they 

 are a great ornament to the poultry yard, besides pro- 

 ducing a good yield of feathers on£e in six weeks. 



Elgin Spring, 1864. W. S. Allen. 



Rose Bugs. 



As it is most time for the rose bugs to make their 

 appearance I would like to inquire if there is any way 

 to prevent their destroying our grape blossoms, ap- 

 ples, &c. Last year they injured my grape vines, so 

 that the crop was an entire failure ; they eat the blos- 

 soms entirely up, and my apple trees were covered 

 with them ; about every apple and pear was eaten 

 more or less, so that I hardly had any fruit but what 

 was injured by them. If you can prescribe a remedy 

 for this pest, you will do a great favor to many in our 

 neighborhood, and I trust others. E. Leonard. 



New Bedford, June, 1864. 



A New Insect. 

 Our apple trees are covered with little green lice. I 

 never saw any until last year, and on inquiry I find 

 but few noticed them at all. I have seen one man 

 (an early riser,) who remembers they covered the trees 

 "when he was a small boy." They come out very 

 early in the spriug, or as soon as the leaves begin to 

 appear ; they sap the leaves as the midge (weevil) 

 does wheat, making them look yellow and withered. 

 As soon as the buds begin to open they enter them, 

 fasten thickly on the growing fruit stems and blast 

 them. If any escape they do not become large and 



