1870. 



NEW ENGLAOT) FARMER. 



2G1 



DAIKY FAKMINQ— ROOT CULTCTEB. 



ERMONT, Massachusetts 

 and New York dairymen 

 held conventions about 

 the middle of last January. No- 

 v\^ tices of these meetings, held re- 

 r^ spectively at St. Albans, Vt., 

 Hard wick, Mass., and Utica, N. 

 Y., so cogipletely occupied our 

 columns at that time, as to prevent us from 

 calling attention to several points of special 

 interest in them. 



In the Vermont meeting, the address of 

 Hon. E. D. Mason was appropriate and 

 highly attractive. His remarks upon the 

 benefits which spring from associated effort 

 were very encouraging, being full of practical 

 suggestions in regard to the subject before 

 them. He said, in closing, "Let us strive to 

 place our dairy products as high in the mar- 

 ket^ as Merino sheep and Morgan horses. 

 Then will plenty and comfort reign throughout 

 our borders ; then will be that time we have 

 so often read about, 'The good time coming.' " 

 Selection of Cows. 

 The Hon. Henuy Lane, of Cornwall, read 

 an essay on the Dairy, in which he said the 

 first and most important question for dai- 

 rymen to consider is the selection of his 

 cows. The great secret of success, after ob- 

 taining proper animals, is to keep them well 

 fed. Cows will give more milk on fresh grass 

 than on any other kind of feed. But grass 

 in our pastures begins to fail early, and some- 

 thing must be substituted in its stead. Corn 

 will supply this want for one or two months 

 in autumn. 



Hoot Crops. 

 Dairymen should turn their attention to the 

 cultivation of root crops. Cows require a 

 change of food in order to assist the digestive 

 process ; and thereby will keep in better health 

 and eat coarse fodder cleaner. 



But what is the best root crop? The mar- 

 ket value of the potato is too great to make 

 its use for feeding stock profitable. The tur- 

 nip and carrot are perhaps best for young 

 stock, but they cannot be raised at the present 

 time with profit. The sugar beet has taken 

 the place of the carrot in Addison county. 

 No root, Mr. Lane thought, will produce so 

 much and so rich milk as the sugar beet. The 

 best crop he had ever seen was grown on clay 

 soil, containing twenty per cent, of sand. 



The land for the sugar beet should be rich, 

 and it may be grown on such land for thirty 

 years in succession. The ^* American Improved 

 Sugar Beet,'''' is far superior to any other sort. 

 Early sowing is the best, as a diflFerence of 

 ten days in sowing may make a difference of 

 ten tons in the product. He said twentv-eight 

 to thirty-two tons per acre is a common crop 

 in Vermont, but by high culture may be made 

 to yield fifty to seventy tons per acre. Its 

 feeding value is in the ratio of 100 pounds 

 to one hundred and fifty pounds of hay. Its 

 great value as food for swine as well as cattle, 

 makes the subject one which may well engage 

 the attention of all dairymen. 



Mr. Lane stated that the cost of raising the 

 sugar beet is about eight cents per bushel; 

 that the product of an acre will feed twenty- 

 five cows eight weeks. Four pounds of seed 

 to the acre is required. Sow in rows two and 

 a half feet apart, and the plants eighteen inches 

 apart in the rows. The labor has been the 

 great bugbear in root culture. If rightly 

 sown, the principal labor is in the thinning. 

 The horse cultivator will do the rest and should 

 be used often. The seed should be sown just 

 as early as the soil can be well prepared in 

 May. Store hogs winter well upon sugar beets. 



Having visited Mr. Lane's farm, and no- 

 ticed the evidences of skilful and intelligent 

 cultivation in all that we saw, we find pleasure 

 in commending his opinions and practices to 

 the readers of these columns. 



The President, Mr. Mason, thought beets 

 were excellent for hogs and better still for 

 cows. A bushel a day and one ton of hay for 

 the winter are better for a cow than two tons 

 of hay without the roots. They are as easily 

 cultivated as corn, if proper care be taken at 

 the outset. They are more profitable for a 

 milch cow than any other crop, unless it be 

 green corn in August. 



Messrs. O. S. Bliss, Col. J. B. Mead, of 

 Randolph, Edward Clark, of St. Albans, A. 

 R. Bailey of Elmore, and H. E. Seymour of 

 St. Albans all approved of root culture. 



— The Gardener's Magazine (London,) mentions 

 that in the department of Vaudois (France,) out 

 of 60,000 acres of vines, 20,000 acres have been 

 utterly ruined by what is called the "vine dis- 

 ease," and that the loss in some districts has been 

 even greater than this, so that many entire planta- 

 tions have been grubbed up and planted with 

 other crops. 



