57^ TJiA^'■SACTTo^'^s of the American Ixstitute. 



i^rievonsly adds to tlie l)readth and depth of certain failure, and forth- 

 with fniit srowins is decried as a doubtful investment. What incal- 

 culable advantages might have been reaped had this point been as 

 deeply impressed npon onr mind at the ontset of life as years of sad 

 and disastrous failure has fully demonstrated it. Never plant roots 

 in ground ill prepared. Better wait till the "right time of the 

 moon " goes down and comes np again, than plant in soil not pro- 

 perly prei")ared. It is a well known axiom also that soils acquire 

 fertility by exposure to the influence of the atmosphere ; hence, after 

 a tedious and protracted spell of unfavorable weather, how often do 

 we see the Mdiole force of the form summoned to subdue the army of 

 weeds that are holding M'ild revel over the infant crop. Now one 

 hour's efficient working of some labor saving implement would be as 

 beneficial to him as days of delay M^ould be disastrous, enabling him 

 not only to save his crop, but putting it in his power to do just the 

 right thing in just the right time. For the relative and comparative 

 value of the root crop for both nourishing and fattening purposes, a 

 few brevities, condensed from MTiters of authority, may suffice. One 

 says all roots have '' valuable nutritive qualities," some to a surpass- 

 ing extent. Of the high value of the potato we need scarcely speak. 

 Suffice it to say, two pounds of raw potatoes afford as much nou- 

 rishment as one pound of good hay. Yet I believe better results 

 invariably follow a judicious variation of food to man and beast 

 as well as to land. Five pounds of carrots and six pounds of 

 oats are considered equivalent to ten pounds of oats. The average 

 cost of raising carrots in the old way may be reckoned at fifteen 

 cents per bushel. One thousand eight hundred bushels of man- 

 golds have been raised per acre at a cost of seven and a half 

 cents per bushel, of which, according to experiment, 400 pounds 

 v>'ere equivalent to 100 pounds of hay. Allowing sixty-six pounds to 

 the bushel, the crop produced was equal in nutritive value to twelve 

 tons of hay. To grow its equivalent in hay on an acre would of 

 course be impossible. Take one more yerj familiar illustration : An 

 ordinai'y crop of winter cabbage, planted three feet apart each way, 

 and an acre will yield 4,785 heads, which, at the retail price, now sell- 

 ing at fifteen ce^ots per head, would net $717.75 ; and even at ten 

 cents per |head would bring $478.50. I j^ropose to show how this 

 crop may be grown with scarcely one-tenth the labor usually bestowed 

 upon it. As a necessary connection, therefore, to the important work 

 of cultivating root crops, I suggest the use of a more efficient and 



