THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
87 
From waai wn have learned trom the success- 
ful practice and experience ol many intelligent 
practical tanners, we are firmly convinced that 
a just regard to economy and bountiful supply 
of provisions lor all ot our domestic animals, as 
well as for our families, requires that we adopt 
the plan of raising largely all the various kinds ol 
root crops, which are adapted to our soil and 
climate. They help astonishingly a short crop 
of grain, and save it surprisingly when it is a- 
bundant. They, moreover, are cultivated with 
less labor and expense in proportion to the pro- 
duct of a given quantity of land; their cultiva- 
tion aids in carrying out a judicious system of 
rotation of crops ; tends to preserve the land 
from rapid exhaustion ; and, in the event of the 
failure ofcaher crops, may, to someextent, sup 
ply the place of both corn and fodder. Among 
those which grow well in North Carolina, are 
carrots, ru'a-baga, beets, potatoes, and turneps. 
A little calculation, founded upon facts, will 
readily show whether it will be profitable or not 
for the farmer to raise these articles. Let us 
then compare their Respective nutritive values, 
together with their cost in raising, with hay. It 
has been ascertained that they compare with hay 
in value as follows; 
276 
pounds 
of carrots equal 100 pounds of 
hay. 
300 
do. 
ruta baga do. 
do. 
do 
317 
do. 
mangie-wurtzel 
do. 
201 
do. 
Potatoes do. 
do. 
do. 
294 
do. 
common turneps. 
do. 
do. 
This shows their comparative value. Now 
let us look at the expense ol raising. The Alba- 
ny Cultivator, to wbJch valuable paper we are 
indebted for this table, says the same degree ot 
fertility in soil will give about 250 bushels of 
potatoes, 500 of carrots, 600 or ruta-bagas, and 
700 mangle-wurtzel — the expense of raising an 
acre of each nearly equal. Carrots, mangle- 
wurtzel and ruta-baga stand on nearly equal 
ground as to merits; but the far greater avidity 
with which horses will eat carrots, the excel- 
lent butter which results from their use when 
led to cows, and the little injury they receive 
from frost even when the crop, ora part of it, is 
left to winter in the ground where it grew, give 
this crop most eminently the preference. Ex- 
amine next their cheapness compared with hay. 
A ton of hay is equal to 5500 pounds of carrots, 
which, at 60 pounds to the bushel, would be 9l 
bushels. One acre of carrots, or 500 bushels, 
would be equal to 5i tons, or 11,000 pounds of 
hay. Such a crop may be raised and harvested 
for 12 to 15 dollars: which would make the car- 
rots a cheaper food than hay, if the hay were 
only S'3 a ton; but the superiority of the condi- 
tion of horses and cattle^ when fed freely on car- 
rots With hay, is an important additional advan- 
tage. 
Those of our readers, and we hope they are 
lew, who t/ank they “know as much about farm- 
ing as they ought to know,” v’ill treat these state- 
ments as “nothing but book-farming,^’ and go 
on as they have gone for years, making nothing 
but corn and potatoes, or corn and peas, and 
scarcely enough ol them to keep the bones of 
their plow nags together; but those who seek 
for practical knowledge from every enlightened 
source, and practice what they learn, are ever 
ready to profit by the experience of those who 
are ahead ol them in the science, and will, we 
doubt not, try the culture of root crops them- 
selves; and for their benefit we further stale, it 
must be borne in mind that all the roots above 
mentioned require neat and thorough culture — 
that they must be sown in drills from 2 to 2| 
feet apart — that the ground must be previously 
well plowed and harrowed — that they must be 
well hoed (or carefully plowed and hoed) soon 
after they are up, and when about 2 inches high 
thinned out, leaving about 4 inches space be- 
tween each plant for carrots — six for beets. — 
Weeds and grass must be kept scarce, and the 
ground Ii 2 ht and well pulverized. A writer in 
the Cultivator says he raised upwards of 1200 
bushels of carrots to the acre. He sowed rows 
only 18 inches apart, and cultivated with the 
hoe. Sow in March or April. We care not 
whether the nights are dark or moonlight, so 
he ground is well and duly prepared. 
From irib New Orleans CommercialTimes. 
Sunflower Seed. 
Heluntuhs annous et perennis. — From 
experiments made by the Moravian Brethren at 
Bethlehem who were the first to introduce its 
cmanufacture, it appears that a bushel of sun 
flower seed will yield, on expression, near a gal- 
son of mild oil. The process is the same as 
that lor making linseed oil. The oil-ceke is 
believed to be quite as valuable lor stock-feed- 
ing. The per ceniage ol oil is not so great a.s 
hat from many other seeds, being stated by Ure 
at hlteen per cent. But the number of bushels 
of seed per acre is great, being variously stated 
at from 50 tj 150 — the lowest estimate being, 
perhaps, the nearest the truth. Even at that 
rale, and as food for stock, this must be one of 
the most valuable of crops. A letter, now be- 
fore us, from our observant old friend, Thomas 
S. Hinds, of Mount Carmel, Illinois — one of 
the few pioneers who have kept a record of 
events during the early settling ol the W est ; and 
which, he intorms us, he is about giving to the 
world— slates lhat “Mr. John Matthews, of 
Urbana, Ohio, informed me lhat he was offered 
4,000 bushels ot sunflower seed, to be delivered 
him, from the banks of the Scioto, forty or filty 
miles distant, at twenty-five cents per bushel.” 
Mr. H. makes the deduction that as it can be 
produced so cheap, and as stock ol all kinds are 
fond ol it and thrive on it, it will prove a profi- 
table crop as food for stock; the more as the 
leaves make capital fodder. Mr. H. promises 
us a supply ol seed, ol a superior variety, to test 
its growth in the South. 
Since writing the above, we found an article 
in the Wcsteryi Farmer and Gardener, (Indian- 
apolis, la.j from the pen of its editor, fiom 
which wm make the following extracts: 
“Sunflower Seed. — To some extent this is 
likely to become a profitable crop, Mr. Clark 
Kitchener in this (Marion) county, tried about 
an acre of if this year. A part of it did not do 
well; but oil from one-halt acre he raised thirty- 
five bushels ; or seventy bushels to the acre. Me- 
dium lands will yield, on an average, fifty bu- 
shels; while first rate lands will yield from se- 
venty to one hundred bushels. 
Mode ol Cultivation . — I’he ground is prepar- 
ed in all respects as lor a corn crop, and the seed 
sown in drills four feet apart — one plant to every 
eighteen inches in the drill. It is to be plowed 
and tended, in all respects, like a crop ol corn. 
Harvesting , — As the heads ripen, they are ga- 
thered, laid on a barn floor and threshed. The 
seed shells very easily. 
Use . — The seed may be employed in fattening 
hogs, feeding poultry, etc., and for this last pur- 
pose it is better than grain. But the seed is 
more valuable at the oil mill than elsewhere. It 
will yield a gallon to the bushel without trouble, 
and by careful working, more than this. Hemp 
yields one and a fourth gallons to the bushel, 
and flax seed one and a hall by ordinary pres- 
sure; but two gallons under the hydraulic press. 
1 he oil has, as yet, no established market 
price. It will range Irora seventy cents to a 
dollar, according as its value shall be establish- 
ed as an article tor lamps and for painters’ use. 
But at seventy cents a gallon for oil, the seed 
would command filty-fi ve cents a bushel, which 
is a much higher price than can be had for corn. 
It is slated, but upon how sufficient proof I 
know not, lhat sunflower oil is excellent lor 
burning in lamps. It has also been tried by 
our painters to someextent; and for fwsicie work 
it is said to be as good as linseed oil, Mr. Han- 
naman, of this place, who has kindly put me in 
possession of these facts, says, that the oil re- 
sembles an animal, rather than a vegetable oil; 
lhat it has not the varnish properties of the lin- 
seed oil. We suppose by varnish is meant the 
albumen and mucilage which are found in ve- 
getable oils. ****** 
The existence of impurities in oil, such as 
mucilage, albumen, wax, gums, etc., which in- 
crease its value to the painter, diminish its 
value for the lamp, since these substances crust 
or cloy the wick, and prevent a clearflarae. All 
oils may, therefore, the less excellent they are 
inr painting, be regarded as the more valuable 
for burning. Rape seed is extensively raised in 
Europe, chiefly in Flanders, for its oil, and is 
much used for burning. Ten quarts may be 
extracted from a bushel of seed. It is beginning 
to be raised in Ohio lor this purpose.” t. a. 
Rural Manners in England. 
The true English gentleman, living remote 
from the din of cities, and abstracted from the 
turmoil ot political life, upon his own acres; 
managing hisown estate, seeking the best means 
for its improvement, and superintending, under 
his own personal inspection, their application; 
doing what good he can to all around him ; ma- 
king those dependent upon him comfortable and 
contented; giving labour, counsel, encourage- 
ment, and ail needful aid, to his poor neigh- 
bours, and causing them, and their wives, and 
their chi dren, to look to him as a friend and a 
parent, to whose kindness their good conduct is 
always a certain claim; whom when the eye 
sees, it sparkles with grateful joy, and when the 
ear hears his footsteps, the sounds go like mel- 
ody to the heart ; who is in his neighborhood the 
avowed and unostentatious supporter of good 
morals, temperance, education, peace, and re- 
ligion, and in whose house you find an open- 
hearted hospitality, and abundant resources for 
innocent gratificahon, and forthe improvement 
ot the mind, with a pertect gentleness of man- 
ners, and unaffected piety presiding over the 
whole I say, such a man — and it has been 
my happiness to find many examples — need en- 
vy no one save the possessorof more power and 
a wider sphere of doing good; and need not co- 
vet the brightest triumphs of political ambition, 
nor the splendors and luxuries of royal courts. 
Whatever contributes, then, in any way, to 
elevate the agricultural profession, to raise it, 
from a mere servile or mercenary labor, to the 
dignity of a liberal profession, and to commend 
it not merely for its profit and usefulness, but as 
a delightful resource and recreation for a culti- 
vated mind, will certainly find favor with those 
who form rational views of life, who wish well 
to the cause ol good morals, and would multi- 
ply and strengthen the safeguards of human 
virtue. 
The class of individuals whom I have de- 
scribed — and I assure my readers I have drawn 
from real life, and deal in no fictions — find of- 
ten their own efforts seconded and aided by 
those whose encouragement and sympathy al- 
ways give new life and vigor to their exertions, 
and new pleasures to their pleasures,—! mean 
their own wives and children; and the farming 
operations, in all their history and details, and 
all their experiences and fitness, areas much 
matter of familiar and interested discussion at 
the fireside, as, in many other circles, the most 
recent novel, the change in fashion, or the latest 
triumph of parly. Indeed, I have seen, in many 
cases, the wives and daughters — and these, too, 
often persons of the highest rank and refine- 
ment— as well acquainted with every field and 
crop, their management and their yield, and 
with every implement and animal on the place, 
as the farmer himself; and I always put it down 
to the credit oftheir good sense. — Caiman’s Tour, 
No. 3. 
Rice Cakes.-- Boil a cup full of rice until It 
becomes a jelly, while it is warm mix a large 
lump of butter with it and a little salt. Add as 
much milk to a small teacupful of flour as 
will make a tolerably stiff batter — stir it until It 
is quite smooth, and then mix it with the rice. 
Beat six eggs as light as possible, and add them 
to the rice. 
Serve them with powdered sugar and nut- 
meg. They should be served as hot as possible, 
or they will become heavy. 
The best fertilizer of any soil is a spirit of in- 
dustry, enterprise and intelligence — without 
this, lime and gypsum, bones and green naa- 
nure, marl and guano, will be of little use. 
