AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
43 
1861 
can not become a lovable object to any one pos¬ 
sessed of taste or an eye for the beautiful.” 
Pleuro Pneumonia—A Petition. 
But little has been heard of this fatal cattle 
disease lately, and it is hoped that the prompt 
action of the authorities of Massachusetts and 
adjoining States, has resulted in preventing its 
spread. The isolation of affected herds is proved 
to have been a wise precaution. The Boston 
Journal alluding to this subject says: 
“ The occupants of the ‘ hospital pasture ’ at 
North Brookfield, (Mass.) numbering from 10 to 
15 head of cattle, the remnants of numerous 
herds which were nearly exterminated last 
Summer, were examined by the Commissioners 
about two weeks since, and the disease having 
been proved incurable, the cattle were all 
slaughtered. The opinion prevails among the 
Commissioners that the disease will not again 
make its appearance.” 
The Commissioners have also issued circulars 
to the different agricultural societies in the State, 
recommending them to petition Congress for 
the passage of a law to quarantine cattle arriv¬ 
ing from foreign countries until it is ascertained 
that they are free from disease, which will be a 
wise precaution. 
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Value of Carrots—One Answer. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist. 
In the January Agriculturist , page 11, you ask, 
“ How much are Carrots worth for feeding ?” to 
oe answered Horn experience. 
For the past ten years I have annually raised 
one or two acres of this esculent, and my cus¬ 
tom has been to dispose of what I could at a 
certain price, and what could not be sold thus, 
to feed to my stock. My price has been usually 
$12 per tun, and I have sold the greater portion 
of my crop at that rate. 
For fattening purposes I consider this perhaps 
more than their intrinsic value; but for feeding 
milch cows, store cattle, or sheep, I doubt not 
they are well worth that amount as a substitute 
for hay, or indeed for any other winter fodder. 
Two -feeds of a peck each, fed daily to a cow, 
with plenty of good bright straw, will keep her 
in good condition, and under some circum¬ 
stances, probably it is cheaper than giving the 
cow all the hay she can consume. 
For horses that do not labor more than one 
half the time, I think they are equal by measure 
to oats; i. e., a horse fed a peck of oats and a 
peck of carrots each, daily, will do as well as if 
fed two pecks of oats—their action being slight¬ 
ly diuretic and laxative, and just what the sys¬ 
tem seems to need in the winter, when they are 
wholly deprived of green fodder. 
In our region, the raising of carrots is on the 
increase, and farmers are beginning to ascertain 
that a stock of cattle can be carried through 
winter with less expense, and a larger stock can 
be kept on the same land by a judicious grow¬ 
ing and feeding of roots; and that instead of the 
two or three tons of hay required to winter a 
cow, one ton each of hay and roots will do it 
as well, or better. Wm. J. Pettek 
Fairfield, Co., Conn., 1861. 
Remakes. —We are rather surprised at not 
receiving more answers to our question, though 
when we proposed the query, we suspected that 
notwithstanding all the exhortations, so to call 
them, which have been uttered for years past, 
urging people to cultivate carrots, there are 
really very vague notions on the subject Mr. 
Pettee thinks they are worth $12 per tun, to 
feed. Let us try this : At 60 lbs. per bushel, 
and $12 per tun, a bushel is worth 36c., or a 
peck 9c. In this dear market we buy a bushel 
of very good “ ship feed,” or bran and shorts 
mixed, for 30 cents. A peck therefore costs 7 k 
cents. Now, will not a peck of this ship feed, 
wet and mixed with cut straw, or other forage, 
be better for a milch cow, than a peck of car¬ 
rots ? That is the practical question. In most 
parts of the country a very good mixture of 
bran and shorts can be bought for much less 
than 30 cents. 
But on the other hand, can not carrots be 
raised profitably for 10 or 12 cents a bushel ? 
Will they not pay better at this price, than corn 
at an average of 37i cents per bushel? If so, 
how stands the profit of feeding ? “ The question 
is before the meeting for discussion.”—E d. 
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Use the Pen. 
Seldom do we receive letters affording more 
satisfaction than those occasionally sent by far¬ 
mer subscribers, giving detailed accounts of 
their works and ways. The information so 
gained is valuable in itself, and besides, the ac¬ 
quaintance so formed with our subscribers is 
very pleasant. It is most encouraging to us to 
find that attempts to instruct and please our 
readers, are not altogether in vain. 
We therefore take this opportunity to thank 
our friends for past favors, and to request them 
to send further articles. Send accounts of ex¬ 
periments, in raising and fattening stock, with 
various crops, with new seeds or implements. 
Let the facts be carefully ascertained and clear¬ 
ly stated. Tell about your garden, your or¬ 
chard, your poultry-yard, etc., relating the fail¬ 
ures as well as the successes. Some may doubt 
their talent for authorship. If any shrink from 
appearing in print over their own names, please 
send communications written in the plainest 
style, and we will make good use of them. 
Even if they are not inserted, as written, they 
will not be lost, but will suggest topics for ex¬ 
amination and discussion, and so will minister 
to the actual wants of our readers. Throw all 
the grain into the Agriculturist hopper, and it 
will ere long come out in the shape of food for 
multitudes who look to this source for part of 
their mental nourishment. 
Notes from Illinois. 
We extract the following items of interest 
from a letter to the American Agriculturist, by 
H. Hinckley, Assumption, Christian Co., HI. 
... .The com crop is very good, and from 
this little station, where four years ago was but 
one building besides the depot, there will be 
shipped this year five hundred thousand bushels 
of corn—perhaps more. It is now sold here by 
the farmers, delivered at the depot, at 20c. per 
bush, in the ear. It is bought by the middle men, 
who have it shelled at 21 cts. per bushel, and 
put in gunny bags, which cost 15 cts. apiece 
here. The sacks are sewed, and shipped by 
Elinois Central Railroad, 180 sacks of 21 bush¬ 
els to each car, to Cairo, and thence by boat to 
the South, where it now brings at wholesale on 
the Levee from 68 to 75 cts. It is sold to the 
consumer at a higher price, and frequently costs 
the inland planter by the time it reaches his 
plantation $1.50 bushel. The scarcity of this 
crop at the South the past year, has created a 
demand for it from the Western States, which 
most of them are very well prepared to supply. 
The growing wheat crop looks well, and L 
no accident happen to prevent, will prove an 
enormous crop next year. I saw some Hes¬ 
sian fly last Fall, but not much injury. Not 
much old wheat remains to be sold, farmers here 
usually selling out immediately after harvest. 
Farmers are getting out of debt as fast as they 
can, and the severe lesson they have received, 
will be profited by, preventing new debts. 
Experience with Potatoes—$80 per Acre 
for Manure. 
The following statement of experiments in 
the cultivation of potatoes, made by George R 
Underhill, Queens Co., N. Y., was communi¬ 
cated to the American Agriculturist , by the Sec¬ 
retary of the -Glen Cove Farmers’ Club, at the 
request of the President, Daniel K. Youngs Esq. 
Planted 4£ acres of land with Mercer potatoes 
in furrows 2£ feet apart. Harvested 1270 bushels. 
Average yield per acre 260 bushels. 
Crop sold for.$652.00 
Cost of Manure.$392.00 
Expense of Culture. 110.00 
Cost of Seed. 25.00 
Total Expenses.$527.00 
Net Profit ($25.64 per acre) .$125.00 
Three plots were set off, and the potatoes 
carefully measured, for the purpose of testing 
the comparative profit from the use of different 
kinds and quantities of manure; the results of 
the experiments were as follows: 
Plot No. 1, containing one acre, was enriched 
with 100 loads New-York stable manure, and 
350 lbs. guano, per acre. The manure was 
placed in the bottom of the furrows, the guano 
sowed on it, and the potatoes dropped on both, 
and covered with a plow. Yield 250 bushels. 
On Plot No. 2, containing one acre, used 150 
loads old New-York stable manure, and 350 lbs. 
guano per acre. Yield 308 bushels. 
Plot No. 3 containing three quarters of an 
acre, on low damp ground, manured the same 
as No. 1—except four rows in which no guano 
was put—yielded at the rate per acre of 347 
bushels. 
The crops from rows in which guano was 
used, exceeded in value that in which there was 
none, at the rate per acre of.$54.00 
Cost per acre for Guano... 10.00 
Net gain by the addition of the Guano...$44.00 
With the exception of three or four rows on the 
lower side of the damp ground, in which the po¬ 
tatoes were nearly all decayed, there was not 
a bushel of rotten ones in the whole piece. The 
seed used, was about the size of liens’ eggs, with 
the chit end taken off, and cut in two pieces. 
[The effects of the guano would have been 
more certainly ascertained, had it been omitted 
from one entire plot, or from equal portions of 
each plot. By the above statement, Plot No. 3 
which was only partially dressed with guano, 
yielded 90 bushels per acre more than Plot No. 
1, where guano was used throughout. The 
dampness of the ground was probably favora¬ 
ble during last Summer’s drouth. But for the 
fact that the rows in No. 3, without guano, yield¬ 
ed less than the remainder of the plot, it might 
have been concluded that the 90 bushels extra 
were due to the omission of the guano. 
Perhaps the most noteworthy thing in the 
experiment, is the fact that the cost of the ma¬ 
nure was over eighty dollars per acre 1 This is not 
an uncommon thing on many places around 
New-York, however it may startle those who 
place so little value upon manure that they 
scarcely take any pains to properly husband 
what is produced in their own yards. There is 
