1861 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
i n ■ ' 
For the American Agriculturist. 
More on the Carrot Question. 
I have raised carrots for the last ten or twelve 
years, almost exclusively for my own feeding, 
and have every reason to consider them a profit¬ 
able crop. I have always practiced giving extra 
feed to milch cows in Winter, and before using- 
carrots, I commonly fed bran, shorts, or mill- 
feed, as we called it—being the offal of wheat 
left in flouring. This could formerly be bought 
for 5 to 8 cents per bushel weighing 20 lbs. But 
by improved machinery for grinding grain and 
separating the bran, the weight has been re¬ 
duced to about 14 lbs., and the price has also 
been raised by the demand. This led me to 
adopt carrots as a substitute. You ask on page 
43, (Feb. No.) “ Will not a peck of ship feed 
mixed with cut straw be worth more than a 
peck of carrots ?” This, in my opinion, depends 
upon its weight. If like some of the finer kinds, 
which weigh 20 to 30 lbs. per bushel, it may 
equal the carrots in value; though it will not 
produce as rich butter when fed to cows. In 
my own practice I am satisfied of the superiori¬ 
ty of carrots over mill-feed. 
As to the actual value of carrots, the following 
calculation may aid in forming an opinion. I 
find that corn which yields 100 bushels of ears 
to the acre, will make a fair sized stock to 25 
hills, and this, when corn is planted 3) feet apart 
each way, will make 142 stooks to the acre. 
Each stock will make 3 large bundles of stalks, 
or 426 per acre. Four of these bundles, 11 at 
morning and night, and 1 at noon, with a peck of 
carrots per day will keep a cow better than 
hay. At the above rate, an acre of corn would 
yield fodder enough to last a cow 106 days. To 
keep her on hay an equal time, feeding 25 lbs. 
per day, would cost $13.25, reckoning hay at 
the moderate cost of $10 per tun. 
Stalks are estimated here at about $5 per 
acre: this deducted from $13.25 would leave 
$8 .25 as the value of the 26 j bushels of carrots 
fed in 106 days; or 31 cents per bushel. Many 
may think the stalks estimated at too low a fig¬ 
ure, but I think the increased value of the but¬ 
ter produced by feeding with carrots, would 
balance the amount of under-estimate, if any. 
For other stock than milch cows, I think car¬ 
rots are worth 20 cents per bushel. When cat¬ 
tle or horses are confined to dry feed, a mess of 
6 or 8 quarts of carrots twice a week would, I 
think, do them as much good as the same 
amount of dry feed; hut when fed in large 
quantities, say a bushel a day to cattle, they do 
not pay as well—they appear to be better adapt¬ 
ed to feeding with hay and grain, than to take 
the place of either. Orleans Co. 
Potatoes Cheaply Grown. 
As usually cultivated, potatoes require a se¬ 
rious amount of heavy work in planting, hoeing, 
and harvesting. Anything which promises to 
lighten the labor of raising this indispensable 
crop, is worthy of consideration. The editor of 
the Illinois Farmer proposes an apparently feas¬ 
ible method, where the soil will admit. Com 
stubble, or ground previously occupied by some 
other hoed crop, is chosen, a light furrow, about 
three inches deep, is struck, and the soil deepen¬ 
ed seven to nine inches by the subsoil plow. A 
hoy follows the subsoiler, and drops the seed po¬ 
tatoes, which are cut so as to leave one or two 
eyes to the piece, and laid one foot apart in the 
fun-row. The next shallow furrow slice covers 
the potatoes, and the subsoiler is run through 
as before. At the third furrow, three feet from 
the first, another row of potatoes is dropped, to 
be covered up by the next furrow slice, and so 
on, until the field is finished. In this way, the 
weeds, etc., are all turned under, the best soil is 
left for the nourishment of the growing crop, 
and the whole field is also subsoiled. Two 
teams, and a boy to drop in the seed, will put 
in near two acres a day. 
After planting, the land is left until the shoots 
begin to break the ground, when a two-horse 
harrow is thoroughly used, followed by a roller 
to pulverize the soil. In about a week they are 
ready for the cultivator, with which they are 
dressed once a week until six inches high, and 
then slightly banked up with a shovel plow. 
When the blossoms are set, another bank¬ 
ing up is given with a large shovel plow. 
Weeds growing afterward, are kept down with 
a cultivator, or by hand labor, but the hills or 
drills are not disturbed. The fork spade is re¬ 
commended for digging the crop, but this labor 
may algo be lightened by the use of a potato 
digger, drawn by a horse. 
Laying out a Farm—Economy in Fencing. 
A subscriber in Champaign Co., Ill., asks for 
the best method of laying out a forty acre farm. 
The house, he says, stands nearly in the middle 
of the east line, and back thirty rods from the 
road. In front of it is a low wet spot, etc. 
It is impracticable to answer the many such 
requests that are daily received for information 
for the special benefit of individuals, but the fol¬ 
lowing suggestions may be of service to many 
somewhat similarly situated. 
One of the first points to he studied, is econo¬ 
my in fencing. As usually laid out, farms at 
the East have four rods of fence where one is 
needed. One, two, and three acre lots are com¬ 
mon, and many persons have actually expended 
more for making stone walls than their farms 
would sell for. We suggest as the first division 
of a farm similar to the above, a line running 
just back of the house and parallel with the 
road from the north to the south line of the 
farm. (N. to S. on the diagram.) The wet 
place in front of the house we would drain 
and cover over, making all smooth and dry 
from the house, H, to the road. An acre of 
ground, L, will be enough for the lawn, and this 
may he bordered with fruit or ornamental trees. 
In the rear of this and adjoining the house, a 
large garden, G, may be arranged. The remain¬ 
der of the front lot can be devoted to orchard, O, 
and feeding lots, F, according to the stock kept 
upon the farm and the circumstances of the 
owner. B, marks the location of the barn and 
cattle sheds. If seven acres be devoted to 
these small lots and the farm buildings, it will 
leave thirty three acres in the remainder of the 
farm. These might be divided into three more 
lots by running two fences, 2 and 3, parallel with 
the first, at equal distances apart. This would 
make three eleven-acre lots, and they might be 
cultivated in a three years course, until the 
owner was ready to buy more land. 
The rotation might be, corn on the sod first 
year, wheat the second, and grass the third. 
The rotation will have to be determined by the 
circumstances of the owner, and the markets to 
be supplied. If many cattle are kept, and graz¬ 
ing is the main object, the lots can be kept long¬ 
er in grass. 
In regard to the drainage in front of the house, 
if neither stone nor tiles are available, a drain 
may be made of logs, or even boards, that will 
last many years. The appearance and healthful¬ 
ness of the place will he very much promoted 
by a covered drain. * 
The best Tool for Tillage. 
The stirring of the soil, after the crops are 
started, is a matter of the first importance. 
From one-half to three-fourths of a crop of corn 
may be made by tillage alone. On old land, 
well stocked with weeds, not over twenty bush¬ 
els to the acre could be realized without cultiva¬ 
tion. Twice hoeing and cultivating would 
probably add ten bushels to the acre, and twice 
more would bring the crop up to forty bushels 
per acre. We have seen estimates from farm¬ 
ers, who experimented upon this point, showing 
that every hoeing added from five to ten bush¬ 
els to the acre. 
A great deal of ingenuity has been expended 
upon the implements of tillage. The hoe is 
good enough, but for its expensiveness. The 
light horse plow, or sweep, is much more eco¬ 
nomical ; but these tools require two or three 
furrows to each row, and are a pretty heavy tax 
upon the strength of the horse. The horse har¬ 
row, and cultivator, are great improvements 
upon the plow, for they are much lighter, and 
stir the ground deep enough. The horse-hoe is 
a much lighter implement than the cultivator, 
and if a fanner is investing in new tools, he 
should get this in preference to the cultivator. 
It is merely a question of economizing the 
strength of the horse. A good steel-toothed 
cultivator will make a clean sweep of every 
weed within an inch of the rows of corn, and 
stir the ground deep enough. A horse-hoe 
could not do the work much better, though it 
would draw easier, and the horse might get over 
a little more ground in a day. 
We need not so much better implements of 
tillage, as a more frequent use of those we have. 
Corn can be cultivated wholly with the horse, 
after the first weeding, if the rows run both 
ways; and we doubt if any better use can be 
made of horse flesh, after the first of June, than 
to keep it running between the rows of corn. 
We are confident that five times cultivating will 
pay much better than once, or twice. As be¬ 
tween the horse-hoe, and the steel-toothed culti¬ 
vator upon smooth land, we should say, that 
is the best which is most used. 
Profitable Dairy. —Mr. Reuben Haynes, 
of Barre, (Mass..) stated to the Mass. Legisla¬ 
ture Ag. Society, that a neighbor of his kept 24 * 
cows last season from which he made 650 lbs. 
of cheese per cow, which brought him 101 cts. a 
pound. The calves were sold for $12 a head, 
and each cow should be credited with $10 worth 
of butter, besides the whey and buttermilk fed to 
the hogs; thus giving a return of $88.62 per cow. 
