150 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
May 
and of course in better demand in the market. He new 
agrees with me in regard to the importance of this sub¬ 
ject to the farming community. 
If there are 300,000 farmers in this state who will con¬ 
sent to try this experiment the present season, and 
make a fair report on or before the first of March next, 
I have no doubt the result would be equally favorable. 
Again, Mr. Sherwood, of Richland, an enterprising 
young farmer, at my solicitation, promised to sow one- 
fourth of an acre. He reported to me yesterday. He 
obtained a yield of over 1,700 bushels per acre. [It 
may not be amiss to inquire how the yield was com¬ 
puted—whether by measure or by weight? If by mea¬ 
sure, great care would be necessary or the yield w'ould 
be overrated. Weight is unquestionably the fairest cri¬ 
terion. The Massachusetts rule, we think, is sixty lbs. 
for a bushel.— Ed.] 
I might go on and multiply instances—indeed I have 
never known an instance where the experiment has 
been faithfully tried, that has not resulted in abundant 
satisfaction. I respectfully request every cultivator of 
the soil in this state, to sow and cultivate in the best 
manner, the present season, on a good rich soil, at least 
a few rods of carrots. Let this be done, and we shall 
not hear so frequently of a scarcity and high price of 
hay and butter. Thomas S. Meacham. 
• Richland , N. Y, April 4, 184b. 
WINTER FOOD FOR STOCK 
To enable herbivorous animals to assimilate their 
food, it is necessary that the nutriment should be dis¬ 
seminated through sufficient bulk to give distention to 
the bowels during the process of digestion. In addition 
to bulk, ruminating animals require also food of a fi¬ 
brous nature to enable them to chew the cud—a func¬ 
tion which experience proves is essential to health. 
Green herbage is undoubtedly the food best adapted to 
the natural wants of these animals. It has been remark¬ 
ed by a sensible writer on this subject, Mr. W. C. 
Spooner, that good grass is the only kind of food in 
which nutriment, bulk, and succulence are combined in 
the proportions exactly suited to their habits. But in 
many situations where the wants of man render the 
keeping of stock indispensible, it is impossible to supply 
them at all times with what may be considered their 
most natural food; and for this, we must therefore adopt 
the most proper substitute. 
Dried herbage of the kind which in its green state is 
most congenial to animals, is unquestionably the most 
suitable for the principal, or bulky part of their food 
during the time in which artificial support is required. 
Hence, hay properly made, from the most nutritive 
grasses, and from clover, is first to be chosen. But even 
with the best of hay, something more is required to form 
for the animal a perfectly natural food. Succulence is 
wanting, and in most dry fodder there is a deficiency of 
nutriment. 
It is, of course, an object for the farmer to grow such 
crops as will furnish food for his stock at the least ex¬ 
pense ; but as circumstances in regard to soil, climate, 
&c., vary much, no rule of universal application can be 
laid down. The cereal grains, on account of the large 
proportion of nutriment which they contain, will al¬ 
ways be profitably cultivated and used to a greater or 
less extent. And so far as the production of food for 
stock is required, Indian corn will take the first rank 
among grain-crops, in all situations adapted to its culture. 
The deficiency of nutriment in any kind of dry fod¬ 
der, may be supplied by adding to the animal’s allow¬ 
ance, a due proportion of some kind of grain; but to 
furnish the animal with food most congenial to its natu¬ 
ral habits, the addition of something more succulent 
would doubtless in many cases be of advantage. Hay 
or straw, with moderate quantities of grain, in some 
form, together with juicy vegetables, furnish the best 
substitute for grass. 
In this country, potatoes, turneps, carrots, beets, &c. 
are sometimas cultivated, either for fattening animals, 
or as auxiliaries to dry food in wintering stock. The 
question is often asked, which of these articles can be 
most profitably grown by the farmer? and as be¬ 
fore suggested, the answer must depend on several cir¬ 
cumstances. The writer has had some experience in 
cultivating and using all these vegetables, and a few of 
the conclusions induced by this experience will be 
btiefly stated. 
1. On cold and rough soils, or those of only medium 
and inferior quality, the potatoe is to be preferred. 
2. On warm, rich soils, the carrot is most profitable. 
3. Between beets and turneps, the latter should be 
chosen for the more thin soils and a cool climate, and 
the former for a deeper soil and a more warm and arid 
climate. 
According to the estimates made by Thaer, Veit, and 
others, (and which it may be observed are supported 
generally by the writer’s experience,) of the compara¬ 
tive value of these vegetables, two bushels of potatoes 
are equivalent in feeding animals to three bushels of 
beets, or to three of ruta-baga, four of white turneps, 
or two and three-fourths of carrots—allowing the same 
weight per bushel for each. Some estimate the carrot 
equal to the potatoe, weight for weight. 
On rough and thin soils, potatoes can be cultivated 
with much less labor than either of the other vegeta¬ 
bles named, and there are but few situations where a yield 
of at least two hundred bushels per acre may not be ob¬ 
tained. This would be equal to three hundred bushels 
of beets or ruta-baga, or four hundred of white turneps; 
and yet we are confident we have raised from two to 
three hundred bushels of potatoes per acre, in situations 
where neither beets, turneps, nor carrots would have 
given a greater yield, though the cost of cultivation 
would have been considerably more. 
But on soils exactly adapted to carrots, a yield can be 
obtained so much greater than is afforded by potatoes, 
as to throw the balance decidedly in favor of the for¬ 
mer. 
Carrots may be sown from the 10th of April to the 
1st «f June, though on light and dry soils, we should 
prefer sowing them as early as the ground is found to 
have acquired a sufficient degree of heat to cause the 
seed to vegetate. Beets may be sown from the first to 
the 20th of May—ruta-baga from the 20th May to 10th 
June—and flat or common white turneps, from the 20th 
July to 10th August. The chief advantage of raising 
the latter for stock, consists in the lateness of the sea¬ 
son at which it admits of being sown—frequently occu¬ 
pying land from which a crop of hay or rye may have 
been taken the same season. They are very useful for 
cattle and sheep the fore part of winter, though their 
real value is thought to be fifty per cent, less than po¬ 
tatoes. 
Carrots, beets, and turneps are sown to best advan¬ 
tage with a machine. A good machine will do the 
work better than it can be done by hand, and with a 
great, saving of labor. After the ground is well pre¬ 
pared, a man will sow or plant from an acre to two 
acres in a day—according to the distance between the 
rows. Carrots will bear thick planting. Mr. Risley, 
of Chatauque county, a successful competitor for the 
premiums on this crop offered by the N. Y. State Ag. 
Society, makes his rows about ten inches apart. If, 
however, it is desired to use the horse-hoe or cultivator 
in managing the crop, a greater distance must be given, 
—say twenty to twenty-two inches. Where the use of 
implements drawn by a horse are resorted to, it is obvi¬ 
ous that more space must be allowed between the rows 
than the carrots require; but this objection may be in a 
good degree counteracted by sowing two rows as near 
together as will just allow the working of a hoe between 
them, leaving the alternate spaces sufficiently wide to ad¬ 
mit the harrow or cultivator. The plants should stand in 
the row at about the distance of three inches. The 
white Belgian carrot is most easily grow T n, but is thought 
to be less nutritive than the yellow varieties. 
Beets and ruta-baga should be sown in row 7 s, at the 
distance of two feet, and thinned to a foot apart in the 
row. After having been gone over with the hoe once 
or twice and carefully thinned, the cultivator will do 
the working, if properly used. In fact it is only neces- 
