State Contention—Butter-Making, Etc. 297 
will thrive on the most concentrated food. We know that pota¬ 
toes make good human food. Beets and carrots are rather watery, 
yet carrots are better human food than beets. A man would 
thrive and work better on carrots, than on beets. Potatoes are no 
doubt the best, containing the greatest percentage of starch; if they 
are valuable above the beet, it is because they contain starch rather 
than sugar. I think a very good measure of the value of any of 
those roots, would be the relation in which they stand to the hu¬ 
man family; the human system. We all know we can live on po¬ 
tatoes and work, when we could not very well on beets; parsnips 
are also good food. 
Mr. Allen: I am a good deal of a clover-fanatic myself; and I 
commenced a year ago raising beets, thinking to feed them to my 
cattle. I disregarded it wholly recently, and have adopted clover 
cut early, very soon after blossoming. That, well cured, comes the 
nearest to a grass-feed of anything I have been able to find, and 
will give the best coloring to the butter. It is the best food, nu¬ 
tritious food, that I can find for my cow, excepting corn-meal. If 
corn-meal is fed to a cow, in connection with clover cut early, and 
well cured, it is the best. 
Mr. Smith: How much clover did you cut to the acre? 
Mr. Allen: That depends on how much plaster I put on. 
Mr. Smith: This year. 
Mr. Allen: Four tons and a half from two cuttings to the acre- 
Mr. Smith: How would the value of that compare with a 
thousand pounds of beets that could be raised ? 
Mr. Allen: I can raise three acres of clover easier than I can 
an acre of beets. , 
Mr. Whiting: This discussion has taken rather a wide range. 
The most of the questions propounded seem to be rather collateral 
to the main question in view. I wish to propound another that is 
still wandering further from the track, but is to me a matter of con¬ 
siderable interest. I made some attempts to raise carrots. I think 
they are a valuable root. I have been so nearly thwarted on ac¬ 
count of weeds, that I have not been very successful in that under¬ 
taking. I would like to ask Mr. Wood, or some gentleman of ex¬ 
perience in raising carrots, how they succeed in getting them to a 
sufficient growth, so the weeds would not choke them out, al¬ 
though I believe I took the usual amount of care in guarding 
