ROOT CROPS FOR FEEDING. Very few farmers estimate the relation in value of root crops, to the other crops of the farm. The cul tivation of beets in France and Germany, has added one quarter to the number of cattle that may be fed; and also added twenty-five per cent. per acre to the production of wheat in those coun tries. Why ? Nothing is exported but the sugar of the crop. The beet pulp after the sugar is taken, is one of the most valuable of foods for cattle; and the cattle fed return large quantities of rich manure to the soil. Crops of beets are among the best fallow crops known ; for the land must be put in first rate condition and kept abso lutely free from weeds. This done, there is no difficulty in raising great crops of anything which follows. Among a very important class of wes tern men, the cultivation of root crops might be of great value. These are stock breeders and dairymen. Fortunately this class can afford to cultivate them systematically. Our extreme sum mer droughts render the cultivation of turnips impracticable. Not so other roots, and especially beets. We do not advocate the cultivation of roots by the general farmer, although if done to such a degree that each horse, sheep, head of swine or cattle kept, could have a certain quan tity each day in connection with other food, it would be found profitable in enhanced health to the stock. If Short-Horn herds received a quota of roots every day in the winter, and if milch cows were fed roots during the same season, we should hear much less of infertile animals amOng the farmers, and of abortions, and that class of disabilities among this class of stock. For this reason we shall give the most feasible plan of cultivation, for experimenting with such crops by these classes. The cultivation and prepara tion of the soil, it will not be necessary to resume, except to say that the soil must be deeply worked, well manured, and free from the seeds of weeds. Among the implements of culture, a leveler and a roller are indispensable. A leveler is thus made: Take two 4x4 hard wood seantlings, eight feet long. Fasten them together with strong one and a half inch pins, so they shall be two and a half to three feet apart. To the forward -piece fasten a chain so that it may form a V to draw by. Put a walking board on the pins, between the scantling, to stand on. Thus by taking proper positions, you may make the lev eler draw more or less diagonally, catching the earth at the high places and moving it to the lower. Go over the land both ways if necessary, and you will be surprised at the result, if you have not heretofore known this. Accuracy in marking the land, that rows may be perfectly straight, and at equal distances from each other, is indispensable. A strong plank eight feet long, with runners and a tongue attached, will make five marks, two feet apart, and will run steady if you attach a stout rope of proper length from the near and the off hame rings of the harness, to the outside of the marker. If the marker be sawed into three sections, and again joined with strong strap hinges, it will fit inequalities in the ground. Let the markers be of sled runner shape, as they will press the earth rather than stir it, making the marks as shallow as possible, and so that they can be seen. Having passed once through, in returning keep one shoe accurately in the last track made; and then with a little care your plat will be ready for the drill. Any of the better class of garden drills will sow your seed accu rately and perfectly. So soon as the seed appears above ground, work as closely to the rows as pos sible with a stirrup, wheel, hoe or other suitable implement, and as soon as the plants gain a little size, thin them with a narrow hand hoe; if beets .or ruta-bagas, into squares of six inches apart. The latter, however, are better thinned entirely by hand, at the time of weeding. We have given
the distance of two feet apart for the rows, since .at this distance a common one-horse cultivator may be shut close enough to clean between the rows if care be used, and after the plants get some size there will be little difficulty in work ing the crop. In seeding, sow thick, not less than four pounds of carrots or parsnips, and six to eight of beets per acre, many sow twelve. It is far easier to thin than to lose a stand, for re planting never pays/ Sow from the first to the tenth of May, north of the latitude of southern Iowa, or Central Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. In these latitudes the last of April will be proper. If South, still earlier. Ruta-bagas should be sown .about the 25th of May, in the latitude first named, since it is difficult to get a stand if sown later, •on account of the fly, drought, etc. If you lose the first crop, sow again. Beets should not be sown more than an inch deep; carrots and parsnips one-half inch, and rutabagas still more shallow. Roll the whole surface even, after planting, since this will make the cultivation easier. The theoretical value of any food is the dry matter it contains. Its real value consists in the power of the anima] organism to assimilate the organic matter contained. The amount of the several proximate organic bodies in a ton of kernels of corn, dry, according to the analysis of Salisbury, are: The per cent. of dry matter in 100 parts of the kernels of white flint corn, according to the same authority, is 62.56, and 37.44 per cent. water. A proximate analysis of rnangold. fresh, by Horseford and Kracker, in 100 parts, gave: Albuminous matter 2.04 Sugar 12.26 Cellulose and other nitrogenous snbstances 2.56 Mineral substances 0.89 liVater 82.25 moo Thus we have in beets, of solid matter, 17.75 per cent. as against 62.56 in corn, or three and a half times as much. So, theoretically, 100 pounds of corn should go as far as 350 pounds of beets; but practically, 250 pounds of beets will feed as far as 100 pounds of corn, for this reason: the beets are more perfectly- digested than the corn. Again, it will require under the most favorable circum stances, the labor of a man and team two and a half days to raise and crib a ton of corn, or an acre; this will represent at $3.00 per day, $7.50. Under equally favorable circumstances four tons of beets may be raised for the same money. But let us look at the matter in another light. We have shown that a ton of corn, which corres ponds to a good crop, contains per acre, exclu sive of water, 1848.20 pounds of solid matter. According to Johnson, twenty tons of mangold, an average yield per acre, under ordinary cir cumstances, contains 4,950 pounds of starch, sugar, etc. ; 900 pounds of gluten, etc.; 900 pounds of fiber, and 450 pounds of saline matter, equals 7,200 pounds, or about four times the amount contained in the acre of corn. An acre of corn costs $7.50; the acre of beets, if raised by hand, will cost $30; and thus, again, we are even, allowing that both are equally assimilated, which every man knows they are not, unless the corn is ground. The point lies just here: To.reach the best results, the grain and vegetable food should be fed together, since one contains largely of fatty matter, and the other of nitrogenous matter, and so one assists the other. For our selves, we have reaehed the best results in feed ing a half bushel of roots, and a peck of meal, to each fattening ox per day. This was near Chicago, where mills were plenty, and when the culture of roots could be economically carried on. Different results might be obtained where corn was cheaply raised, and roots difficult of culture. Still this does not alter the question of value in the animal economy.