The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1874-12-25
A Farmer, and Something Else.

"No man can serve two masters. "
There is no truer axiom than this when
applied to the business pursuits Of life.
No man can pursue profitably two kinds
of business and make both an equal sue
cess, or be successful with both. If a
man has farm, that is business enough
If he has love of thepursuit. If he has
not liking for it, and cannot give his
whole mind and energies to it, he ought
TO take some profession or pursuit
which suits him better. Lord Palmer
ston said, "Our new gardener does
pretty we'll, and understands the theory
of his department, but he is Meth
odist and goes preaching about the
country every Sunday, and l fear he
thinks too much of his sermons to be
very successful in his garden"
Now this is the case with numberles IS
farmers, as we'll as with men of other
cailings They get hold of some hobby,
and they get all absorbed with it and
lose sight entirely of the main business
of their lives. They neglect great in
terest for the sake of some light, attrac-
tive employment, which at best is
ephemeral. ALL over the country we
ind men who are partly farmers and
partly implement agents, or stock-buy'
ing agents, or perhaps Bible or other
book agents, and always, when we find
such men, we find that they are not
good farmers, nor are they first-class
agents. The farm is left to the hired
help, or the inexperienced oversight
of the boys, and then there are q great
many small leaks and losses, which,
though seemingly insignificant in them
selves, yet reduce the annual profits
largely, and more and more every year.
A man cannot be tip-top farmer and
yet be something else too; it is out of
the question. It has been tried too
often, and the result is always the same.
The farm runs down, the returns grow
less and less, and at last mortgage
sweeps everything.
Nutritive Properties of the Carrot and
Parsnip.
In the Channel Islands, where pars-
nips are highly esteemed as food for
mich COWS and fattening cattle, they
are considered superior to the carrot in
nutritive properties, and both are said
to be superior to Swedish turnips.
The Red Antringham carrot is known TO
be much more nutritious than the White
Belgian.
In the journal of the Royal Agricul-
tural Society of England, Vol. XII,
page 1876, DIR. Voelcker compares the
white or Belgian carrot and parsnip,
and says that there is general resem-
blance in the composition of both roots,
but parsnips contain less sugar than
carrots, the deficiency being supplied
by starch. Carrots contain an average
of twelve per cent. of solid substances,
parsnips eighteen per cent. The flesh
forming constituent of parsnips is great
er than that of carrots. Fresh parsnips
contain 100 per cent. and dry 1875 per
per cent. of hesh-forming constituents.
Fresh carrots 6.12 per cent. and dry
5.48 per cent. of the same.
Parsnips contain more nitrogen than
carrots, in the form of ammoniacal salts,
and they also contain double portion
of fatty matter. The difference in the
relative proportion of cellular fiber in
both roots is very great and the cellular
fiber is very useful in the animal econ
omy, being converted by the gastric
juice into gum and sugar, and applied
in feeding the respiration and in the
production of fat. Parsnips are more
valuable than carrots for feeding mich
COWS ami also for fattening animals.
They stand frost better than any other
root crop.