Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1874-11-13
CARROTS FOR COWS AND HOW
TO GROW THEM.

TO GROW THEM.
When fed to my cows, carrots very mate
rally affect the milk and butter. The milk
is richer, the butter of higher and more
golden appearance, and the flavor superior
to grass butter. have been in the habit of
growing good many mangolds, Swedes and
white turnips for my COWS, in addition to
carrots, parsnips aud beets. Swodes and
turnips give the milk and butter high col
orr but then they both taste Of the turnips,
which, to iastidious people, is Objectionable.
A few carrots given to COW two or three
days in week will produce visible effect
on the milk and cream but TO the keen eye
OF the singing milkmaid, the beets and red
mangolds are visible ia the milk when she
goes to empty her milk pans,-the pink sed-
iment is clearly to be seen when the milk is
poured off. They give higher color to the
butter, but not the flavor that carrots do.
l pillow the ground for carrots and parsnips
as deep as | can stick the plow in. the end
Of the beam occasionally catching the sur
.face,---none Of your skim plowing for these
roots,--a parsnip will 90 down three feet, if
you will plow that deep. Manure the ground
with stable or barn-yard manure, and plow
II in then make the drills about eighteen
inches apart, into which scatter q little more
rotten manure, and SOW the seed on the top
and cover lightly WITH onc-horse harrow,
taking care to keep the horse between the
rows. When the carrots and parnsips are
up about two inches, go through with gar
den hoe about four inches wide and cut out
all the plants in that space, leaving about
the same width Of plants as have cut out
then according to the season and weather,
go through again in a few days with the hoe,
aud take out about half the lot FIRST left
then, in few days, 60 through again and
pull out all but one plant, taking care to
keep the ground well worked between the
rows and clear from weeds. The crop will
pay for the extra labor. If Constant
Reader " is afraid the work and labor won't
pay for the trouble, let him take the spade
aud double dig q couple of rods square, and
plant as before directed. The spade, with
the Dutch and Yankee farmer, is a tool too
little used, but one an Englishman can use
as London life-guardsman handles broad
sword
Perhaps It may not be far out of place to
give Constant Reader and others the
mode of double digging. Square off your
ground, then dig a trench spades width
and depth, and throw it scattering, as far
back as you can; then a second spades
width, and throw that back too; that will
help to Gil up your last trench. Then dig
second trench as the first, turning in to bot
tom of trench the first spaded SOIL and the
next on top. You then know what you have
at the bottom. Go on all through the square,
putting in to the trench plenty of good stable
throwing muck as you 60 on digging and
need it. If the ground is wccdy, let the boy
pull them up and bury them in the bottom
of the trench and it you don't get carrots
and paIsnips, write and tell me | know
naught about carrot growing. That piece of
land SO worked will show to an inch for sew.
eral years, let the crop be what it may.
Carrots and parsnips must be sown early in
the spring, The ground and crop will be
made better it it is double dug and trenched
this fall, before frozen too hard /; throw it
up in ridges eighteen or twenty.four inches
| high. Parsnips, it sown in October on
ground so prepared, will come out all right
in spring,--the winter don't kill them out
very often. Parsnips and parsley are seeds
which take long time to germnate and
come up. have also fed out good deal
Of cabbage and pumpkins to my milking
cows, both Of which added very much to the
quantity Of the milk = but pumpkins give a
larger percentage Of butter aud higher color
than cabbage. Soon as changed the pump
kin feed TO cabbage, the butter showed il
While my pen is wet | will just add that
on cornstalks, pumpkins and carrots, with
some good timothy hay, and plenty of good
clean water, my milking COWS kept up tc
their milk and flesh better than on any other
feed but one secret attendant was, the cows
had good, warm, well battened stable to be
in at night, all through the winter, and when
showing were not turned out. Sometimes
they were out aud caught in a snow storm,
but when brought in t1ey were well brushed
down and rubbed over with wisp Of straw
Another word about carrots; if you feed
out to horses about pint or three half.pints
Of cut carrots a day in their oats, you will
soon see difference in their outward ap
pearance their insdcs are strengthened anC
their wind heightened. Perhaps it is moi
generally known that the "big bugs" o.
England buy carrots by the ton, for theil
hunting horses; such feed adds very much
to their endurance in the chase, especially il
0 wet day and across a heavy country, fol
they sometimes do go at a rattling pace
Cor. Ner0 England Farmer.