The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-04-05

on him to more than pay all the expenses
of marketing his turnips. So believe In
Swedish turnips.
"a pretty good turnip story" said
Phineas Barnes "but why do people raise
carrots, If turnips are 80 much better p
because their fathers did," answered
Mr.. Thomas, "just as they go to the same
meeting, and keep few fiat-sided sheep,
and feed farrow cows on meadow hay. |
tell you q carrot is hard and expensive
root to raise, wants good deal Of manure,
the best land, and careful wedding. Ii 10
little, troublesome thing to begin with,
and it don't get over being little, trouble
some thing until along into haying, and
everybody is too busy to look after 1t and
then you have the tormenting little thing
right in your way. II won't make milk,
and it won't make much fat. | think II is
about as good for the cattle and horses as
birthstone and molasses used to be for the
boys"
"Don't you like mangolds ?" said Sam
Barker.
Eyes, pretty WE'LL said John Thomas.
"They require better land, more manure,
earlier sowing, and they will give heavier
crop. The seeds do not come up very well,
and the plants feel the drought more than
a turnip does. But with good, strong.
clayey loan and moist season, and plenty
of manure, with good sprinkling of salt,
you can raise monstrous crop on an acre.
They say Tom Pavson raised seventy-five
tons on one acre of land down at Deer Is
land. And | don't doubt he did, for he
had an unlimited supply of manure and
all the inmates of an almshouse to work
the land"
"Now; one thing more" said Peter Ilsley;
''what do you say to fedder-corn as sum-
mer feed p
Il say" replied John Thomas, "that
fodder-corn, as usually raised, is poor
stuff. 1t will do pretty well if you SOW it
SO thin that the plants will grow to some
degeee of maturity. A compliant, with
spindle to it and an ear, no matter how
small that car may be, is pretty good
thing to give COW. 1t seems to be ma
ture and nourishing, and it is something
like herdsgrass headed out, or millet with
a seed-head in it or like corn stalks, which
| think good deal of as food for mich
cows. But corn plant half grown, look
ing like coarse flag or a rush, full of
juices, and capable of being reduced to
nothing by frost, or by thorough drying, is
utterly useless. l have tried 1t over and
over again. | used to raise it Just as all
my neighbors did, by making furrow,
scattering some manure in it, and sowing
the seed as thick as | could And | used
to feed it to my cows. But the more
fed, the less milk they gave. Ben Adams
did the same. And one day, he strolled
over to my barn along late in August, and
there were my COWS working away at the
fodder-corn, chewing and trashing it up
and down and making terrible fuss oyer
it. "John," said he, "this won't do. This
kind of fodder-corn isn't good for anything.
| wouldn't give cent for barn full of it,
green as this is, to make milk out Of" /
knew Ben was right, but didn't dare to
say so; for everybody raised it, and l
thought what everybody did must be right.
AT last, however, | got desperate, and |
told Huldah that | had either got to get
something better than that stuff to make
milk out of, or she had got to shut up her
dairy in the month of August, anyhow.
But this would never do, and HIuldah knew
it, and said so and in moment of des-
peration she asked me why didn't SOW
the corn thinner or SOW something else
and she said she would stand by me if |
would do either. Well, it was no use to
sow the corn thinncr-because / could not
get enough Of a crop in that way, and
thought | must have the fodder whether it
made milk or not But, at last, conclud-
ed that an acre of millet or Hungarian
grass, all seeded out, and covering every
half-inch of the land, would amount to
something, and so | tried it. And | tell
you, Mr.. President, it works well, and /
don't want any more fodder-corn to dry up
my cows and increase my manure-heap.
Corn stalks like. And after | have sold
off my sweet corn-ears, in the market, l
use the stalks and butts that remain, and
like them. / can make milk in that way.
But your ready fodder-corn, half ripe, with
out any maturity In it, / look upon with
perfect contempt"
At this point, Peter Ilsley rose up in his
wrath. He said he would not stand such
an attack upon one of the great blessings
of heaven. .Fodder-corn, he thought, had
been presented to man like mama in the
desert, and if John Thomas did not find it
good. it was because he did not know how
to raise or use it. He had seen it fed on
John Thomas's farm, fifty years before I;
cut up at noon, scattered about in the
pasture, the COWS waiting for it all
the morning and lying about all
the afternoon digesting it, and making no
milk. But that wasn't the way to feed it.
And John Thomas ought to know better
than to condemn an article which he
thought to be useless because his father
did not know how to use it, 1t was an
outrage.
"But," said Thomas, with some heat, 81
quit that plan, long ago, and the thing
don't work now"
"Well," said Ilsley, 'that is your own
fault, and l should advise you to leave
your nonsense, if you ever expect to have
any more influence in this town. If you
don't quit your attack on fodder-corn, l
will run you off the board of selectmen
next year, or my name isn't Peter"
Mr.. Hopkins found 1t was high time to
interfere. He called Peter Ilsley to order,
reminded him that an honest difference of
opinion was always allowable. and mildly
suggested that he had better try few ex-
periments in the millet and fodder-corn
business, before he condemned his nelghbor
Thomas in such unmeasured terms. Here
the debate ended. Everybody regretted the
quarrel. The members of the club dis
persed-but not as joyfully as on former
occasions they rather stihy withdrew
from the house, and Mr.. Hopkins and Mr..
Howe were left alone to cheer themselves
and remove the cloud, by conversing on So
cial life in America, and enlarging upon the
vitallzing influence of free citizenship on
the mind and heart When thew senaratad