River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1889-01-24
Will it Pay to Raise Roots to Feed in
the St. Croix VaIley7

=
1881
l shall limit my inquiries to carrots,
turnips, rutabagas, beets and mangel-
wurzels. The st. Cioix valley affords
all the requisites of light, rich,
loamy soil and the climate necessary
to give good crops of all these roots.
No crops will be more proportionately
increased by heavy manuring than
these. Carrots with reasonably good
cultivation will yield from 400 to 700
bushels per acre-from 10 to IA tons
of excellent food. Rutabagas, turnips,
beets and mangelwurZels with an av-
erage season and fair cultivation will
yield from 800 to 1900 bushels per
acre-from "a to SO tons. These are
not exceptional crops, they are within
the range of our own experience the
past season, and we should have no
trouble to find those about us who
could give figures representing much
larger crops to attest their. success.
Cheap root cellars can be constructed
bysexcavating the earth on the side of
evsl very slightly descending slope,
which ensures drainage, and covering
as one may judge best, even with a
straw pile, so it is made accessible
through the winter, remembering that
ventilation is necessary to insure cool
ness with moisture, as moisture with
warmth begets decay and excessive
dryness with warmth causes shIivel-
ing.
The advantage of roots over dry
food for all stock in the winter season
may not be altogether conceded by all
farmers, or that they possess any prop
critics acting to keep the bowels in a
free and healthy state. which result
may not also be attained by the use of
the rich cake meals added to the Tegu-
lar dry feed. But we think expert
ence in their use will sustain this
claim. We scarcely need mention the
value of carrots, if fed only three or
four times a week, for brood animals
whether horse or cows, enabling them
70 maintain that healthy condition
which ensures their well doing. The
value of turnips or rutabagas for sheep
is proverbial; for cattle. if cut, the
same. Beets and mangel-wurZels are
more valuable for later feed. Kept
till February and on till grass comes
they seem to improve in richness and
used then are at their best. These
are especially good for swine. OF
course no one in this day of expert
mental test and knowledge would
advocate any exclusive ration of roots
as feed for any animals, but with
other foods they supply in measure
that succulence in the food which
stock SO much enjoys in the green
pastures in summer. Whether these
requisites can be as cheaply or more
cheaply, as easily or more easily OBJ
tanned from the use of ensilage is
question not fully determined.
But our scientific analysts tell us
there is very little food value in the
composition of any of these rOOts-less
than is contained in wheat or rye
straw. Whatever science may dis
cover in the composition of these
roots in the chemists laboratory,
which determines their food value,
every intelligent and observant farmer
who has fed them to any considerable
extent to his stock can readily testify
that in the animal economy are elm
mated elements of value not measured
in the results given by science. The
results of some experiments made at
the Guelph Agricultural College of
Ontario, in Canada, are of much in
terest in considering this subject:
The practical question to be de-
termined was the relative value of
roots and gran as food for dairy cat
tie. OF course where dairying inter
ests are considerable it is first object
to maintain the yield and quality of
milk during the winter months-and
to do this with the greatest economy
by using the cheapest food. Grain
feeding for cattle is expensive and
especially so in climate like our own
where the corn crop IS not always
certain one. 1t is we'll known that
cattle are literally fed on various root
products in England and especially in
Scotland, and the practice of dairy
farmers must be decided by the rela-
tive amounts of nutrition furnished |
by the different diets as shown by an |
analysis of the milk product. The |
tests made cover period of five years |
though particular attention was given |
and unusual thOroughness secured in |
the experiments of last winter. In |
each case hay of course was fed. The |
grain used in combination with hay |
food was oats, peas. and barley ground |
and mixed dry with the hay. The |
roots experimental with were mangel-
wurzels, Swede turnips and white Bel
gian carrots, cut and mixed with the |
hay. The cattle selected were or
binary short-horn grades and were
MIXED twice each day. The results
are striking. The yield per day of
milk under the root ration averaged /
1919 pounds and under the grain ration
2215 pounds. The daily cost was 49, |
cents for the root ration and 81 cents
under the grain ration, or 911a mills
for the one and 1879 mills for the |
other per pound of milk produced, or
9 4 cents and IA cents per gallon re-
spectively. The college bulletin re-
ferred to gives brief practical deduc-
tions from these ascertained facts. |
The most important of these conclu-
siOns is that root food produced about |
the same amount of milk as grain |
food, without spelling the milk. with
out reducing animal weight at 30 per
cent. less cost, and that, even though /