The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-08-17
Turnips for Feeding Purposes.

mangolds and turnips; and that considering
how we'll the American climate and soil are
adapted to their culture, as well as our need
OF them arising from our dry summers and
long winter feeding seasons, 1t Is truly sur
prising that so little attention has been
given to these crops in this country He
speaks of having grown 25 tons of turnips
(Strap-leaved) on an acre, which he valued
at s. 50 per ton. The yield is large, due to
judicious fertilizing and careful culture
yet it is not hard to grow twenty tons of
Strap-leaved or Yellow Aberdeen turnips to
the acre. AS for their value, So so per ton
Is not out Of the way when average
hay is worth SIS per ton. The actual feed
ing value of rurnips must not be Judged by
their theoretical feeding value as deter
mined by chemical analyses. Thus Petri
Thaer and Pabst found the actual feeding
| value of Swedish turnips more than twice
as great, and SchwertZ more than three
| times as great as the theoretical value OBJ
| tanned by Boussingault, using hay as the
standard. The character of the food gives
1t special value when fed during the late
| summer and fall, when the pastures are
| dry, Ut during the winter when such feeds
as hay, straw and grain must be relied upon
| largely. Turnips not only nourish the ami
NAL by relieving the course of dry feeding,
but they tend TO preserve the health of the
animal, especially of the digestive and
assimilative organs, and, both directly and
| indirectly, they sharpen the appetite and
make digestion and assimilation more thor
| ough.
1t will pay the American farmer to grow
turnips for all classes Of cattle, but I'M
doubtedly they give the best results when
fed to dairy cattle. In Mr.. Harley's famous
Ios- I,.I,-
trlbuted more than anything else to i'm
prove the quality of milk furnished to all
the cities of Great Britain" part of the
system of feeding adopted as the most
profitable, was as follows:
when grass became scarce, young tur-
nips and turnip leaves were steamed with
hay, and formed a good substitute. AS
grass decreased, the turnips were increased,
and at length became a complete substi-
tute. AS spring approached. Swedish
turnlps, when cheap, were substituted for
yellow turnips. These two roots, steamed
with hay and other mixtures, afforded soft
food till grass was again in season.
In his "Milch Cows and Dairy Farming
Mr.. Flint says:
in London diaries where, of course, the
COWS are fed so as to produce the largest
flow of milk, the treatment is as follows:
The COWS are kept at night in stalls About
When milking is finished, each receives q
bushel of turnips or mangolds. and shortly
afterward, one-tenth of a truss of hay =
When the afternoon milking Is finished,
they are fed with bushel Of turnips."
1t will be seen that turnips are fed largely
when the object is quality and also when it
is quantity of milk; and [ think we shall
have to acknowledge that our British
brethren feed more intelligently and
economically than we do. The necessities
of their circumstances have forced them to
do so. Mr.. Flint speaks highly of turnips
especially for winter feeding, on this side of
the Atlantic; and | am safe in saving that
every dairyman that has made judicious
use of turnips as feed for his COWS will
heartily indorse Mr.. Flint's recommenda-
ton.
Turnips are a very valuable feed for
swine, and it seems very strange to me that
their value as a feed for this class of farm
animals Is not so generally recognized as to
lead to the large production of them as feed
for swine. | have grown turnips for years,
principally for feeding to hogs The crop
costs SO little (of which hereafter), that the
nutriment it affords, without regard to its
value as complement of other foods, or as
health promoter, would make it profita-
BILE crop to grow. In those parts of our
country where hogs are most extensively
grown, corn Is very easily produced, and is
such an excellent food for fattenng hogs
that it is used almost exclusively for this pur-
pose.
In fact, it may be said that so many hogs
are grown in these localities because corn
can be produced SO abundantly and cheaply.
But this well-nigh exclusive and heavy
feeding Of corn very often produces or
paves the way for disease, called, whatever
may | g its nature, "hog cholera" and it is
significant that a much higher percentage
of our swine than of our other farm ami
mails are lost by disease. Experience has
shown me that breaking this monotony of
corn feeding by feeding other foods is very
powerful in preventing diseases. Our hogs
have been practically free from disease for
twenty years In that time we have not
lost by diseases of all kinds near per cent.
of the hogs we have handled, while the av-
erage loss of the country has been above 10
per cent. While we provide other feeds
turnips are among the most important, of
those we look to for a variety in the ration
for swine, and to correct the deficiency and
monotony and also the conStipating and
other unwholesome tendencies of a corn
diet.
For feeding to swine, turnips must be
cooked. This is neither a laborious nor an
expensive task when one provides himself
with large iron kettles swung from poles
out of DOORS The fuel should be dry; |
know of nothing better than pieces of old
fence rails, seasoned grubs or other dry rub
bish After the kettles are flied and the
fires started. the cooking requires very little
attention 1t is well to cook part of the
corn, either in the grain or ground Il prefer
the former with the turnips; and for pigs,
| it is well to add some oats and wheat bran
| In all but hot weather-and practically all
| the turnips will be fed in cool weather-tke
mixture should be fed quite warm. In
winter, especially, the troughs should be
close to the kettles, so that their meal may
be fixed for the swine before it has cooled
| Not to feed the mixture warm, as recom>
mended, is to throw away decided advant-
age. The warm meal warns the animals
| up in cool weather; it sharpens the appetite
| and invigorates digestion and assimilation.
| The effect of q warm meal as compared with
| a cold one in cold weather is of the same
nature and as marked in the case of the
| lower animals as of man.
Turnips can be grown after crop of
sweet corn, early fodder corn, early pota-
| toes, or upon rye, wheat or oats stubble,
| thus permitting Of two crops upon the land
| in one season. The ground, especially if it
! be ground that has been in sweet corn or
| early potatoes or fodder corn, need not be
| plowed again. In fact, il is better not TO
| plow it, but to cut it up with the disc har-
, row. Hence the work of preparation is
| easy and inexpensive, although the ground
! should he put in extra good tllth. Success
| in turnip raising depends largely upon hav-
| ing very fine, clean seed bed. The turnip
seed may be broadcasted or sowed in drills.
| The latter method permits of cultivation,
and with cultivation it produces the larger