River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1895-10-31
POTATOES AS A FOOD FOR LIVE
STOCK.
BY W. A. HENRY,
Director Wis. Agricultural Experiment Station

BY W. A. HENRY,
Director Wis. Agricultural Experiment Station.
Wisconsin farmers have harvested the largest
crop OF potatoes ever grown in the state only to
find that the markets are glutted at exceed
| ingly low prices. There has also been an un-
| usually heavy grain crop harvested in most
sections aud with bins overlooking an enor-
nous quantity of potatoesWill be wasted unless
their feeding value is appreciated and they are
| intelligently handled.
While potatoes are extensively used in many
countries for stock food, their value for this
purpose is little known and less appreciated
by our people, because most years prices have
ruled so high that there was more profit in SELL
ing than feeding. Bitter as is the diSappoint-
ment concerning results, the present offers an
opportunity for practical lesson in the feed
ing value of potatoes, which If rightly practiced
win turn impending loss into fair profit
after all
WHAT EXPERIMENTS SHOW.
Girard, the French investigator, in expert
ments with steers and sheep. secured the fol-
lowing results:
Steers fed Ito lbs. beets per day gained 2 90
pounds per day.
Steers fed So lbs. potatoes per day gained 2s6
pounds per day.
Steers fed CO lbs. potatoes per day gained 3. 50
pounds per day.
sheep fed SIS lbs. beets per day gained .l2i
pounds per day.
Sheep fed "A lbs. potatoes per day gained
.239 pounds per day.
sheep fed Go lbs. potatoes per day gained
20 pounds per day.
In the above experiments the potatoes were
cooked before feeding, a practice not 10 be
generally followed excepting with swine. In
all eases hay and straw were fed additional.
Tile 1guppS ShoxV that Wal worth
considerably more than twice their weight of
field beets
Girard ,oncludes: "The potato when free
from rot and mature must be considered as
food of excellent merit for producing meat
Fjord, the great investigator of feeding stuffs
in Denmark, found as the result of many ex-
periments that four lbs. of potatoes furn ished
as much nutriment to animals rs one pound of
rye or barley.
The writer conducted experiments few
years since to ascertain the value of potatoes
for hogs. The potatoes were carefully weighed
and then cooked in iron kettles and a weighed
amount Of corn meal added so as to make
thick pudding or mush. These experiments
show that i45 pounds of potatoes were equal to
100 pounds of corn meal in pig feeding In
other experiments have shown that corn meal
had a somewhat higher feeding value than bar
ley This true, my results are practically con-
cordant with Fjord's, and we may assume with
safety that four pounds of potatoes are worth
one pound of barley or rye and almost the
same weight of corn meal for hog feeding.
Cooked potatoes to which meal has been
added are excellent food for fowls
Besides their nutritiye value, potatoes are
helpful in furnishing a variety of food and
keeping animals in healty condition. a point
always considered by the prudent stock man.
From what has been said above, we see that
when corn is worth 40 cents a bushel, potatoes
are worth about 10 cents bushel for feeding
purposes.
HOW To FEED POTATOES.
Although Girard favored cooking for steers
and sheep, general experience goes to show
that they can be most economically used by
feeding raw to all farm animals, excepting hogs
aud fowls.
For horses, sheep and dairy cows, potatoes
should be sliced in a root-cutter or chopped in
a box with a sharp spade.
Mich cows may be fed with advantage as
much as 25 pounds of sliced potatoes per day;
if a greater weight than this is fed the potatoes
will have an unfavorable influence on the
quality of the butter produced.
For sheep, 8 or pounds of potatoes daily to
each member OF the flock will prove highly ad-
vantageous: fattening sheep may be fed as
much as pounds per day.
Work horses may be fed 10 or - pounds per
day Of sliced potatoes; more than this should
not be fed because this food is too "softening."
Idle horses and breeding stock can get a some
what larger amount with advantage.
Hogs do not thrive on raw potatoes The
writer has found that in cooking potatoes for
l,rv ha MIA in ha
kettle so as TO leave the potatoes almost free
from water when the cooking is finished; then
by Withdrawing the fire the potatoes can be
mashed lin the kettle and meal mixed with
them, making a thick mush or pudding A
thick pudding was found to be more acceptable
to the hogs than a thin mush or slop.
FEED POTATOES AND SAVE THE GRAIN.
Experience shows that unusually large crops
over large areas may work harm to the farmer
because the very low prices which often follow
cause him to become careless and wasteful of
what he has raised. This threatening fault
should be carefully avoided by our people at
this time. 1t should be remembered that po-
tatoes are perishable and will soon waste and
disappear, while the grain now on hand may
be saved in the bins for some years to come
without material loss The farmer with large
stock OF potatoes on hand should feed these TO
his stock as rapidly as they can be judiciously
handled in order to conserve the grain. While
potatoes may not be worth more than 10 cents
a bushel for feeding they may effect a saving
Of hundreds of bushels of grain, which at some
later time may bring better prices, or at least
this action will tend in that direction.
Our figures teach that an acre of good pOta-
toes may be worth as much for feeding as an
acre OF corn yielding from so to 70 bushels of
grain per acre Viewed in this light the potato
crop is after all not necessarily losing one.
POTATO RAISING STILL PROFITABLE
INDUSTRY.
No state in the union raises better potatoes
than Wisconsin, and our reputation in this
direction is already established. Unlike wheat,
our great crop OF potatoes will all have disap-
peared by July next. They cannot be carried
over to affect next years market. The present
season is one of oyeT-production because the
crop has been generally large everywhere. Our
farmers should arrange to plant a reasonable
acreage of potatoes next year and every year.
They should know the feeding value Of pota-
toes and how TO feed them, so that when prices
rule low in the future they are prepared to
utilize them to the best advantage on their own
farms In this way the present season may
prove an opportunity Tor most valuable, last
ing lesson.
For the year ending Aug. 81, 1894,
under the Mckinley tariff the impor-
tation of shoddy was 201,404 pounds.
For the year just ended under the
Democratic free wool tariff 17,666,563
pounds of the vile stuff were imported.
The State had some $4,000, it seems
on deposit in the Superior banks
which lately failed. This has caused
some of our republican colleagues to
fall into the error of criticising the
law directing such deposits of the
public funds. In our opinion such
criticism is ill-founded. If the state
officers have done their duty, and we
will not assume that they have not,
the funds of the state are absolutely
safe, for the state has the guaranty
not only of the responsible stock