The Van Buren press., 1898-07-02
FARMER AND PLANTER.
THE SUGAR BEET FOR SWINE.
Valuable Crop for Furnishing succuient
Food for Growing Pigs tx
perienee in Culture.

1t has been said that we are living in
an age when all kinds of successful
business is thought out before it is
worked out, and this is peculiarly true
of that branch of live stock husbandry
known as swine breeding; for to be
successful with hops requires head
work as well as hand work Now is
the time for thinking out and arrang-
ing for next winters supply Of rations
for your pigs. There is no stock that
needs snceulence in their food more
than swine or that will repay better
for supplying it, especially the breed
ing herd.
Farmers and breeders generally do
not recognize the full value of the root
crop as a supplementary feed to corn,
or when judieiously used with other
feed of more concentrated nature.
The artichoke is valuable in its way
and season, and has the merit of slim
ulating the herd to take needed exer-
else in that the hogs dig them them
selves in the winter, when the ground
is not too much frozen, as they are not
injured by frost; but they are some
what distasteful to the tidy farmer.
and If not planted where the pillow can
reach are not always easy to eradicate,
and at the time most needed, during
severely cold weather, are not avail
able unless dug and stored. which is a
tedious job. However, we have had
patch for several years and shall con-
tinue to raise them, but in the future
4 l..
will be the sugar beet. Hogs will eat
them in preference to other roots and
the larger amount OF saceharine mat
ter-about eight per cent.-renders
them more nutritious. For quality
Lanes improved imperial sugar beet is
the variety we SOW.
In our breeding of Berlkshires we
had long felt the need OF succulent
feed for brood sows and fall
litters during the severe win
ter weather "a ration which
could be produced on our farm
and so reduce to the minimum the
amount of 'sboughten stuff in the way
OF mill feed, oil meal, etc. As a result
OF conversation with Mr.. a. J. Love-
JtJsl az thu D1Afh "a " Aht ehA
last year had over SIG bushels of beets
from little over an acre of ground
and | wish TO say that no similar area
on the farm ever produced SO profitable
crop Or SO abundant amount of feed
as did this patch Of sugar beetss We
fed them Whole, and as pastures were
short in the fall we pulled and fed
many of them, and il was surpris-
ing with what avidity the stock
would eat them, particularly
the tops. Frost does not in
any wise injure the tops aud we did
not dig and pit our crop until late in
November. The last beets taken out
of the pit this spring were as fresh and
crisp as when placed there and they
will not all be fed out until grass
comes.
For the benefit of any interested |
will speak more particularly of our ex-
perience in raising them, which can
doubtless be improved on. Six to
eight pounds of seed will SOW an acre
and can be bought of any leading seeds
man at from 20 to % cents per pound.
We use drill, drilling the seed rather
thick in the row to insure a good stand,
and rows two feet apart in good, rich
land, which was plowed rather deep,
and the seed bed was most thoroughly
prepared The patch was narrowed
with very light home-m harrow
before the seed came up When the
beets were about three inches high l
thinned them out in the row to about
six to nine inches apart. | used
wheel hoe and kept the ground free
from weeds. The last cultivation was
given about July |. 1t would be
cheaper and easier to use a one-horse
cultivator, but we did not happen to
have one. We found that thinning the
beets involved more labor than any
other single item of work
We shall continue to grow an acre or
so every year, as nothing we have ever
fed has kept our hogs in such nice con-
dition during the winter at n minimum
of expense, and for breeding sows
nothing can excel them. While red
clover and corn are the cornerstone of
American feeding, each has its limita-
tions and possibilities, and the sugar
beet comes the nearest to supplying
the place of green clover during our
rigorous winters of anything we have
tried. Swine breeders will have less
cause for complaint of bad luck with
their spring farrows when they feed
more roots. We can profitably study
the methods of our friends across the
water in the matter of growing and
feeding our herds more suceulent ra-
ton than corn alone affords. Cor.
Breeders Gazette.