244 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The mangolds were sown May 10, 9.6 lbs. of seed per acre. Two lbs. 

 of carrot seed per acre were sown the same day. The rutabagas were 

 sown a week later, 2.8 lbs. seed per acre. The cost of preparing the 

 ground, marking, planting, cultivating, thinning and hoeing was prac- 

 tically the same for all roots and amounted to 32.8 hours for man and 

 team and 209.9 hours for man per acre. At the prices prevalent at the 

 college the cost of labor for growing and harvesting an acre was $28.55. 

 The labor necessary to harvest an acre of mangolds was appreciably less 

 than for an acre of sugar beets or carrots. The labor cost per ton of 

 carrots was slightly less than $2.00 per ton of rutabages, |1.84, and of 

 mangolds |2.51. 



The roots have been stored both in the pit and in the root cellar 

 adjacent to the cow stable. They have kept better in pits than in the 

 cellar but an extra handling is necessary when so stored. It is un- 

 doubtedly wise to store the roots needed, for late winter feeding, in 

 the pits. The roots are sliced before feeding and cows may be allowed 

 any amount possible up to a peck or even more at a mess. 



Three sets of experiments have been completed to test the influence 

 of roots on the digestibility of the ration. The results coincide in show- 

 ing that roots do not make the dry factor of the ration more digestible. 

 They do increase the nutritive effect of the ration by economizing the 

 amounts required to support the act of digestion. Their principal value 

 to the dairyman lies in keeping the bowels well regulated and keeping 

 the herd healthy. 



Potatoes, while not roots are usually -classified with them as far as 

 their qualities are concerned. In a certain experiment they were fed 

 to the dairy cows, but not in abnormal quantities. They did not much 

 efifect the quality of the butter although they seemed to make the cream 

 froth quite badly in the churn and to hinder the coming of the butter. 

 They did not demonstrate a high value as a dairy food. 



GRAIN. 



Corn. Corn meal has been an ingredient of nearly every grain mix- 

 ture fed to college dairy cows. Silage has formed the bulk of the ration 

 but even with silage some corn meal has been fed. While relatively low 

 in protein, it can be used to good advantage with clover hay and wheat 

 bran or oats. 



Not infrequently the corn has been fed to cows unhusked and with 

 the stalks. In that case the shocks have been hauled directly from the 

 field, run through a cutting box and fed with wheat barn and clover 

 hay. Where human labor is high and corn relatively cheap this method 

 recommends itself although a good proportion of the kernels escape 

 digestion. 



Gluten meal and gluten feeds. These gluten feeds are not new to the 

 State and several tons of gluten meal have been fed at the station. It 

 is the residue from the manufacture of either glucose or starch, and 

 differs in composition, according to the method of manufacture, and to 

 the thoroughness with which the starch is extracted. The methods of 

 manufacture dilTcr very materially in their results, but they consist 

 essentially in the separation of the outer coating of the kernel and the 

 germ from the interior starchy portion. This is done by soaking the 



