294 ON THE ECONOMICAL USE OF TUENIPS 



test. In such matters, weight is the only satisfactory and rehable 

 criterion to go by. Price is no true index of the progress made by 

 stock on any given food, as the animals may have been bought 

 cheaply and sold when beef has increased in value, or vice versa. 

 A weighing maching, powerful enough to weigli cattle, ought to be 

 an appendage to every farm-steading of any considerable dimen- 

 sions. It would prove of great value in helping the farmer to 

 form a reliable estimate of the money value of his live stock, 

 when, after being fed, they are ready to be disposed of to the 

 butcher, and its j)resence would make it practicable for him to 

 test the progress they are making from time to time. By such 

 a system, stock-feeding would be reduced to a comparativ^ely 

 exact art, instead of beiug the slip-shod, rule-of-thumb, half 

 guess-work which, it must be confessed, it unfortunately is at 

 present. Such weigh-bridges are common on all large farms in 

 America, and also on not a few small ones, and this is a phase 

 of transatlantic agricultural enterprise and exactness of pro- 

 cedure which cannot too soon be copied by farmers in this 

 country. AYould it not be reasonable to expect landlords tO' 

 bear the first cost, and charge their tenants a fair annual sum 

 for their use ? 



Difference in tlie Comioosition of Turnii^s. 



In order to judge of the advisability of giving live stock a 

 large and especially an unlimited supply of turnips, ib is 

 necessary to have a clear and correct idea of the constituent 

 elements of a turnip. Of "what, then, is one of these roots com- 

 posed ? As we shall find by and bye, there is an immense 

 difference in the nourishing properties possessed by this root 

 crop, according to the variety, to tlie quality of the soil on which 

 it has been grown, to the manures applied, and other circum- 

 stances. But let us take as our basis at this stage, an average 

 swede grown on a fairly good soil. Such a bulb is found on, 

 analysis to contain about 90 per cent, of water and only 10 per 

 cent, of solid matter. In other words, in every 100 lbs. of swedes 

 there are 90 lbs., that is 6 stones 6 lbs. of water, and only 10 Ibs- 

 of drv matter. Thus, when a bullock consumes 2 cwt. of such 

 roots in a day, he swallows 200 lbs., which is equivalent to 18 

 gallons, of water. An animal eating 1^ cwt. thereby drinks 

 150 lbs. or 13| gallons of this liquid, while 1 cwt. contains 

 100 lbs. or 9 gallons of it. JSTow, let it be borne in mind that 

 this very large quantity of liquid, which an animal getting a 

 large allowance of turnips partakes of daily, is possessed of 

 nothing better than the properties of ordinary water. I^eople 

 are met with who cling to the idea that there must be some 

 special virtue in the water in turnips, else the small proportions, 



