378 EXPERIMENTAL STATIONS— TURNIP CROP 1882. 



Pumpherston contained less than the larger and softer ones at 

 Harelaw (see Table VIT.). By woody fibre is meant that part of 

 the turnip which is undissolved after being boiled for an hour 

 in a 5 per cent, acid solution, and then in a 5 per cent, alkaline 

 one. The object of this method of treatment is to imitate ia 

 some measure the digestive powers in animals. The woody 

 fibre which refuses to dissolve in these reagents is considered 

 indigestible. The process is not a very accurate one, and the 

 conclusions to be drawn from it are not perfectly reliable. 

 Animals even of the same race are apt to differ widely in their 

 digestive power, and the most we can say regarding the propor- 

 tions of woody fibre contained in Table YII. is that they are- 

 all done in the same way, and that they may indicate the relative 

 amount of indigestible matter in the turnips. It does not 

 appear from these experiments that the connection between the 

 manure employed and the proportion of woody fibre in the 

 turnips is a very close one. There seems to be an increase of 

 woody fibre when there is a want of vigour, so that plots receiv- 

 ing no nitrogenous manure or an insoluble one, such as plots 17 

 and 15, have much woody fibre. The want of potash also seems 

 to increase the proportion of woody fibre, and it is somewhat 

 remarkable that plot 22, which bore a poor and stunted crop, has 

 producing turnips with the lowest proportion of woody fibre on 

 the station. 



From a feeding point of view — and that is the chief one where 

 turnips are concerned — the jDroportions of ash and woody fibre 

 are of secondary importance. They are the non-feeding part of 

 the turnip. 



The feeding value of turnips depends upon the amount the^ 

 contain of albuminoid matter and of carbohydrates ; the former 

 includes substances resembling flesh in their composition, and 

 the latter such substances as sugar, starch, and gum ; and the oil 

 which occurs to a greater or less extent in all fodder plants is 

 usually reckoned along with these ; the former are the nitro- 

 genous and the latter the non-nitrogenous constituents of food. 

 The proportion of these two constituents in fodder plants varies 

 very greatly, and the ratio between them, or the nitrogen ratio, as 

 it is called, determines the feeding value of the fodder. When 

 the proportion of the nitrogenous constituents is small, the 

 substance possesses a low feeding value, as in the case of straw ; 

 when it is great, as in the case of beans and oats, the feeding 

 value is high. Turnips belong to the former category, and when 

 it is desired to fatten an animal feeding on turnips, some more 

 nitrogenous food, either natural or artificial, has usually to be 

 added to' its diet. The more albuminoid matter a turnip 

 contains the greater is its feeding value, and it is well known 

 that turnips differ widely in their feeding value. Analysis also 



