164 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



1-2 EDWARD VII., -A. 1902 



under exactly the same conditions.' He further adds : ' Increased digestibility after 

 a lengthened period is conceivable, and might be due to a partial breaking down of the 

 crude fibre,' but ' in view of, however, the small amount of crude fibre in roots, a change 

 of this kind would seem to be of doubtful value, and any gain in digestibility, if it 

 takes place, may be a good deal more than counterbalanced by the losses to which we 

 have called attention.' 



The practical suggestions for the Canadian farmer that seemed to be called forth 

 by this important work are that the temperature of the root cellar should be kept as 

 cold as possible — but not reaching the freezing point — and that the cellar should have 

 good ventilation. Under such conditions the process of slow combustion that causes 

 the loss of sugar will be retarded. 



Our own investigation had for its chief object the tracing of the albuminoids 

 during storage, it being thought that as spring approached these would be converted 

 into amides or other nitrogenous compounds of less feeding value. 



Dry Matter in Roots during Storage. — In table I. the percentages of water and 

 dry matter for the several roots are given as determined when the roots were freshly 

 pulled (October), in January and in March of the following year. The most obvious 

 and remarkable feature of these data is their uniformity for each variety of root, show- 

 ing, as they do, that throughout the period of storage the ratio of dry matter to water- 

 content remained practically the same. Such differences as do occur are not greater 

 than would have been obtained from the examination of individual roots. There had 

 evidently been no ' drying out ' of the roots. 



While it is impossible to state absolutely from these results that until March 15 

 there had been no loss in total weight, we may fairly infer that such loss, if any, can 

 not have been large. It is satisfactory, therefore, to note that the conditions of storage 

 were in such a large measure conducive to the preservation of the roots. If we were to 

 estimate feeding value simply by percentage of dry matter, then, weight for weight, the 

 roots in March are as nutritious as they were in the October previous. 



Nitrogen in Dry Matter. — Determinations of the total, albuminoid and non-albu- 

 minoid nitrogen were made on the roots in October, January and March, and the re- 

 sults calculated upon the dry matter. These are presented in table II. 



Total Nitrogen. — In five of the seven instances cited, the nitrogen is slightly higher 

 in March than in October. This is evidently due to the destruction by slow combus- 

 tion of a small amount of the non-nitrogenous organic matter, which would necessarily 

 leave the dry matter rather richer in nitrogen. This, as we shall see later on from our 

 results, does not mean necessarily that the dry matter is more nutritious in the roots 

 stored until March. With two of the varieties there had been a small loss in total 

 nitrogen. This may have resulted from differences in the individual roots examined, 

 or to a direct loss of nitrogen by fermentative changes. 



