554 



Bulletin 317 



From these figures it appears that the mangel crops produced a higher 

 average yield of crude protein, carbohydrates, and ash. The corn crops 

 produced a much higher yield of crude fat and crude fiber. For the pro- 

 duction of valuable nutrients on a given area of land, mangels were fully 

 equal to corn in these experiments. The farmer who grows a small area 

 of mangels in order to have succulent food for domestic animals during 

 the winter months can produce as much food from an acre in mangels as 

 from an acre in com. Small silos and small areas in silage com are rela- 

 tively more expensive than larger ones. It will always be good economy 

 for some farmers to grow small areas of root crops rather than to make 

 silage of corn fodder for their uses. The last census reports (19 10) show 

 that in New York State 710 farms grew 663 acres of root forage, producing 

 6,670 tons. This was at the rate of less than one acre of roots on a farm 

 and slightly more than 10 tons for each acre. The valuation per ton given 

 by the census report was $8.10, but it must be remembered that part of 

 the root forage thus reported probably consisted of carrots. These have 

 a higher and more definite market value than do mangels. 



COOPERATIVE EXPERIMENTS 



In igo8 and igog. — During the first two years of the experiments re- 

 ported above, the writer directed some cooperative experiments with 

 farmers in various parts of the State. The objects were to compare the 

 yields of three varieties of mangels in each experiment, and to obtain some 

 data as to the cost of fertilizers and labor in growing mangels in a small 

 way on farms. Seeds of the three varieties used were furnished by the 

 Department of Farm Practice at Cornell University and no charge was 

 made for seed in the cost accounting. Eight of the experimenters reported 

 results that could be used for comparison. In some cases the cost figures 

 were hardly better than a shrewd estimate, but they serve the purpose of 

 comparison very well. The results obtained are shown in Table 5 : 



TABLE 5. Yields and Cost of Production of Mangels Grown by Cooperative 



Experimenters in 1908 and 1909 



