NUTRITION IN ROOTS. 59 



NUTRITIVE VALUE OF ROOTS. 

 HAMPSHIRE. 



[From an Essay by H. E. Stockbridge.] 



I shall briefly examine the subject by the light of a few 

 scientific facts, and endeavor to draw such practical conclu- 

 sions as are suggested. And if I devote space to the con- 

 sideration of the so-called root crops, to the exclusion of 

 vegetables, it is because the latter are grown principally for 

 human consumption, to be sold from the farm, and for them 

 there is a constant demand to which the farmer has simply to 

 cater ; while on the other hand roots are generally grown 

 for consumption on the farm, and it is of vast importance 

 that we ascertain, if possible, which of them can be most 

 profitably converted into animal tissues and animal products, 

 or will in the greatest degree increase the power of the an- 

 imal for taking nutriment from its other food. In consider- 

 ing the question, we must first fully understand the object or 

 objects of root-growing. 



Writers on the subject have stated that the value of all 

 food was solely in the nutrition it contained, and have 

 endeavored to figure out its value in different articles of diet, 

 simply from the amount of the nutritive elements found in 

 them ; yet every farmer knows, that, during its winter con- 

 finement, his stock is in an unnatural condition ; that animals 

 thrive best when fed upon green food containing more than 

 eighty per cent of water ; and that the roots given them have 

 two very important offices, — first to supply the nutrition 

 contained in themselves, and, second, to keep the animal in 

 as natural a condition as possible, and thus enable it to 

 extract more nutriment from its other food. 



All root-crops contain about the same quantity of water, 

 and therefore all answer equally well the second purpose for 



