288 



STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



very little spoiling. Millet is to be recommended to every dairyman 

 because it can be sown late in the season after a crop of peas and oats 

 has been removed, or can be substituted for corn when the spring work 

 has been so delayed as to make the planting of the latter impracticable. 



Mangolds, Carrots, Sugar Beets and Rutabagas. — Where silage is not 

 used it is wise for the dairyman to provide succulence for the winter 

 ration in the shape of some kind of roots. The three which suggest them- 

 selves as probably yielding the most food products for the labor and 

 money expended in growing them are mangolds, sugar beets and carrots. 

 Turnips and rutabagas need be used in the dairy with extreme caution, 

 because of their liability to impart an unpleasant taint both to the milk 

 and to the products made from it. It is true undoubtedly that rutabagas 

 can be fed to dairy cows in such a way as to avoid this taint in the 

 milk. But precautions as to the manner or amount have to be taken, 

 and sometimes this precaution is apt to be neglected, with the result 

 that the sample of butter is injured and perhaps a customer permanently 

 offended. The reasonable use of the other roots is attended with no 

 such danger, and for this reason they are recommended to be grown by 

 all dairymen, whether possessed of a silo or not. The area devoted to 

 them need not be large, but roots add a needed variety to a winter ration 

 and repay their cost in the increased healthfulness of the cow as well 

 as in the butter produced. 



An experiment was tried during the summer of 1897 to compare the 

 cost of growing and yields per acre of ox heart carrots, yellow tankard 

 mangolds, long red mangolds and rutabagas. The plot devoted to the 

 experiment contained three quarters of an acre. The rows were 22 

 inches apart and 30 rods long. One quarter acre was planted to ox heart 

 carrots, the adjoining quarter to the mangolds, one eighth to the tankards 

 and one eighth to the long reds, and the remaining quarter to rutabagas- 

 The yields per acre were as follows: 



Yields of roots per acre. 



Carrots 



Long red mangolds. 

 Tankard mangolds.. 



Ruta hagas 



Sugar beets 



Dry 



matter 

 per acre. 



lbs. 



3,321. 90' 

 3,381.30 

 2,111.30 

 3,741.98 

 5,346.80' 



The largest yields, both of gross weight and dry matter, is given by 

 the rutabagas, the long red mangolds following next. The average yield 

 per acre of four acres of sugar beets adjoining was 28,320 pounds. 



The mangolds were sown May 10th, using 0.0 pounds of seed per 

 acre. The carrots were sown the same day, applying two pounds of 

 seed to the acre. The rutabagas were sown May 17th, 2.8 pounds of 

 seed per acre. The ground had been in corn the year before, and was 



