CULTURE AND VARIETIES OF ROOTS FOR STOCK- 

 FEEDING. 



In Bulletin 243 the merits of roots for stock-feeding were discussed. 

 It now remains to explain the culture of these roots, as experience at the 

 Cornell Station has determined it, and to describe the leading varieties. 



I — General Advice on the Cultivation of Roots (pp. 119-129). 

 Seeds and seeding: 



What is usually spoken of as " seed " in the case of mangels, half- 

 sugar mangels and sugar-beets is really a fruit or capsule. This capsule 

 may contain from one to seven seeds, three to five being common in large- 

 sized capsules. Since the percentage germination power is expressed in 

 the number of fruits, it frequently goes above 100 per cent. When 150 

 per cent, germination power is reached it frequently means that the ger- 

 mination power of the true seeds is actually but 50 per cent., for there 

 would probably be on an average three seeds in a fruit and out of 100 

 capsules containing 300 seeds but 150 seeds germinated. 



Almost all of the samples received at Cornell contained considerable 

 dust ; in some samples the dust and pieces of stem reached as high as 7 

 per cent, of the total weight. 



The commercial seeds of rutabagas, hybrid turnips, common turnips, 

 cabbages and kohlrabi are true seeds. The charts (Figs. 35-37) showing 

 these five types are on the same scale and it will be readily seen that the 

 data agree with the common impressions, viz., that 



1. The seeds of common turnips are, as a class, the smallest. 



2. The seeds of hybrid turnips are smaller than those of rutabagas. 



3. The rutabagas are the largest of the turnip group. 



4. Kohlrabi seeds are, as a class, smaller than those of cabbage. 



5. Cabbage seed is the largest, but it is variable in size. 



The significance of these data is that when sowing smaller seeds of 

 equal germination power a fewer number of pounds of seed are required 

 per acre. 



The commercial seed of carrots is in reality a fruit, each fruit bear- 

 ing one seed. Carrot seed as purchased frequently contains 5 to 10 per 

 cent, by weight of adulterants, and in two of the samples sown the main 

 adulterant was small quartz pebbles, turnip seeds, buckwheat, stalks and 

 dust making up the remainder. The quartz pebbles were similar to those 

 manufactured in Europe for the special purpose of adulterating seeds. 

 All of the samples examined were remarkably uniform in the number of 

 seeds in a pound but varied widely in germination power, the extremes 



119 



