706 DR- dEASE' 8 RECIPES. 



Teomans also says it is found in pears, quinces, currants, raspberries, and 

 many other kinds of fruit, and also in various roots, such as turnips, beets, 

 parsnips, etc. ; hence their great value as a food, or as auxiliary to the food 

 both of man and beast. Closing with this important sentence: "A smaL 

 quantity of roots or fruit mixed with other food, especially with dry food, has a 

 wonderful effect upon the flesh, health and spirits of animals." Thus it maybe 

 seen, and I have given this item chiefly that it might be seen, that it does not 

 mattei so very much which kind of roots for animals, nor which kind of fruit 

 or roots for man are raised and eaten; but that it is very important that some of 

 them should be raised and used, if the best health of man and beast is worth 

 looking after and working for. 



Then let every dairyman or farmer look at the matter in a common sense 

 way, and raise the kind of roots that his land is seen to be the best adapted to — 

 the longer and larger roots require the deepest and richest soil, and all require 

 close and careful culture to obtain the best results; then, for winter-feeding, to 

 have them carefully housed, and properly cut when fed, so that each animal 

 shall get its proper share, remembering that while you thus aid the digestion of 

 the coarser food, as hay, stalks and straw, by this admixture of roots, you also 

 avoid costiveness, which was originally supposed to be the chief object to be 

 gained by feeding roots. In other words, " two birds are killed with one 

 stone," and really, the bird last found is of the greater importance of the two 

 — the aid to digestion. (See Comparative Value, as Generally Understood, and 

 also Nutritive Value, with table by which the difference is more easily seen.) 



I will onfy add here that of later years parsnips have been found more val- 

 uable than formerly supposed, and they are now commended by many dairy- 

 men as excellent for milch cows, increasing the flow of milk one-half, besides 

 keeping them in a good healthy condition. Try them, thoroughly, by all 

 means. 



Variety of Pood for Stock— Very Important.— It is a well estab- 

 lished fact that a single kind of food is not enough for the best growth, health 

 or comfort of animals. Like ourselves, the stock which we keep, does relish 

 a change of diet— thrives better with a change of pasture so to speak— and 

 gives fuller returns for the trouble of providing the variety of foods. Coarse 

 fodder should be mixed with that which is of a finer nature; and the highly 

 nitrogenous, fed with substances weak in nitrogen. Some farmers will feed 

 their sheep corn one morning, add barley or oats the next, and thus keep up a 

 continual surprise, heightened by a lick of salt now and then. It is the same 

 love of change which makes the colt, cow, and even the oldest horse feel ^ad 

 when turned into a new field. What man would like living on bread, or pota- 

 toes, or meat, alone? Then feed your stock meal, or shorts, or roots — sometimes 

 pne, then the other, is the better way — as remarked about the sheep above being 

 sure to have a supply of roots for every winter. 



The Comparative Value of Roots for Winter Feeding as Gen- 

 erally Understood. — A writer in the Rural Home places the comparative 

 value of roots in the following order: Carrots, parsnips, sugar-beets, mangel- 

 wurzels, rutabagas, Swedish turnips, and lastly, English or common field 



