THE FEEDING VALUE OF EOOTS 21 



A larger increase in the weight of the cows, and larger for 

 mangels than for turnips. 1 



Fjord, who considered that in this experiment he was merely 

 feeling his way, concluded, however, that the results indicated 

 the possibility of obtaining reliable results by further feeding 

 trials on the same lines, if farmers with large herds were willing 

 to co-operate and again to place their herds, byres, and dairies 

 at his disposal. This he found they were quite willing to do, 

 and the following year, from January to April, 1889, he con- 

 ducted an extensive series of feeding trials on five large farms 

 or estates. On four of these, four groups of cows were formed 

 on each farm, each group comprising 10 cows (on one farm only 

 9 cows in each group), and on one farm he had three groups 

 with 10 cows in each, making altogether 186 cows arranged 

 in 19 groups. 2 The questions to be solved were somewhat 

 different from those of the previous year. It was customary 

 on many farms to give the cows more concentrates when 

 economy had to be exercised with the roots towards the end of 

 the season, or when the roots had been all used up, and it was 

 taught in the Agricultural School at Tune, and also in a book 

 published by the principal of that school, that 10 Ibs. of mangels 

 and 12 J Ibs. of turnips could replace 1 Ib. of concentrates, 

 either corn or oil cake. It was therefore decided to proceed 

 as follows. Keeping within the limits of the mixed fodder as 

 generally used on the different farms, one group on each farm 

 was to be fed on concentrates, with a fixed quantity of hay and 

 with straw ad lib., but it was to have rather more concentrates 

 than during the experiment of the previous year. This was 

 the C group. The food of another group was changed by 

 giving 2 Ibs. less of concentrates per cow per day and giving 

 instead 20 Ibs. of mangels on some of the farms, and 24 Ibs. 

 of turnips on the other farms. These groups were called C 2 . 

 Still another group on each farm had 4 Ibs. of concentrates 

 less than group C, but instead of these 4 Ibs. each cow had 

 40 Ibs. of mangels or 48 Ibs. of turnips. These groups were 

 called C 4 . On the four farms where a fourth group was formed, 



1 The addition of only 24 Ibs. of roots to the food of the cows on the two 

 other farms had, naturally, a lesser effect, and had indeed on one of them no 

 visible effect. 



8 N. J. Fjord, " 28 Beretning om Fors^g," K0benhavn, 1889. 



