QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 173 



A. No ; cattle should have other food rich in nitrogenous substance. 

 The sugar or carbohydrates in roots renders them very valuable to cattle 

 for making meat and milk, but they are not sufBcient in themselves to sus- 

 tain the animal functions. Starchy foods are wanted as well. 



964. Q. Is there a difference in the processes of growing turnip beets or Growing 

 other roots for cattle feed and for seed purposes ? Roots. 



A. Some distinction, as in the case of roots for cattle the effort is to 

 develop the largest growth of the root and consequently the heaviest 

 yield to the acre. This is only accomplished by giving the crops the 

 benefit of the longest possible growing season. Early drilling is therefore 

 a necessity in the case of cattle roots, but not so when growing roots for 

 seed as then it is not desirable to have them too big or ripe, for such do 

 not keep so easily as less mature roots. The second season, when seed is 

 the object, it is best to plant out turnips and beets on heavier lands than 

 that on which the roots were produced. 



965. Q. "Why is it that farmyard manure is so efficient? Farmyard 

 A. The immediate or first active part of farmyard manure is the urine ^*'*"^®' 



or liquid portion of the application, then afterwards the very fine and 

 easily solved atoms of the mass, and then following the other parts in the 

 order of their condition. Various lots of farmyard manure are hardly 

 ever alike, never the same on distinct farms, seldom the same at different 

 periods out of the same yard, consequently their action is more or less 

 active and more or less constant. In all cases there are parts not avail- 

 able for two or three years and this is clearly proven by the long after- 

 results of an application of farmyard manure. In the processes of good 

 farming, stable or yard manure is largely made, carefully saved, and 

 judiciously applied, and as it is quite continuous in its actions, the fertility 

 of a well-managed farm is constantly increasing. 



966. Q. Which are the finest types of sugar corn ? Sugar Cerm. 

 A. Those of twelve or more rows, as in them are found the narrowest 



grains and tightest packing on the cob. With a diminution in the breadth 

 of the grains there is an increase in sugary qualities — long, narrow shoe- 

 peg grains being generally the sweetest. 



967. Q. How many years ago was introduced the system of preserving Silos. 

 cattle foods in silos ? 



A. Eighteen hundred years ago, Coesar practiced it when he made his 

 march from Italy to Germany, storing in pits as he passed through the 

 country large quantities of green fodder to serve as food for his animals 

 upon his return march. 



968. Q. How can I dissolve five hundred pounds of bones? Bones. 

 A. Break them up into pieces small as a walnut and mix with an equal 



quantity of wood ashes, also with thirty pounds of slacked lime, and 

 fifteen pounds of sal soda made fine. Mix the mass thoroughly and pack 

 into tight bins, boxes or casks, where water thoroughly so as to wet the 

 entire mass. Repeat this every three or four days and in three weeks the 

 bones will be found all melted down. 



