76 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



particular consideration in the planning of a rational system 

 of rotation of crops. 



The fodder supplied by roots, although somewhat peculiar 

 in its composition when compared with that obtained from 

 many of our prominent fodder plants, where the upper part 

 of the plants furnishes the main bulk, may, nevertheless, 

 serve as a very valuable constituent in the diet of various 

 kinds of farm live stock, when properly supplemented by oil 

 cakes, grain, bran, hay, etc. 



The various kinds of roots usually raised on farms for 

 feeding purposes, differ essentially in regard to the amount 

 of dry vegetable matter they contain. Turnips contain from 

 7 to 8 per cent. ; ordinary mangolds from 11 to 12 percent. ; 

 improved varieties of beet roots, like Lane's, from 15 to 

 16 per cent. ; good carrots from 15 to 16 per cent. ; a good 

 sugar beet from 18 to 20 per cent, of solids ; or, in other 

 words, one ton of an improved variety of ordinary sugar 

 beets is equal to from two to two and one-half tons of ordi- 

 nary turnips, as far as the amount of dry vegetable matter 

 is concerned. 



Modes of cultivation and of manuring exert a decided in- 

 fluence, in this direction, on the composition of the roots. 

 Large roots of the same variety contain quite frequently less 

 solid matter than the smaller ones. Close cultivation in the 

 rows, in connection with the use of well-decayed manurial 

 matter as fertilizer, tends to produce good results. 



The difference in the amount of solids, as far as each kind 

 of root is concerned, is otherwise due, in the majority of 

 cases, to a more or less perfect maturity. A liberal manuring 

 with potash and nitrogen, in connection with a scanty supply 

 of phosphoric acid, is fi'equently the cause of immatured 

 roots at the ordinary harvest time. 



To raise roots the second year, after a liberal application of 

 coarse barnyard manure, or the turning over of grass lands, 

 with the assistance of some commercial phosphatic fertilizer 

 in the interest of a timely maturity, is highly recommended 

 by practical cultivators of sugar beets. To stimulate in the 

 roots the production of the largest possible amount of sugar 

 and t^tarch must be the object of the cultivator, for these two 



