140 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



Root crops, although somewhat peculiar in their compo- 

 sition when compared with many of our prominent fodder 

 articles, have proved a very valuable constituent in the diet 

 of various kinds of farm live stock, when properly supple- 

 mented by hay, grain, oil cake, bran, etc., as circumstances 

 may advise. Our experience at the Experiment Station con- 

 firms fully the valuable services of roots as an ingredient of 

 fodder rations for milch cows. (For details on this point, 

 see " Feeding Experiments with Milch Cows," in our fourth 

 and fifth annual reports.) 



The encouragement received on that occasion has served 

 as an inducement to continue our work in this direction. 

 The aim has been to experiment with the best varieties of 

 roots at our disposal. The preceding annual report contains 

 a short sketch of the field work carried out during the year 

 1887. The difierent varieties of roots raised had been 

 photographed, and copies taken by the heliotype process 

 accompanied the report. The discussion of their composi- 

 tion and of their comparative agricultural value had to be 

 left for a later date, on account of the closing up of the 

 annual report before that work was finished. The same 

 course we are obliged to pursue, for the same reason, in 

 regard to our field experiments with root crops during 

 the late season (1888). Our present communication com- 

 prises, first, the analj'^ses of roots raised in 1887 ; and second, 

 a description of the work carried on in the field with difier- 

 ent varieties of valuable roots for feeding purposes. 



1. Analyses of Roots raised upon the Lands of the Station 



in 1887. 

 The seeds used in our experiments were sent on by the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, with the excep- 

 tion of No. 7, — Saxony sugar beet, — which was taken from 

 our collection of imported seeds. The field work was 

 planned with a view to ascertain the general character and 

 the particular composition of the difierent varieties of roots 

 on trial, when raised, as far as practicable, under corre- 

 sponding circumstances with reference to the peculiarity of 

 season, the quality of soil, the system of manuring and the 

 mode of cultivation. 



