166 



FARMERS' REGISTER— EXPERIMENTS IN FEEDING. 



situation, mangel-wurtzel can be ^rown to advan- 

 tage, and given as a mixture of food in fattening 

 cattle. In its use, a circumstance occurred which 

 I shall mention. In the lot of cattle No. 2, the 

 food of which consisted of Swedish turnips and 

 potatoes, one of the number was often swelled to 

 such a degree, as to make nie fear I should lose 

 the animal. Salt and water, oil, &c., were re- 

 peatedly used, but by no means with speedy re- 

 lief. I directed the feeder to introduce among his 

 food four roots of mangel-wurtzel daily. While 

 this was continued the beast never swelled. I 

 withdrew it and the animal became tumefied as 

 before. I again gave back the mangel-wurtzel, 

 and for a month there has been no appearance of 

 swelling. Variety seems gratifying to the appe- 

 tite of even the inferior animals, and for this rea- 

 son a mixture of food seems preferable. 



The effect in the present case may not be alto- 

 gether satisfactory, because the cattle taken to 

 show it were not all bred from the same stock. — 

 I must now explain, that on a measurement taken 

 on the 30th of January, I immediately took a pair 

 of cattle out of every seven, and confined them to 

 one particular species of food. To one pair, lot 

 No. 1,1 gave potatoes and water, to another j)air 

 of lot No. 2, I gave Swedish turnips; and to an- 

 other pair, of lot No. 3, I gave mangel-wurtzel. — 

 I refer to the tabular statement of the monthly 

 increase of girth, which does not indicate any 

 great superiority ; but some good judges say the 

 mixtures have a decided prefijrence, and, next to 

 a mixture, the particular food of Swedish turnips 

 is preferable. 



So much for fattening, and now for the dairy. 

 I have mentioned that one acre of mangel-wurtzel 

 was put in store for the milch cows, of which I 

 have seven ; live of these got a very small quanti- 

 ty to keep them fresh — the other two were allow- 

 ed as much as they were disposed to eat. This, 

 however, was not the case for the first ten days — 

 as mangel-wurtzel and potatoes ought to be given 

 at first in small quantities, for they both operate 

 too powerfully as a purgative, and the mangel- 

 wurtzel as a diuretic. Tiie two cows put to a full 

 allowance, had calved at midsummer, and weie not 

 again in calf. I wished to try if they could be fed 

 and milked at the same time. One of them has 

 been sold fat, and the other, I may say, is fat also — 

 but they had draff along with the mangel-wurtzel. 

 Their produce throughout the time lias been four 

 Scotch pints each, per day ; this was sold at three 

 pence per pint;* and as I have seen that without 

 draff each cow will produce one shilling's worth of 

 milk for every hundred weight of roots (and per- 

 haps of leaves) consumed, in this way the milk 

 from such a crop would realize £35 per .Scotch 

 acre. This to me seems a startling sum — but I 

 give the facts, as I have repeatedly seen the cows 

 milked. 



As a summary of this lengthened detail, it 

 seems to me that the food for cattle, Avhether rais- 

 ed from the kind in the shape of Swedish turnips, 

 potatoes or mangel-wurtzel, is not materially differ- 

 ent, provided the crops are alike good of their kind. 

 A less quantity and inferior quality of manure, 

 will produce the potatoes even on land where the 

 soil and climate are not so favorable ; but I have 



* A Scotch pint is equal to four English or American 

 pints. — [Ed. Far, Reg. 



ever seen at the end of a rotation, the land upon 

 which potatoes had been grown, in the worst con- 

 dition, and to obviate this, it is of use, I think, to 

 cultivate a variety which covers well in a drill. 

 This is a subject to which I mean to give my at- 

 tention this season, seeing the Society's premium 

 offered. 



I now subjoin a table of the monthly increase of 

 the several lots of cattle, and shall be glad if it is 

 thought to contain any thing in the least useful. 



Twenty-eight tons of Swedish turnips and man- 

 gel wurtzel withdrawn, and used for other cattle, 

 having still in store one month's provision for tvfen- 

 ty-one cattle, 



Girth of pairs of each of the above lots, put upon 

 different food 30th of January. 



Date. 

 1832. 



Jan. 30. 

 April 30. 



Lot No. 1. 

 Potatoes. 



10 feet 8 inc. 



11 "6 inc. 



Lot No. 2. 

 Swed. turnip 



10 feet 5 inc. 



11 feet 3 inc. 



Lot No. 3. 

 mane: wurtzel 



10 feet 4 inch. 



11 feet 2 inch. 



The cattle have been sold, and the purchasers 

 agree in opinion, that the lot of seven fed on Swe- 

 dish turnips are from 7s. to 10s. a head better than 

 the other lots. The average advance upon the 

 original value of each is £6 12s. ; and the cost of 

 grain being deducted, there remain £ 120 in re- 

 turn for the eight acre's produce consumed. I 

 am aware that this is liable to be doubted, in such 

 a year ; and the produce is certainly much be- 

 yond that of any other part of the lands possessed 

 by me. 



It ought to be stated that the mangel-wurtzel 

 was stored in an untrimmed state. When the 

 roots and earth which adhere are taken away, the 

 loss of weight may be greater than I imagined. 

 In hazarding an opinion of the return which it 

 would make in milk, I made no allowance for this, 



I am inclined to think, that less attention has 

 been paid to selecting a good kind of mangel-wurt- 

 zel than has been bestowed on either turnips or 

 potatoes, as I noticed in the crop under this ex- 

 periment a very striking disproportion in the 

 weight, two or three roots weighing 10 lbs. or 12 

 lbs. standing together, while those adjoining could 

 scarcelj'^ be said to have roots at all. 



JVote by the transcriber. — Mr. How den has 

 omitted to state the expense of cultivating the dif- 

 ferent crops. Although I have no correct data to 

 supply the defect, I will state why I consider the 



