52 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



fall says : " My food for milch cows, after having undergone 

 various modifications, has for two seasons consisted of rape-cake 

 5 pounds, and bran 2 pounds, for each cow, mixed with a 

 sufficient quantity of bean-straw, oat-straw, and shells of oats, 

 in equal proportions, to supply them three times a day with as 

 much as they will eat." The hay crop, in English cattle 

 husbandry, does not, as here, lie at the foundation of feeding. 

 There is no doubt that this valuable fodder is more important 

 to us during our longer and colder winter, than it is in their 

 milder climate. Grass, moreover, is a crop better adapted to 

 our mode of farming, extended as it is over a large surface, and 

 not carried on with the skill of what is called high agriculture. 

 With us, therefore, excepting in the neighborhood of good 

 markets, hay forms the basis of our feeding ; and it is but rea- 

 sonable that our estimates of feeding should be made in compar- 

 ison with the use of hay. And it is important for the New 

 England farmer to know whether, at a distance from market, 

 he can find a better use for his hay than to convert it into 

 cattle of various descriptions. 



AMOUNT OP FOOD FURNISHED BY VARIOUS CROPS. 



Without entering into any accurate calculation of the cost of 

 keeping cattle on different kinds of food, we propose to make a 

 short comparison of the amount of food furnished by the various 

 crops used for feeding, from a given piece of ground. 



Taking two tons of hay per acre as the basis of calculation, 

 and as representing the kind of cultivation which is employed, 

 we may concede that an acre of ground will yield the following 

 crops : hay, two tons ; Swedish turnips, eighteen tons ; mangold 

 wurzel, twenty tons ; carrots, twenty-five tons ; Indian corn, 

 seventy bushels. 



According to the best experiments, the nutritive equivalent 

 of hay being represented by 100 : — 100 pounds of hay are equiv- 

 alent to 676 pounds of Swedish turnips, 382 pounds of carrots, 

 and 70 pounds of Indian corn. 



The practical values, as obtained by experiments in feeding, 

 are : — hay, 100 pounds is equivalent to 300 pounds of Swedish 

 turnips, 400 pounds of mangold wurzel, 250 pounds of carrots, 

 and 52 pounds of Indian corn. 



