134 SCIENTIFIC FEEDING OF ANIMALS 



sugar vanishes in a short time — part of it is respired, 

 part of it reconverted into starch and in consequence 

 the tubers lose their sweetness. 



Where thirty different varieties of potatoes were 

 tested, 300 kg. of each being stored in a uniform 

 way, it was found that after nearly five months' 

 storage there was an average loss in weight of 8%, 

 which is equivalent to 2-04 kg. on 100 kg. potatoes. 



Similar results were obtained in another experi- 

 ment where forty-six varieties were kept in a dry 

 cellar and protected from frost, the losses varying 

 from 3-8-20-4%, and on an average were 8-i%, 

 to which must be added the loss, 4-2%, due to 

 rotten and diseased potatoes. 



In general it may be said that potatoes carefully 

 stored lose 1-3% of their weight per month. When 

 the tubers germinate in spring, the losses increase 

 very considerably. If the potatoes are kept until 

 June, then 15-20% of their weight, it may be 

 assumed, will have vanished. Turnips, on the 

 other hand, have been known to increase in weight 

 in the damp, which must be ascribed to the water 

 which they take up. 



In twenty-seven experiments, in which mangels 

 were kept from the middle of October to the middle 

 of March, there was a loss in the dry matter of 8%, 

 which was due principally to the respiration of the 

 carbohydrates. Mangels which contained a lot of 

 water lost 9-5% of the dry matter and 9-1% of the 



