194 Feeds and Feeding. 



anywhere hold way with Indian corn in places proper for the growth 

 of the latter." 



277. Roots V. corn silage. — Grisdale of the Ottawa Station^ found 

 rutabagas more expensive and not much more effective than corn 

 silage as a milk-producing food. Sugar beets proved the best of 

 the root crops, but were more expensive than corn silage. (656) 

 Shaw and Norton of the Michigan Station- found that the addition 

 of roots to a balanced ration containing silage increased the yield 

 of milk and fat to a limited extent, but such addition was not eco- 

 nomical. They state that some roots may be advantageously em- 

 ployed in feeding cows for records. Hills of the Vermont Station^ 

 found the dry matter in potatoes less valuable for milk production 

 than an equal weight of dry matter in corn silage. 



278. Roots modify the carcass. — At the Utah Station* Sanborn, 

 after feeding trials with roots, wrote: "(1) The live weight gain 

 for cattle and sheep was greater, and for hogs less, when fed on 

 roots. (2) The dressed weight of cattle, sheep, and hogs showed 

 in every case greater shrinkage for those fed on roots. (3) The 

 root-fed animals contained more blood and necessarily more water 

 in the blood. (4) The root-fed steers had heavier vital organs. 

 (5) The fat was always less for the root-fed animals." Thus we 

 learn that roots cause a more watery carcass than do dry feeds. 

 May not this be a point of value and importance with breeding stock 

 and animals in the early stages of fattening? The shote pastured 

 on clover or rape likewise has watery tissues, yet it afterwards 

 fattens most economically. Grass-fed steers are in the best possible 

 body condition to make rapid gains when changed to more solid feed. 

 A steer fed roots during part or all of the fattening period should 

 remain more vigorous and make better gains for feed consumed than 

 one held on dry feed from start to finish. There is no doubt that, 

 for breeding stock, less tense and more watery flesh, a natural se- 

 quence of root feeding, is more conducive to vigorous young at birth 

 and to their hearty maintenance after birth than is the condition of 

 hard, dry flesh produced by feeding only dry forage thru our long 

 winters. The dairy cow takes kindly to succulent feed. Whenever 

 by the use of dry feed alone we can produce beef cattle and mutton 

 sheep equal to those of Great Britain, where roots are so generally 

 used, and cows so universally good as those of Jersey, where kale, 

 cabbage, and roots are liberally fed, then and not until then may we 

 say that there is no place for roots or other succulent feeds during 



'Rpt. 1904. = Bui. 240. ^ Ept. 1896. * Bui. 17. 



