78 FEEDING WITH SUGAR BEETS, SUGAR, ETC. 



fertilizers over and above that required after a beet-crop, is 

 worthy of consideration. 



If we compare the total nourishing qualities of twenty tons of 

 green corn before ensilage with 10 tons of sugar beets, we shall 

 find that the total of digestible nutrients is 3,320 pounds for 

 green corn and 3,560 pounds for sugar beets, or a difference of 

 240 pounds. Such are the facts at the harvesting. After several 

 months have elapsed, the ensilage has undergone considerable 

 change, and its volume has been purposely diminished by 

 weights placed on its upper surface. If great care has been 

 taken in preparing this ensilage, there is but slight danger of 

 excessive fermentation caused by oxygen remaining impris- 

 oned in the mass. If we compare these difficulties with the 

 simple siloing of beets, it will be readily seen that these roots, 

 for winter feeding, offer many advantages over green corn- 

 fodder. Their siloing may be effected at a nominal expense on 

 the ground upon which the roots were grown, it being then 

 simply necessary to place them in triangular piles and cover 

 their outer surface with a thickness of earth varying with the 

 severity of the winter. There they remain for several months, 

 undergoing practically no change in nourishing qualities. Their 

 consumption need take place only when required at the stable. 

 The farmer consequently need not make an immediate outlay of 

 money for building silos, or hauling the entire crop without 

 delay, whereas it is admitted that the quality of green corn fodder 

 decreases slightly a few days after cutting, if not siloed at once. 

 Large and small Many farmers are under a very erroneous impression regard- 

 beets in cattle- j D g ^he value of reasonably small beets for cattle-feeding, and 

 continue in some of the New England States to cultivate man- 

 golds with considerable distance between rows; they thus obtain 

 crops of 30 and 35 tons to the acre. Some of these roots have 

 an individual weight of nearly 20 Ibs. ; analysis would show 

 them to be of a very spongy texture and to contain not more 

 than 8.5 per cent, dry matter and 91.5 per cent, water, holding 

 in solution about 6 per cent, sugar. Such roots are frequently 

 fed to cattle during the winter in quantities corresponding to 

 132 Ibs. per diem, or 11 Ibs. of dry matter, while if small beets 

 of this variety had been used the dry matter would have been 

 at least 20 Ibs. 



