SILAGE AND FIELD BEETS. 87 



consin, Pennsylvania, and other states, show that with silage 

 63 per cent, only is assimilated. 



It is admitted that all items such as harvesting, siloing, etc. , 

 for beets, make the cost $37.75 per acre, while for producing 

 and siloing one acre of corn requires $31.25. The silage con- 

 tained 4,400 Ibs. digestible dry matter, while the beets con- 

 tained 3,750 Ibs. of the same. This difference would appear to 

 counterbalance the 359 Ibs. of milk in favor of beets, not to 

 mention the increase of weight. A fact in this argument that is 

 generally overlooked is, that for the sum allowed for cultivation 

 of one acre of beets, superior sugar beets might be obtained 

 averaging 18 per cent, dry matter. This means a total of 

 nearly 6,000 Ibs. digestible dry matter per acre. The cost of 

 such in beets is 0.6 c., and in silage 0.7 c. All these figures 

 must vary with circumstances. 



The cows fed solely on beets consumed 20.1 Ibs. dry matter 

 per 1000 Ibs. of their weight, while silage-fed cows consumed 

 20.9 Ibs. In both these cases the consumption was consider- 

 ably below the standard of 24 Ibs. The beet-fed cows were 

 underfed, and we are convinced that if they had had the food 

 they required, their milk-producing qualities would have been 

 greater, and their weight would have increased instead of re- 

 maining stationary, as it did during the eight weeks the experi- 

 ment lasted. It would be interesting to draw some comparison 

 as to the cost of feeding with silage and beets. If the yield of 

 corn and beets is about the same per acre, the siloing of corn 



is verv much more expensive than that of beets. The exhaust- 



-f 

 ing effect of a beet crop upon the soil on a well-organized farm 



is nothing like as great as the average agronomist supposes, as 

 at least 80 per cent, of all salts absorbed are returned in the 

 shape of a fertilizer; the remaining 20 per cent, is in the 

 milk sold. 



The problem of fattening animals properly is to make them 

 eat as much as possible, since at least -^ of such food is retained 

 and transformed mainly into fat. It is possible to reach a limit 

 of increase of 4.5 Ibs. per diem. It may seem incredible, but 

 it is possible to force the consumption of dry matter to 44 Ibs. 

 per diem. The increase in weight continues until the end of 



