92 FEEDING WITH SUGAR BEETS, SUGAR, ETC. 



COMPARATIVE FEEDING VALUE OF SILAGE, BEETS AND MANGELS FOR Cows. 



These figures show that the milk production is in favor of beets. 

 Considered as a whole, these figures appear to be slightly in 

 favor of silage, the difference, however, being so slight that it 

 need not be considered. * 



In New York, Cornell University has made some interesting 

 experiments to determine the effect of different rations in fat- 

 tening lambs. In these, instead of sugar beets, mangolds were 

 used. The lambs selected were thin in flesh and considered 

 well adapted to the experiment. We notice in these results 

 several important facts apparently overlooked. 



The sheep were divided into four lots of three each. One lot 

 did not have a ration suitable to its requirements, so the results 

 obtained in that special case need not be considered. The 

 fourth lot received no roots during the entire period of feeding, 

 and the total protein was nearly the same as in the third lot. 

 The increase of weight was 80.5 per cent, for second, 73 per 

 cent, for third, and only 52.7 per cent, in fourth lot (without 

 roots). 



It is maintained that the nitrogenous food in the second case 

 was the cause of the excessive gain; this may be true, but it cer- 

 tainly was not so in the third. The animal before fattening 

 weighed 51.5 Ibs., and five months afterward weighed 89 Ibs., 

 with a ration of mangolds, hay, corn, wheat, beans, etc., while 

 with wheat bran, cotton-seed meal, corn and timothy hay (no 



Report Pennsylvania Agri. Exp. Station, 1896. 



