54 maine agricultur-\l experiment station. i915. 

 Turnips as a Stock Food. 



yields and food value. 



It is probably true that the corn plant generally yields a 

 larger amount of digestible dry matter at less cost than any 

 other plant that usually enters into a rotation. There are, how- 

 ever, parts of the State in which corn does not do well. Even 

 in the corn growing section of the State there are occasional 

 farmers who desire to grow succulent food and do not wish to 

 go to the expense of putting up a silo. These people have 

 always looked towards roots for a green winter food. This is 

 particularly true of the eastern part of Washington County 

 where many farmers are interested, in a small way, in dairying. 

 One of their most serious problems is how to provide some form 

 of succulent food for winter use. On many of the farms corn 

 cannot be grown, partly because of the climatic and partly 

 because of soil conditions. Nor have mangolds been grown in 

 that locality with marked success. Both turnips and rutabagas, 

 however, seem particularly adapted to that section of the State. 

 Large crops can be grown. They thrive on clay soils. They 

 can be planted late after the low lands have become fit to work. 

 They furnish a hoed crop for the rotation upon land on which 

 no other hoed crop can be grown. And they fill a very impor- 

 tant place in the ration of the dairy animal. 



A cooperative field experiment planned by the College of 

 Agriculture and carried out by Mr. Clarence A. Day on the farm 

 of Mr. F. P. Washburn of Ferr^', is here reported. 



This experiment is in a series in which the following problems 

 are being studied; the place of turnips in the rotation; as to 

 whether the crop does better on sod or on potato ground ; meth- 

 ods of fertilization; tests of varieties; and an attempt, if pos- 

 sible, to get at the cause of the serious trouble to turnips in 

 Washington County known as black-heart. 



The field selected for this experiment was a clay loam, free 

 from rock, and typical of the better grade clay soils in the towns 

 near the St. Croix River. For the purpose of the test the field 

 was divided into tenth acre plots, 2 rods by 8 rods in size. The 

 fertilizer used, the yields in pounds per plot and in bushels and 

 tons per acre, and the quality of the turnips are given in the 

 table which follows : 



