ROOTS 239 



to keep it in good condition. In most instances, however, this 

 trouble does not arise, for owners of farm flocks usually have other 

 classes of livestock that will help in eating the silage. 



Roots. — In England, Canada, and northern United States, roots 

 are an important sheep feed. Swedish turnips and mangels are the 

 kinds most commonly used. For pregnant ewes the turnips are 

 preferable, because the mangels require a long period of storage 

 before they are sufficiently ripened to be liberally fed without in- 

 jurious results. The chemical analysis of roots shows them to be 

 comparatively low in food nutrients. Mr. John Campbell, of 

 Canada, who was regarded as one of the most successful sheep 

 raisers in America, said that there is something in roots good for 

 sheep which chemists have not found. That was his way of em- 

 phasizing their importance. In the corn belt region of the United 

 States and in other regions having about the same weather with 

 respect to summer temperature, much of the growing season is too 

 hot for Swedish turnips. Instead of growing firm and solid they 

 become hollow and worthless. Mangels, however, can be grown suc- 

 cessfully in the corn belt and in other regions of similar climate, 

 but the yields are not as large as in regions farther north. More- 

 over, they, and turnips as well, require a great deal of hand labor, 

 which is very scarce on American farms. Hence in corn-growing 

 regions silage largely takes the place of roots. But if the flock is 

 small and if no other classes of livestock that consume silage are 

 kept it will pay to seed an acre or two to mangels. The writer was 

 taught by E. J. Stone, Stonington, Illinois, that the best yields 

 of mangels are secured in the corn belt when the seed is sown as 

 early in the spring as possible. 



Silage and roots are similar in that each furnishes succulence, 

 the importance of which has long been emphasized by many of the 

 most successful sheepmen, and, like silage, roots must be fed with 

 care if good results are to follow. In regions where large root crops 

 are grown there is a temptation to save the hay and grain and to 

 feed roots to excess, which, if yielded to, often results in abnormal 

 losses of both ewes and lambs at lambiug, time. Wrightson in his 

 " Sheep, Breeds, and Management " advises against feeding more 

 than twelve pounds of roots per head daily to pregnant ewes, and he 

 advocates this quantity only for a short time before the parturition 

 period. That quantity would seem excessive to most sheepmen, and 

 evidently Wrightson refers to sheep of great feeding capacity. Most 



