ROOTS, TUBERS, AND OTHER SUCCULENT FEEDS 141 
green feed for fall and early winter feeding, viz., 30 to 40 tons or 
more per acre.’ Under ordinary conditions 20 tons are probably an 
average yield. All kinds of stock, including poultry, like kale, and 
it is specially valuable as a feed for milch cows, sheep, and swine. 
According to the Oregon station, 35 pounds of kale a day, with 20 
pounds of hay, make an excellent ration for dairy cows, very little 
grain feed being needed in addition.’ 
Pumpkins (Cucurbita pepo).—The use of pumpkins in feed- 
ing stock is old in this country, being planted in the corn and left 
in the field till “the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the 
shock!” The crop has never assumed much importance as a stock 
feed, however, and is fed, especially to milch cows and swine, more 
as an appetizer than for the amount of nutrients that it supplies. 
It contains about 10 per cent of dry matter, and resembles turnips 
quite closely in composition. The Vermont station® found that 
two and one-half tons of pumpkins are equal to one ton of corn 
silage for dairy cows. They are generally cooked for swine and 
mixed with grain feeds, but it is a question whether the cooking 
adds anything to their value (p. 67). The seeds are often removed 
in feeding pumpkins; some farmers believe that they tend to dry 
up cows. There is probably no foundation in fact for this belief. 
According to Grisdale, pigs like the seeds best, and no injury comes 
from feeding them. Henry states® that the seeds contain much 
nutriment and should not be wasted. 
Pie melons (also called citron or cow melons) are grown for 
feeding purposes to a limited extent in western States. “Like the 
ordinary field pumpkin, they can be produced readily in large 
quantities on most. lands, and ripen at a time when green feed is 
likely to be scarce. When fed to dairy stock they produce an in- 
creased milk yield, which is more than commensurate with their 
actual content of feed substance. This is because of their palata- 
bility and beneficial effects upon digestion and the addition of 
wholesome variety to the ration, They may be fed with profit to 
swine and poultry when in confinement, and to sheep, especially 
during nursing periods.*°- Pie melons contain 5.5 per cent dry 
matter on the average, or only about one-half as much as field 
pumpkins. The relative feeding value-of the two crops is, in all 
probability, represented by this ratio. 
7 Circular Bulletin 5. ®« Feeds and Feeding,” 10th ed., p. 195. 
® Report, 1908. * California Bulletin 132. 
