Miscellaneous Feeding Stuffs. 215 



more water in the blood. (4) The root-fed steers had heavier 

 vital organs. (5) The fat was always less for the root-fed ani- 

 mals, and affords a somewhat decisive test of their relative value." 



Thus we learn that roots cause a more watery carcass than do 

 dry feeds. For breeding stock especially, and even for animals 

 in the early stages of fattening, may not this point be one of valu« 

 ( instead of detriment 1 The shote running on clover pasture like- 

 vise has a watery carcass because of the succulent feed eaten, yet 

 it lays on fat at small cost for food consumed. Grass-fed steers are 

 in the best condition, because of such feed, to make rapid gains 

 when changed to more solid food. A steer fed roots during the 

 first part of the fattening period should remain more vigorous and 

 make better gains for food consumed than one held on dry feed 

 from start to finish. There is no doubt that for breeding stock 

 the less tense flesh, a natural sequence of root feeding, is more 

 conducive to vigorous young at birth, and to their hearty mainte- 

 nance after birth, than dry feed continued without intermission 

 throughout our long winters. The dairy cow takes kindly to suc- 

 culent food, and cannot get it in better form than in that furnished 

 by roots. K silage is not used, then let roots be fed, in a limited 

 way at least, to our farm stock. When with dry feed we can 

 produce beef cattle and mutton sheep equal to those of Great 

 Britain, and dairy cows generally as good as those of Jersey, then 

 and not until then can we say there is no place for roots or some 

 other succulent feed on American farms. 



327. Root crops not generally grown. — Despite the advice of 

 agricultural writers urging the use of roots, and the example of 

 the English and Canadian feeders, who rely so largely on this 

 crop, roots are no more generally grown in the United States than 

 they were fifty years ago. The cause for this lack of interest is 

 explained by Storer in the following: * " Com is remarkable, not 

 only for its easy cultivation, but for its enormous yield both of 

 food and of fodder. It is at once a grain crop and a forage crop; 

 or, even more emphatically, a bread crop and a fallow crop. 

 Practically it has hitherto in good part, if not entirely, done away 

 with the need of cultivating roots for cattle food in this country, 



• Agriculture, Vol. II, p. 313. 



