CHAPTER X. 



FIELD ROOTS. 



More commonly field roots are grown to pro- 

 vide winter food for live stock, but in some instances 

 they are also grown to provide soiling food. The 

 chief of these ai^e rutabagas, turnips, mangels, sugar 

 beets and carrots. Parsnips are too deeply rooted 

 to admit of their being profitably grown as soiling 

 food, and the same is somewhat true of sugar beets 

 and carrots. The growing of these crops involves 

 much more labor than the growing of a crop of 

 rutabagas, turnips or mangels. And since rutabagas 

 require a period considerably longer to mature than 

 turnips, the latter are preferred for summer feeding. 

 Turnips and mangels are therefore more highly 

 adapted to providing green food than any of the other 

 field roots that have been named. No one of these 

 crops has been grown to any considerable extent in 

 the United States for green food, nor has any one 

 of them been grown for any purpose to anything like 

 the extent to which its feeding value would justify. 

 Ontario, Can., is beyond all comparison the greatest 

 root-producing district in North America. 



The labor involved in growing and feeding 

 these crops will probably form an effective barrier 

 against their general introduction as soiling food, 

 and yet there may be instances when it would be the 

 part of wisdom to grow them. While for all kinds 



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