46 



BULLETIN 1244, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



(Fig. 18.) Mammoth Long Red has given the heaviest yields at 

 Redfield and Moccasin, but it has been slightly outyielded by the 

 Golden Tankard at Edgeley, Dickinson, and Havre. Sugar beets 

 stand next to mangels in tonnage per acre at Redfield and at Havre. 



The varieties of rutabagas tested at the various stations are 

 American Purple Top, Carter's Hardy Swede, and Hurst's Monarch. 

 Moccasin is the only station where rutabagas have produced greater 

 average yields than mangels. The American Purple Top has given 

 the best yields at Redfield, Hurst's Monarch at Moccasin, and 

 Carter's Hardy Swede at Dickinson and Havre. 



Sugar beets have not compared with mangels in yield but on the 

 average have outyielded other root crops except at Dickinson. 



Three varieties of carrots are being tested — Mastodon, Oxheart, 

 and Improved Long Orange. At Havre and Moccasin, however, 

 jack rabbits have destroyed the crop on several occasions. 



The yields of field turnips have been so unsatisfactory that they 

 have not been included in the table. 



From all data available it appears that mangels show the greatest 

 possibilities of any of the root crops for this region. 



Fig. 18.— Mangels grown at Redfield, S. Dak. Root crops should be grown more extensively than at 

 present. A small acreage of mangels may usually be depended upon to produce a satisfactory yield 

 of good succulent forage even in very dry seasons. 



A SUMMATION OF THE POSSIBILITIES OF FORAGE PRODUCTION. 



The investigations herein recorded, covering as they do in some 

 cases periods of 10 years, have gone far toward throwing light on 

 the cultivated-forage possibilities of the northern Great P lains. It 

 is evident that the native ranges and hay lands must be supple- 

 mented by cultivated forage crops if livestock raising is to become an 

 important modification of grain fanning. There are not many such 

 crops from which to choose; but there are those which, when given 

 as good conditions as can be provided, are sufficiently dependable in 

 most of the region, even in the drier parts, to encourage at least to a 

 j in xlerate degree the inclusion of livestock raising in the present 

 grain-fanning system. Tonnage and palatability are about the only 

 qualifications that are actually required. Any cultivated forage 

 crop, therefore 4 , (hat will produce a fairly good and dependable yield 

 ;iik1 is sufficiently palatable to be eaten by livestock with more or 

 Less avidity is regarded as suitable. 



