MAITUAL OF CATTLE-FEEDING. 357 



of the roots is liable to escape digestion- Still fm-tlier, 

 roots are a very watery fodder, and do not possess tlie 

 necessary volume to lit them to serve as the exclusive food 

 of ruminating animals. Hence, they nuist have added to 

 them a ceitain amount of hay, straw, or other dry fodder, 

 as well as some nitrogenous bye-fodder. A ration might 

 be compounded, for instance, from mangolds and oil cake, 

 which should contain protein, fat, and carbhydrates, in suf- 

 ficient quantity and in the right proportions to snpply the 

 demands of a milk cow ; but it would scarcely be regarded 

 as suitable for such an animal. 



With hogs the case is different. Potatoes, especially, 

 seem to agree excellently with these animals, and when 

 enough of some substance rich in protein, such as flesh 

 meal, is added, to establish a suitable nutritive ratio and 

 ensure the digestion of the starch, they produce excellent 

 results. 



Proportion of Non-protein.— Comparatively recent 

 investigations have shown that a large part of the nitro- 

 genous matter of tubers and roots consists of various forms 

 o£ "non-protein," among which nitrates and amides are 

 particularly abundant. 



Various experimenters have noticed the occurrence of 

 amides or related bodies, as well as of nitrates and ammo- 

 nia salts, in beets, but the first thorough investigations of 

 the nitrogenous constituents of fodder beets were those of 

 Schulze & ITrich. In their first investigation * they con- 

 firmed the fact already known, that beets contain a rela- 

 tively large but variable quantity of nitrates, correspond- 

 ing, in their experiments, to from 10 per cent, to 47 per 

 cent, of the total nitrogen, and also found a very consider- 



* Landw. Versuohs Stationen, XVIII. , 290. 



