3 
feeding value according to their compounds and digestibility, 
which we treat with below. But the first object is to reduce 
the proportion of water, and realize that it is valueless. 
For the benefit of our readers who have not yet given the 
matter attention, some ot the facts we have brought to light by 
our analyses and investigations may be of interest. 
Mangels contain of water from 85 to 94 per cent. As the 94 
per cent, co-exists with 6, and the 85 per cent, with 15 per cent, of 
solids, it will be seen that a given number of roots would, in the one 
case, produce 6 cwts. of nutrients, and in the other 1 5 cwts. Swedes 
contain 86 to 92 per cent, of water, Yellow Turnips 90 to 92, 
White Turnips 92 to 95, Carrots 85 to 92, and Kohl Rabi 86 to 
92 per cent. 
These figures indicate the difference in value between a 
close, firm, and hard texture on the one hand, and soft, spongy, 
watery roots on the other— a difference which might be considered 
obvious without analysis. 
When it is found sometimes that a field of Turnips 
has carried a certain number of sheep longer than the owner 
was led by the appearance of the crop and the estimated gross 
weight to expect, this must surely be due to the inherent 
higher nutritive value of the crop in relation to its bulk, and 
it is obvious, as the foregoing figures demonstrate, that a 
given crop of Turnips containing, say, go °/ 0 of water, which 
would feed a flock of sheep for a month, would, if it were 
improved so as to contain only 85% of water, carry them six 
weeks. 
SOLIDS. 
The varying quantities of water in field roots have pro- 
vided a problem which has engaged the attention through long, 
continuous, and laborious experiments of skilled scientists, who 
have all agreed in the one conclusion — that the less proportion 
of water contained in a root the higher its feeding value. Not 
that it necessarily follows that the dry matter is 
equally nutritious in all roots ; the feeding- value of 
this may and does vary. One may contain a 
larg-e amount of indigestible fibrous matter, and 
another a preponderance of digestible sug-ar and 
allied constituents. The one feature common to all is that 
the reduction of the water means enhanced feeding value, and 
the increase of the water a diminished value. Nevertheless, 
on analysis, the dry matter of some roots reveals such 
variations in composition that two roots may contain 
a similar amount, and yet the one may possess 
nearly double the feeding- value of the other. 
Comparative analysis shows that in the produc- 
tion of solids the Mang-el stands foremost, then come 
Swedes, followed by Yellow Turnips, and lastly, common 
White Turnips. It does not, however, follow that nothing but 
Mangel should be grown for a root crop. There are many 
considerations which decide a farmer as to the roots he grows 
in any particular field at any particular time. Turnips for 
early feed, Swedes for resisting the cold, and Mangels for 
storing till the spring, will naturally be the order of the day. 
Ten tons of Mangel to-day may contain as much dry matter 
as fifteen tons of Turnips ; there is no reason, however, why 
the Turnips should not to-morrow approximate to the Mangel 
of to-day, and the Mangel of to-day increase in feeding value 
in the same ratio. 
Continuing our analytical method and applying it to the 
solids, in which as before stated lies the only value there is in a 
root for feeding purposes, we find them to vary a great deal in 
quantity and in composition ; but it must be obvious to anyone 
who will give reflection to the subject that the value of the solid 
matter depends absolutely and solely upon the quantity contained 
in it of digestible food elements, not only on account of the simple 
fact that the animals can only appropriate that part of the solids 
which can be so described, but animals are like human beings, 
they eat with avidity that which appeals to their palate, and such 
food does them more good than that which is unattractive and 
indigestible. 
SUGAR. 
Now sug-ar and its allied compounds form the 
portion of the solids which can be said to be intrinsi- 
cally of the first importance ; as a high percentage of these 
compounds indicates a superior feeding value, and this is the 
quality we have sought to develop for the improvement of our 
stocks of feeding roots. 
In taking Mangel as our illustration, a farmer now-a-days 
instinctively grows for his stock the Mangel which he believes to be 
the most sugary ; he finds his cattle like it, and do better on it than 
on sorts inferior in this respect. Accordingly we have adopted 
a scientific method which enables us to ascertain with exactitude 
the amount of saccharine matter contained in the roots we select 
for seed purposes. The fact that we have adopted a 
system of perpetuating- a hig-her percentag-e of food 
constituents in roots will not come as a surprise to 
those who are acquainted with all that has been done 
on the Continent Of Europe by those Sugar Beet growers who 
have, by the application of scientific methods, fixed and perpetuated 
for their special purposes a higher percentage of saccharine matter 
than was ever obtained before ; but to those who are not aware 
of what has taken place in the development of the sugar- 
producing power of the Beet, we may say that the installation 
of scientific appliances for these operations is one of the first 
necessaries of a seed grower’s establishment where this particular 
industry is carried on. Beet and Mangel have sprung from one 
common ancestor, in fact in some parts the terms are to some 
degree interchangeable ; but while the sugar manufacturer’s 
grower has looked after his own interests, and developed in one 
branch of the family an extraordinary productive power for 
his particular purposes, the stock-breeder and farmer, not 
realizing what latent resources were at his disposal, has not 
studied the peculiarities of that branch of the family which 
ministers to his peculiar wants, further than to aim at producing 
the greatest bulk and weight possible. 
Why should it not be practicable in the course of the twentieth 
century to improve the products of the Mangel and other roots 
for feeding purposes in the same measure and degree as agricul- 
tural experts have improved the sugar-producing power of the 
Beet in the nineteenth century ? 
CARTERS', 237, 238, & 97, HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON.— 1901. 
