238 WlSCONSm STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
row as possible without bruising the roots. We then pass along* 
the row topping the carrots, dropping the leaves into the furrow, 
and throwing the roots on to the plowed ground. A team is busily 
employed in gathering them. We use no basket, but throw them 
at once into the wagon. In this way the ground is left thoroughly 
plowed. Instead of waiting for the roots to be removed, the team 
with the plow goes on with its work on some adjoining land, so 
that no time is lost. I have had no difficulty in keeping my roots 
after they were stored, unless with the long mangels after they 
were severely frozen. Still, I would not think it safe to pile them 
up in very large piles without taking some precautions to keep 
them from heating. I think that a slatted tube running under the 
pile, and up through the center of it, would be all that is necessary 
for that purpose. Simply breaking the roots while handling them 
does not cause them to rot. 
The subject seems to require reference to such tables of equiva¬ 
lents as are furnished by scientific analysis, and I presume that Prof. 
S. W. Johnson, in his work, “How Crops Grow,” gives us the most 
reliable data at present obtainable. 
Without entering into too minute details, the organic matter 
contained in a bushel of corn would be equal to that found in 6.8 
of carrots, 7.5 of field beets, 7.5 of parsnips, 7 of rutabagas, and 3.4 
of potatoes. 
I could safely give the average yield of my roots for three years 
past at 650 bushels per acre. According to the table of equiva¬ 
lents, this would be very nearly equal to 100 bushels of corn, or 
one acre in roots would be fully equal to three acres of the average 
corn crop of the state. 
If the organic matter of the roots is equal in value, for feeding 
purposes, to that in the corn, being diffused through a larger and 
more yielding mass, must be more thoroughly comminuted, and 
when the texture is broken down, must be more readily yielded to 
the absorbents of the animal. In proof of this I would say, that 
where cattle are fed with corn in the ear, store hogs are kept to 
work over the droppings, and a proper number of them will need 
no other food. The cattle are a mill and steam chest, to prepare 
their food for them. If the corn is ground, it will be more per¬ 
fectly assimilated, but still there will be waste. 
I am feeding five cows on ground feed, and to others I am giv 
