Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 June 1875 — The Value of Beets for Stock. [ARTICLE]

The Value of Beets for Stock.

Having planted last-year a small piece of light, loamy l«nd, well manured, with mangolds—or, as some term them, the giant beet—l found the yield to be "at the rate of thirty-five tons per acre. The first of December I commenced feeding them to three cows, at the rate of one peck per day each, measured after they were cut, together with one foddering of hay per day, the remainder of their fodder being cut straw. I continued this feed for three months, and the cows at this time were in better condition than they were the previous winter, at the same time in the winter, when they had been fed wholly on hay; they also gave more milk. In my opinion beets are the most profitable root that we can grow for stock feed. The sugar-beet I have no doubt is the most nutritious, although I think the mangolds the most profitalde to cultivate, as tli£ yield is much larger. If our farmers would grow more roots than they have been in the habit of raising to feed their stock during our long and cold winters their hay would hold out better, and their stock, I think, would be, in better condition in flesh and health. A large amount of straw and coarse fodder may be fed to stock if we have some kind of roots to feed with it. Some will probably say that it takes too much manure to "grow these roots. Try a small piece qf light, loamy land with them, and mmy opinioh you will not think that you have wasted your manure. —Correspondence Maim Fanner. -