Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1876 — Potatoes as Food for Stock. [ARTICLE]

Potatoes as Food for Stock.

Potatoes in many localities distant from market are this season so abundant and cheap that they can only be used to advantage for feeding out to stock. It is true that certain agricultural writers have of late endeavored to show that this valuable tuber was of little or no value for such purposes, but it is very probable tnat the gentlemen who advance such theories are not practical agriculturists. The value of the potato as food for man and many of our domestic animals is too well known to be discarded at this late day in consequence of anything which may be written by theoretical chemists or agriculturists. But while the potato has been a bone of contention among agriculturists lor many years, its practical' and specific value as food for stock has never been disproved when put to the test. The celebrated veterinarian, William Youatt, in speaking of the value of the various kinds of roots as food for stock, says of the potato: “Among the various vegetable productions that have been appropriated to the stall-feeding of cattle none have occasioned greater discussion than potatoes. They furnish an excellent supply, particularly when cut and steamed, and appear adequate to the fattening of neat cattle in combination with comparatively small portions of other food.” In the eleventh volume of the British “Annals of Agriculture” we find some statements from Mr. Campbell, of Charlton, England, which bear directly upon this question. He observes that 100 bushels of potatoes and 700 pounds of hay are generally sufficient to fatten any animal that thrives tolerably well. They should at first be given in small quantities and gradually increased to one or two bushels per day; dry food being always intermixed, and the proportion of bay being uniformly regulated by. he effect which the potatoes produce on the bowels. The hay should always be cut in order that it may be more readily mixed with the potatoes. We flight give almost any amount ot testimony from practical farmers and stock-raisers to corroborate the above, but think it entirely unnecessary, as it is quite likely that a majority of our readers know from experience that potatoes are yaluable food for stock. At the present price of beef, cheese, butter or pork, we think our farmers would do better to feed out their potatoes than to sell them at twenty cents per bushel and less, prices at which they have been sold in many localities this season. Potatoes are too heavy and buljky a crop to send to a distant market, but they are readily turned into beef, cheese or butter, and in these forms the cost of transportation is greatly reduced.—