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VOL. LXII
INDIANAPOLIS, OCTOBER 5, 1907.
NO. 40
%xpsxi*rntz gepartractrt
ROOT   CROPS   FOR    STOCK.
Found   Them Profitable.
1st Premium.—For the last 20 years of
my farm life I raised and fed more or less
roots "l various kinds to my horses, cattle,
sheep, hogs, chickens and turkeys, and became thoroughly convinced that it paid as
well as any other crop of the farm financially. There is not to great a value in
leneis, considered as a bone, muscle, fat
and heat producer, as there is in corn, hay
;ei](l oats, but they keep the system supplied with thati necessary fluid that is
wanting when dry feed alone is used. The
sil.e has supplied that want to a great extent, yet there is plenty of room for the
roots, for we- never get too great a variety
of food for man, beast or fowl. I pity
tbe man who has lived on bread and meat
all his life, with a few waxy preserves
thrown in, and who never enjoyed the
foiled pot of potatoes, cabbage, turnips,
parsnips, etc. No wonder he is a dyspeptic. Roots aud vegetables have their
food and medicine value for man and
beast. In early times the horse knawed
Ihe bark from ihe dogweed and wild
cherry, the cow browsed upon the fallen
heech top, and the hog dug roots of both
ttees and vegetables. Man has removed
the vegetable and root crop that grew in
the wild, now let him substitute by growing root crops for his domestic animals—
they need them. Nature made no failure
in providing for the animals but man has
taken away the food that existed when the
horse, cow, hog and sheep roamed the hillside and valley and gathered their food
and medicine at will.
Did you ever try sowing some late turnips for your turkeys? I have, and after
the frost lays other vegetation low they
keep the tops trimmed to the ground.
And the hen should most undoubtedly
have roots and vegetables through the
winter, either raw or cooked; and it pays.
The horse should have his beets and carrots occasionally, as an appetizer; and
they will pay. It is said that two bushels
of oats and one of carrots are worth more
for the horse as feed than three bushels of
oats. Peed a few bushels of carrots to
your milk cow, through the winter, and
yem will not have to buy coloring for your
butter. Also turnips fed to cows will
give the butter a nice golden color. I
have seen chickens become so ravenous for
something greeu that they scratched the
straw from the winter onion- bed and ate
the tops to the ground.
I once lost the beef of a caif eighteen
nionths old, one of the finest I ever killed
for home use, by having turned it into
a lot where there were some winter onions.
It rooted through brush, straw and snow
in peat the tops. The first stoak that we
fried  told  the  Btory. I   ean  eat beef
fried with onions, but when the onion is
I ut into it through the laboratory of the
calf's stomach, excuse me from eating
the compound. But don't say that that
calf did not want something green.
One winter ami Bpring I fed over 200
bushels of potatoes to sows and pigs, with
good results. I cooked them, added
meal, shorts, etc., and also fed some corn.
The potatoes were only worth 25 cents per
bushel in Indianapolis and 12 miles to
haul. 1 was satisfied that I made more
money out of my potatoes by feeding than
hauling. Feed your brood sows roots
through the winter and spring,  and they
will not kill and eat their pigs. I would
not think of carrying a lot of stock
through the winter without some roots.
I. N. C.
Small Field Makes Big Crop.
2el Premium.—Turnips, carrots,) rutabagas, sugar beets anel mangels all make
good feed, but one difficulty about feeding them is that most of ns have no place
to keep them where they will be handy to
feed and at the same time lie safe from
freezing.      Another difficulty is the time it
not so much need of these root crops, but
wliere ao silo exists these are the cheapest substitute we know of. We find the
milk production very much increased by
this feed. For reason mangels make a
desirable feed, not only feer the cows but
also for the ewes if the lambs come early.
This is especially important where there
are  twins. We  have  known  many   in-
stances where lambs starved because there
was not enough milk for their sustenance.
We believe an acre, or at least a half
acre, might profitably be devoted to this
purpose.        The extent of the crop, how-
A Busy Day at the Indiana  Farmer State Fair Building.
requires to cut them up by hand. Where
a large nnmber of live stock are kept, the
preparation of the roots becomes quite a
tedious job. It has been suggested that
a storage room under the bridge of a bank
barn is a good place for these crops. If
arranged when the barn is built it will not
require a great deal extra work or expense.
We have never had experience with
rutabagas, carrots or sugar beets, but have
raised turnips and mangels for feeding
purposes, anel it is surprising the amount
that will grow on a small tract of ground.
In our first experience we had probably a
half acre in both crops, thinking we
wonld raise just a few as an experiment,
but when they were harvested we hail so
main we hardly knew what to do with
them. They were raised on muck which
had a gravelly subsoil, and they made a
wonderful growth. There were turnips that
weighed nine pounds, anti the mangels
were like cordwood. The turnips have
the advantage in being easier to raise, as
they may be sown broadcast, while the
mangels should be sown in rows and cultivated. To get a good stand they
should lie sown rather thick, and then-
thinned tei about six or eight inches apart
in the- ,,,„ i'i,is fee(j js reiisned by all
kinds of stock in the winter when nothing
hu I dry feed is at hand.
Something of this kind is needed to neutralize the effects of the more heating Tali'ms. It seems to tone up the system
and keep the stock in more thrifty condition. It has much the same effect as
bran or oil meal and is much cheaper.
Where one one has a silo perhaps there is
having basement! barns could easily provide a root cellar. It is something that
uiiii- had vim would never be without.
Reader.
No. 605. Oct. 12.—Give directions for
making butter tiiat will sell at the highest
price, and tell how to market it.
No. 000, October 19—Uow make the
poultry house warm and snug for winter?
Why should it be done?
No. 007, October 26— Outline a plan for
conducting a literary and debating society.
ever must be governed largely by the facilities for storing aud feeding and the
amount of stock that is kept. The man-
gels when cooked make splendid feed for
the chickens and increase the egg production when the price is the highest.
J. R.
Don't Neglect the Turnip.
3d Premium.—It certainly does pay to
raise roots for stock in winteir, more especially for the farmer that is not fortunate in having a silo. If we have a silo
and feed silage, then our stock will be supplied with the green feed, but if not then
we should provide roots, such as the mangel wurzel beet, which is fine for cattle,
hogs and sheep. No farmer can afford to
go through the winter without a supply of
these beets in store. The rutabagas is also
gene.1. This is a species of turnip. It
has not nearly the fattening qualities that
the mangel lias; it lacks the sugar properties.
It also pays.to raise turnips. They are
greatly relished ley cattle, hogs and sheep,
more especially sheep. Tlu-se' should not
he Overlooked, as tln-y can be grown with
but very Utile work and can be grown on
land that has already produced a crop.
I'eew ever. I do not give them any praise
leu- milk cows, as they will taint the milk.
1 wonld more highly praise the mangel.
It is better for all kinds of stock. Mangels are planted in rows about the same as
drilled corn. They will produce an enormous crop, as they grow so very large.
We should provide a good warm cellar in
oue  barns  that  will  not  freeze.       Those
SELECTION AM) CARE (IF SEED.
A good way to do is to take a handy
basket on the arm or sling a grain bag
over the shoulder by means of a stout
cord and go into the best and ripest corn
Beld and go up and down the rows and select the best ears from the best hills, taking care to select only from stalks of
stout development under normal conditions and which bear the ear in a good position. The selected eads should be
at once put up in a dry, airy place where
they can dry out naturally. Artificial
drying should not be resorted to unless in
r::ses where there is not time for natural
drying before severe frosts are liable to
occur. When the eats are- still sappy the
application of artificial heat may easily
do harm by inducing' fermentation, a
very little of which will injure the germ.s
and cause weakness. There are many
ways in which corn may be safely put up
for drying. A good rack may be made of
pieces of five or six inch fence lumber set
on end and common plastering laths naileel
across the edges on either side opposite
each other, spaced six inches apart to a
convenient height. A single row of ears
should be placed in each space at tirst, to
permit of more rapid drying. Trying
two ears together by the husks aud hanging them over wires stretched a foot or
more apart across a dry room is an excellent system for drying. Whatever the
scheme used for drying. the important
thing to keep in mind is that each ea.-
must have a free circulation of air all
around it. Putting the ears in bags or
piling together in any way must be avoided. If the corn can be made dry before
freezing weather and then kept in a dry
place throughout the winter, it will be in
perfect condition in the spring. Seed corn
should never be put into a building containing live stock of any kind because of
the moisture given off by tho animals.—A.
T. Wiancko, Agriculturist, at Purdue.
Newspaper Bulletin No. 140.
OUR ONION CROP.
Sixteen counties of Indiana report acreage and yield of onions to Rice's Onion
Crop Reporter, Cambridge. X. Y.; most
of these counties are in the northern half
of  the   State. Marion  is  not  included,
but thousands eef bushels are grown here.
Noble connty reports the largest acreage.
1342 acres, ihis year, and a yield of 281,-
820 bashels; Kosciusko comes next, 823
acres and 136,018 bushels. Newton
connty reports the highest average, 400
bushels per acre; Adams the least, 50
bushels. Total area of the State 3,713
acres; total pield 753,373 bushels.
,  *  ,
A correspondent asks whether alsike and
timothy would work well together on a
piece of bottom land. Yes. Sometimes
the land becomes too wet or the growth
leeee rank tei make hay. Then a good seed
crop of timothy may be taken. This was
done this season on much low land.