The Stock-Feeder's Manual: the chemistry of food in relation to the breeding and feeding of live stockCameron, Charles Alexander, Sir
Science
The Stock-Feeder's Manual: the chemistry of food in relation to the breeding and feeding of live stock
Cameron, Charles Alexander, Sir
Feeds; Livestock
When doctors differ, who is to decide? Here we have high authorities in
the agricultural world at direct variance on a matter of fact. The names
of Buckman and Wolff are a sufficient guarantee that the experimental
results which they announce are trustworthy, and I can testify, from
observation, that no field experiments could be more carefully conducted
than those carried out at the Albert Model Farm. We can only, then,
under the circumstances, admit that both Mr. Boyle, on the one side,
and Professors Buckman and Wolff on the other, are correct in their
statements of fact; but as it is evident both cannot be right in the
general inferences therefrom, it is desirable that the subject should be
still further investigated, and the truth be placed beyond doubt. It is
a question which appears so simple that one is at a loss to account for
the discrepant opinions in relation to it which prevail. "Let nothing
induce the growers," says Mr. Paget, in a paper on the cultivation of
the mangel, "to strip the leaves from the plant before taking up the
root. A series of careful experiments has convinced me that by so doing
we borrow food at a most usurious interest." "Although," says Mr. Boyle,
"the practice of stripping has been followed for many years on the farm
without any perceptible injury to the crop, these results, showing so
considerable an addition to the crop from taking off the leaves, were
hardly anticipated." It certainly does appear somewhat at variance with
our notion of the functions of the leaves of plants, that their partial
removal could possibly cause an increase in the weight of the roots;
but granting such to be the fact, it is not altogether _theoretically_
inexplicable. We know that highly nitrogenous manure has a tendency to
increase the development of the leaves of turnips at the _expense_ of
the roots. Gardeners, too, not unfrequently remove some of the buds from
their fruit trees, lest the excessive development of foliage should
retard or check the _growth_ of the fruit. _Theoretically_ an excessive
development of the leaves of the mangel may be inimical to the growth
of the root. Probably, too, it may be urged, the outer leaves, which
soon become partially disorganised and incapable of elaborating mineral
matter into vegetable products, prevent the access of light to the more
vigorous inner leaves. In conclusion, I may say of this subject that it
is worthy of further elucidation; and I would suggest to my readers,
and more especially to the managers of the various model farms, the
desirability of fully testing the matter.
The _White Beet_ is a congener of the mangel. It is largely grown on the
continent as a sugar-producing plant, but is seldom cultivated in these
countries. It produces about 15 tons of roots per acre, and its roots on
the average contain--
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