In the cities there is a large market for Carrots as feed for horses,
it being very generally accepted that a few given daily or every
other day, aids the digestion of grain-fed animals, adds to the
gloss of the hair, and are of special medicinal value. The largest,
smoothest and darkest orange colored roots sell the best in the
market. The price varies all the way from ten to twenty dollars a ton
of 2,000 pounds, depending in part on the value of hay. Where the
quantity fed daily is small, a large knife or a shovel will answer to
cut them up in pieces of suitable size; but if the quantity amounts
to several bushels daily, then a root-cutter will be needed. There
are two classes of these, one for sheep, and the other for large
stock, the essential difference being that those designed to cut
roots for sheep cut into smaller pieces. Of those designed to cut
roots for large stock, the Whittemore machine is as good a machine
as any, having a capacity to cut up a bushel in about half a minute.
Among farmers there is much unnecessary fear about the danger of
animals choking while feeding on apples, potatoes and roots. For the
last ten years I have fed to my cows not far from three hundred tons
of squashes, potatoes and roots, (mostly squashes) and never yet lost
an animal or had any very serious trouble from choking. My habit is
to feed them while quietly in their stalls, with a division board
between the feed of each. All cases of choking that have come to my
notice have occurred _where the animal was suddenly disturbed while
eating_. There is a great difference of opinion as to how many roots
can be fed to stock daily without injuring them. The proportion will
depend somewhat on the constitutional peculiarities of individual
cows, but when the bowels are all right the appetite of the animal is
probably the safest guide. I have had a large and extended experience
in feeding squashes to milch cows,--the Boston Marrow, Hubbard and
other varieties; beginning with a half a bushel to each animal, I
increase the quantity until the daily consumption has averaged a
hundred pounds a day to each. Under such heavy feeding, after a while
their appetites clog somewhat, but I am inclined to the opinion
that beginning with a moderate feed, they would soon readily eat
seventy-five pounds daily with a relish, for as long a period as they
might last. When feeding Carrots or any roots, the most economical
method is to give meadow or salt hay, with a small quantity of
flax-seed or cotton-seed meal. The effect of the roots and these rich
meals is to give to these inferior varieties of hay, the nutritious
value of the best upland English.
Carrots fed too liberally to horses, will make them soft, and cause
them to sweat at the least exertion. The manure made by animals fed
on Carrots or any other roots is of poor quality and therefore for
the farm’s (as well as the animal’s) sake a proportion of grain, or
its equivalent, should always be fed with them.