“From experiments made in feeding beets, their value has been made
to range from 13 to 20 cents per bushel, with hay at twenty dollars
per ton. An exact estimate of the practical value of beets for
cattle food, is a difficult matter, as it is now, and ever will be,
hid from mortal ken. The improved condition of the cow (when fed
to cows during the winter), her increased usefulness during the
entire season, her lessened liability to sickness and disease which
high feeding with any one of the different kinds of grain induces,
her lengthened lease of life, her evident satisfaction and perfect
contentment, which is so plainly manifested while eating her daily
ration of roots, are each and every one legitimate items to be taken
into the account in estimating the practical, the actual value of
beets as food for dairy stock.
“After carefully looking at the subject in all its bearings, so far
as my experience has given me opportunity to do so, I have come to
the conclusion that beets for cattle food are well worth fully as
many cents per bushel as good hay is worth dollars per ton, without
taking into consideration the increase of the manure; and that the
average cost, when stored in the cellar or put into pits, with every
item of expense included, need not exceed eight cents per bushel.”
I will close my little treatise by remarking that while I cannot
expect to have exhausted so prolific a subject, yet I hope and trust
that it may prove of value as a guide and a stimulus to some of my
many friends in the great community of farmers.