Beet Sugar as Foot for Animals.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXVII, Issue 1372, 13 August 1895, Page 3

Beet Sugar as Foot for Animals.

"J. W." writes in the Wairarapa Standard :—■" 1 remember well the time, when the late Hon. John Martin brought a parcel of sugar beet seed, t9 Otaraia, Lower Valley, with full written instructions how-to treat the "same. I took charge of some of these seed, and planted them,.and; in consequence of my having heard so much about these seed I took some notice, but at the same time £ did tfcjt' pay any more attention than to any pther part of the garden, merely keeping the ground loose and free from weeds. It being a 1 very dry seasbni, I sowed the seed in the latte'r part of August and dug them up, I think, in March, 'the 'roots were and .heavy, none growing so large as v mangolds, and when cooked were not at all unpalatable. But now I must come to the important point, to my thinking. I consider I had a good yield, and }ii A. had orders to stack them' in the corner of the stockyard, I removed them. Whilstdoing so an old bull came roaring at the fence, and I gave him One at his head, and to my surprise he greedily devoured it, ind did not seem to mind how often I repeated the dose. This I thought somewhat strange, since an old beast does not as a rule take readily to any article, of food that he has, not ■ been used to. Well, to cut a long story shorty I stacked the precious beet in the .stockyard, and the nex,t morning when I got-the calves out to the cows I found they too had found out the sugar and were wiring in with...the greatest, enjoyment I then tried, if pigs relished them X might have, asked does >a donkey like green oats, iov ( had my answer just" the same. ,1 'have since triejd to grow them iri rich , moist soil, with success, and T can confidently say that it would be well-spent time for anyone to try a patch, if only for purposes of feeding stock, since they do well on, dryground, I if kept free of weeds, and the sam« with loose, swampy ground, and I believe; if once started, would receive a great deal more attention, since it does hot blight like turnips in dry weather. If my observations on the growing of sugar beet may be of any benefit to sOme I should be glad, as there are a great many of the settlers who are badly off for feed for stock at times, and the sugar beet improves with keeping, which is also an advantage."