MANGELS V. SWEDES.

New Zealand Mail, 27 August 1902, Page 50 (Supplement)

MANGELS V. SWEDES.

Th.e root feeding of dairy stock is one of the simplest means of providing winter food, and at the same time ot making up for a shortage of grass in a dry trimmer. The following information in the respective qualities of mangels and swedes, by a home authority, should therefore prove of value to Colonial dairymen:—Advantages of the mangel—(l) "With the same amount of manure it is possible to produce a bigger crop per acre of mangels than of swedes, and with a comparatively small additional outlay, ?. far bigger crop of succulent bulky food such as is required for milking cows; (2) the mangel can | be stored and kept sound and nutritious long after the swede would have become rotten and worthless under similar conditions ; (3) the mangel is better able to withstand drought, having a more extended root area; (4) the mangel is not affected by turnip-fly, or by fin-ger-and-toe disease, both very destructive to the swede, though it is periodically affected by the less-known mangel fly: (o) when fed to milkers the mangel does not impart any strong or disagreeable flavour to the milk or butter, as is the case with the swede: (6) as a milk producer—bulk for bulk —the mangel is a slightly more economical food; (7) the residue left in the land after a mangel crop is far more valuable than that left by the swede crop—area for area; (8) the manorial residue of a ion of maugeis after consumption is appreciably greater than, that of a ton of swedes; (9) the smaller fat globules in the mils, the result of mangel feeding, are of advantage to the cheese-maker. , On the other hand, the advantages of the swede over the mangel are thus expressed by the same writer:—(l) the swede can be .used early in the season, and often comes in useful at a time when the indispensable succulent food is scarce, and at a time when the mangel cannot be used ; (2) the swede will grow and thrive on a thin soil and in a damp cool climate, where mangel are a practical failure 1 ; (3) the swede need not be sown until danger of mildew and frost has passed, while to ensure a -full crop of mangels, early sowing is essential; (4) as a milk producer swedes have some advantages:— (a) they produce a milk richer in colour

and appearance and throwing up mora cream than mangel-produced milk (weighty advantages in the milk trade)* (b) the butter from swede-produced mule has naturally a good colour while that produced from mangels is always pale in colour; (5) the leaf of the swede i a good, nutritious and safe food for milkers, while that of the mangel is unsuitable,, and even dangerous.