POTATOES AS FOOD FOR STOCK.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1875, 12 July 1884, Page 4

POTATOES AS FOOD FOR STOCK.

An American contemporaiy says :—: — While common potatoes' are inoif generally used as food for man than all other roots combined, yet it is a curiou3 fact that they are rarely grown with the purpose of feeding to stock. ;£several reasons exist foi this neglect of a root so easily and largely grown. In the fh'3t place the selling price of potatoes is almost always far greater than their feeding value. In districts where they are largely giown even tne small tubers aic saleable foi seed purposes or to bakeis to miv with flour m making bread. As food for stock the. potato cannot well compete >% ltli other roots which yield much moru heavily per acre. Il is a good ciop of potatoes that will yield 200 bushels per acre, while beets, mangels, canots and parsnips will give a yield of GOO to 1200 bushels, with less danger of loss by disease. The potafcoe is the only esculent root that is liable to lot, and of late yeais it has also had to be guarded against insect enemies, which involves a cousideiable expense. If it were not foi the potato beetle, wo are not sure that some of the coarser varieties of potatoes might not sometimes be giown for feeding stock, but fighting the bug is ;in expense only warranted when the crop can be sold for human food. Potatoes differ from other esculent roots in the fact that they often contain a poisonous piinciplc which lequhes that they be cooked before being eaten. The potato belongs to a class of poisonous plants, the aolanum family, and it is well known that under certain conditions eating them produces serious danger. One of the first effects of giving cattle large quantities of potatoes is to cause an attack of the scours. This is especially tiue if the tubers are greened by exposure to the sun or have been grown on vines the leaves of which have been stripped by the potato bug. It is these infenorlota of potatoes that are commonly used for feeding purposes, and when fed raw, as is oiteu the ca&e, it is not suipiUmg that the lesult is unfavourable. On the other hand, a beet or mangel wuiUel that has giown up abo\e giound is quite as valuable as that which is altogether in the soil, besides being much moie easily hai vested. If farmers incur the extra labour involved in covei ing potato hills so as to keep their product below the surface they need the usual maiket paces to make the ciop pay. It is probably the acrid poisonous principle in the potato which has pie vented it fiom being moie geneially used for feeding stock. A large poition j of the solid substance of the potato is starch, which, theoretically, should I piove more valuable foi fattening than it is commonly found to be in practice. Cook ing potatoes not only removes pait of the excess of water, but makes the starch more easily digestible. Yet for some reason the starchy poi fcions of the potato have not as gieat feeding value as an equal weight of uncooked starch in corn or other giain. Cooked potatoes are often fed in eiily Fall to fattening pigs; but the final fattening must be on grain, to make the pork moieiiim in texture. J'otatoes, cooked 01 raw. fed to milch cows make a gieat quantity of rathei poor milk with white sahy butter entirely inferior to that produced from corn meal. When potatoes rule as low as at piesent, theie aic many localities wheie they will not sell for a sulhcicnt pi ice to wanant drawing to maiket. In such cases feeding la the only alteuialhc. They cinnot be carried even until eaily summer without loss, especially during a season like the piesnit, when lot adds to the difficulties of the giowei. Paitly rotten potatoes will not pay the. expenee of cooking, and, in fact, if boiled in quantities w ill nuke a stench that will be almost intolei able. AVhat can be got from them by feeding raw to stock is of little benefit. E\cn tor sound potatoes we rate the feeding value so low that cightpcn or twenty cents pei bushel would send them to any ne.u mai ket in prefeiencc. Eighty pei cent of the potato lswntci, and of the reniaindui the value is ccitainly not than the same amount of diy giam, yet even a low price for the 22 J °tato w ould make it cost moie. The manufactuie of potatoe starch and theaitifieial diying ot potatoes furnish the best outlets for anexecsshe supply. Evaporated potatoes cut in thin slices and diied into shieds of staichy .substance will keep foi \cais. JSix to eight pounds can be seemed per bushel, and the product is used extensively on long sea \oyages, wheie keeping tho potatoes themsehes would be an impossibility. The staieh factoiies seldom pay high pi ices for stock, but in localities wheie the crop is superabundant they help to relieve the excess and assuie the grower a better pnco than he could otherwise expect to obtain. If moie attention were given to these means of utilising surplus potatoes that otheiwise would be wasted, tin's ciop would not be subject to as wide fluctuations in price as has oceuned duung the last few yeais. It is voiy lately that the puce of potatoes, except in localities 1 emote fiom lailways goes so low that theii use foi stock feeding, except ot the small ones, becomes a piactical question. The use ot potatoes as human food is much moiegcneial than it was ten or twelve ye.nsago, and their remarkable cheapness the present season will be apt to make them moielaigoly used in the futuie than befote. On many tables potatoes are now pcivcd thtce times a day, and the habit of expecting potatoes thus frequently will continue after prices have advanced to rates that will pay the ptoducer.

Tin: P. and 0. R.M.B. Indus, while steaming down the Channel, collided with and sank a lightship. The Indus sustained no .senous damago, and proceeded on her voyage to Sydney. PmxoE Bjsm \kl'K is uiging the Cleiical party to withdiaw their objection to the snbsidisting of a mail line to Australia. Ix Mr Maurice Lyon's Northern Territory Pastoral Company, 3000 shaies have been subset ibed by colonists in Nova Scotia, Queensland, New Zealand and Vicfcotia. A grlat aslromocial feat has been accomplished. The 235 asteroids, that revolve in what was ioimerly called the great gap between Mais and Jupiter, have all received names, though some of them have been waiting for yeais as nothing but members. These stiagglins members of the system have been dis>~ covered dining the pieseut ccntuty, Ceres, the first in order of time, ha\ nig been found in ISOI. They are a puzzle to ustionomeis, with thvii eccentiic orbits, small dimensions and peculiar origin. There h no present means of knowing whether their limit as to umnbeis have been leached, or if larger I telescopes may add thousands to the family. They are troublesome, too, for they are always getting lost, or being j discovered over again, so that an ii reverent Gei man astronomer suggests that the smallest of the eiowd should be allowed at their own sweet will and persue their own paths undistmbed by telescopes or computer. The asteroids are, however, fascinating studies for some of our most distinguished astionomers, who have succeeded in picking out so many that a new asteroid is no longer a novelty. — Providence Journal. Lifk in the Bush— Thef and Now.— It is generally supposed that in the bush we h.ive to put up with many discomforts and privations in the shape of food. Formerly it was so, but now, thanks to T. \i. Hill, who has himself dwelt in the bush, if food does consist chiefly of tinned meats his Colonial Sauce gives to them a most delectable flavour, making them as well of the plainest food most enjoyable, and instead as hard biscuits and indigestible damper Ins I\i,,provj'l> CoroNiAt. Raking Powder makes the j very best bread, scones, cakes, and pastry faf ' ' Superior and more wholesome than yeast oi *— 'leaven • Sold by all storekeepers who can obJsVtkm it from any merchant in Auckland. Rats and Mice. —lf you>wish to de *trqy them get a packet of jHjll's Magic Vermin "'Killkk fn .packets, 6d, od, and Is, to be obtained of all storekeepers, or from X, B. KIU. by cv-