Xxii BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



material than the beets themselves. What our farmers need 

 is this pulp for feeding to their farm animals. Should farm- 

 ers in oar State be willing to grow beets another season 

 sufficient to warrant the exjDenditure, the Company will at 

 once proceed to build six or eight sugar houses for producing 

 raw sugar from the beets, in various parts of Maine, so that 

 farmers can be within easy reach of transportation to a 

 factory, and can also haul back to their farms the pulp made 

 from the evaporation of the beets into crude sugar. This 

 raw sugar can then be transported to the refinery of the Com- 

 pany in Portland to be manufactured into the standard article. 

 Learning that the pulp was this fall shipped to several prom- 

 inent farmers in different parts of the State, I addressed let- 

 ters of inquiry to each one of them, asking for their results 

 in feeding it. I have not room for all these replies, but give 

 that of W. W. Harris, Esq., of Portland, a member of the 

 State Board of Agriculture, and will only remark, that all the 

 others speak in highly' favorable terms of their use of it in its 

 fresh state, before fermentation has taken place. This, as 

 Mr. Harris observes, can best be obviated by keeping it in 

 pits or air-tight compartments in the barn cellar, and feeding 

 out as wanted during the winter season. Mr. Harris writes : 



'•In reply to j^onr inquiries have to say, I liad a car load of 'Beet Pulp.' 

 Press of fall work drove me to make the shortest or quickest disposition 

 of it, and I spread on my barn floor, shoveling over every day. In this 

 way I kept it for some time in good condition, and my cows enjoyed it 

 and ate it with a good relish ; but after awhile it became somewhat sour, 

 and of course unfit for them. My store pigs have lived on it entirely. I 

 scald it and mix a very little corn and oat meal with it and think it a good 

 feed for them ; at any rate, thej^ are growing finelj% From my experience 

 with this first trial I think well of it. and will be sure to have better facili- 

 ties for storage next time. If kept from the air it can be kept in good 

 condition any length of time. This may be done, 'pitting' in the ground 

 or in an air-tight compartment in the barn cellar or otherwise. Should 

 the beet sugar business succeed, as I trust it may. the beet pulp will be 

 regarded of sutficient importance to make provision for its storage. There 

 is no doubt that it is a valuable feed for cattle and pigs." 



Good returns have rewarded the la1)or of the farmer, and 

 the season has yielded the most abundant and satisfactory re- 

 turns. Crops of all kinds have been heavy — with the single 



