No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 441 



former, potassium and phosphoric acid are especially abundant, lime, 

 however, being present in considerable amount; in the stalk and leaf, 

 on the other hand, lime is the more conspicuous ash component. In 

 the case of beet molasses, the quantity of potash varies from 50 to 

 over 70 per cent, of the pure ash, common salt being next in im- 

 portance; while there is very little lime and a especially small quan- 

 tity of phosphoric acid present. The same statement applies with 

 little modification to cane molasses, the amount of potash being 

 somewhat less. 



The nitrogen-free extract of molasses is distinctly more digestible 

 than that of seeds, whose starch must be converted by the digestive 

 processes into water-soluble substances before it can be taken up 

 by the body. Of the nitrogen-free extract in beet molasses, all but 

 one-eighth is composed of sugars, chiefly cane sugar. In the cane 

 molasses, the true sugars form eight-ninths of the nitrogen-free ex- 

 tract, but over half of the sugars present are invert sugars. In each 

 case, about eight per cent, of other organic solids is present, com- 

 posed of gums, acids, etc., concerning whose feeding value we have 

 no very definite knowledge. 



For convenience, it may be well to remember that a gallon of 

 heavy molasses weighs about 11.8 pounds. 



Let us now consider the evidence with respect to the use of mo- 

 lasses as a cattle food. It has been quite largely fed in the liquid 

 state in the regions where molasses is produced. For this purpose, 

 it is commonly diluted with three or four volumes of water and 

 served either as a drink or pouring upon cut straw or hay. In 

 either way, the stickiness of the mixtures has been found objection- 

 able. The animals have been hard to keep clean, and the molasses 

 adhering to their bodies and to the mangers has attracted insects in 

 a very annoying manner. Attention has, therefore, turned to the 

 preparation of dry molasses feeds by the use of absorbent materials 

 that take up the molasses and form with it a dry product convenient 

 to handle and capable of easy transportation and preservation. A 

 great variety of products of this character has been offered upon the 

 market. Some of the absorbents have been highly nitrogenous feed- 

 ing substances, such as cocoanut and palm-nut meals, dried blood, 

 brewer's and distiller's grains, maize germ, wheat bran and dried 

 curd prepared from skim milk. In other classes, absorbents com- 

 posed more largely of carbohydrates are used, such as potato pulp, 

 Marsden feed (prepared from the outer portion of the corn stalk), 

 and also much superior substances such as sugar-cane bagasse and 

 sugar-beet pulp. In the third class may be listed absorbents quite 

 worthless as foods, such as turf or peat, cocoa shells, peanut hulls, 

 coffee hulls, and chaff of various sorts. Respecting the turf, while 

 it is admittedly an excellent absorbent, it must be stated that Kell- 

 ner found it to lower the digestibility of the molasses, apparently 

 because it carries away some undigested material so rapidly into the 

 rectum that it escapes the attack of the digestive agents.. Maercker 

 has, however, commended it in the case of feed for swine, because it 

 gives the manure a better consistence and prevents the development 

 of the disagreeable odors commonly produced in such manure by 

 the formation of butyric acid. 



Beet pulp is one of the most important absorbents. Numerous 

 trials in Europe as well as in Colorado, Utah and California, have 

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