86 Vekmont Agricultural Report 



a rather unwise proposition. One would naturally expect, more- 

 over, that so fluid a material containing still some undissolved 

 sugar would ferment and sour rapidly. In cold weather such 

 a feed might be kept and fed to advantage at a distance from the 

 factory; at other times in the year its storage seems inadvisable. 

 Dried beet pulp whether mixed with or unmixed with 

 molasses is well relished by cattle. They do fairly well upon it. 

 But at the prices for which it has been offered of late in New 

 England markets it is an expensive source of protein. In trials 

 at the Vermont Station dried molasses beet pulp, pound for 

 pound of dry matter, was found equivalent to wheat bran and 

 apparently equivalent to immature corn silage. At $12 a ton, 

 the sum for which it sold in 1903 in the sugar beet districts, it 

 was probably worth buying; at $20 a ton, the sum for which it 

 was offered in Vermont markets, it was not as good a purchase 

 as bran, even at the ruling high price for that concentrate nor 

 was it deemed an economical substitute for corn silage. In short, 

 it does not seem likely to prove to be an economical food for 

 Eastern feeders. 



MOLASSES. 



Feed molasses is offered for sale for horses or cattle. 

 It is recommended that it be fed in water, sprinkled upon a grain 

 ration. It is sold also when absorbed in brewers' grains, being 

 offered under the name of molasses grains. Beet molasses can- 

 not be fed freely on account of its purgative action. A German 

 experimenter states that two and three-fourths pounds daily per 

 thousand pound cow is as much as should be used. Molasses 

 carries considerable quantities of sugar but little protein. Its 

 main service in dairy feeding, apparently, is to increase the 

 palatability of the other feeds, thus inducing larger consumption 

 of the other materials with which it is mingled. There appear 

 to be some dangers associated with feeding this material, and 

 so far as dairy cows are concerned it seems at present best to put 

 this material in the doubtful list. 



ALFALFA MEALS. 



Within the past year or so alfalfa hay has been ground 

 and offered in the ground condition. This may be bought 

 in New England markets for from $18 upwards. The 

 total protein content is about 15 percent. The dry matter and 

 protein are almost as digestible as those of bran. No experi- 

 ments upon feeding this dry and ground material to dairy ani- 

 mals are known to the writer and such are under way at the 

 present time at the Vermont Station. Whether or not it will 



