28 



fodder. The use of these materials as food for horses has been 

 attempted at different times with varying success, but it is not fol- 

 lowed to any great extent in this country. In the opinion of a recent 

 German writer, about 12 pounds of raw potatoes per 1,000 pounds live 

 weight may be fed to horses with advantage and, if supplemented 

 with proper feed, there need be no fear of physiological disturbances. 

 When fed in this amount the potatoes should be mixed with hay or 

 cut straw to insure their being properly chewed. If small, they ma}- be 

 fed whole; if large, they should be sliced. In an}^ case only health}^, 

 ripe, unsprouted tubers should be used. It is said that horses should 

 not be watered immediatel}^ after a ration containing potatoes. 



' MOLASSES AND OTHER BY-PRODUCTS OF SUGAR MAKING. 



The beet chips, diffusion residue, and other by-products obtained in 

 the manufacture of beet sugar, consist of the sugar beet from which a 

 considerable portion of the carbohydrates has been removed. The 

 total amount of nutritive material present, however, is fairly large. 

 These products, properly speaking, are also coarse fodders. Molasses, 

 which consists almost entirely of carbohydrates (sugars), was used as 

 early as 1830 as a feed for horses, and has recently attracted consider- 

 able attention in this connection. When used for this purpose it is 

 usually sprinkled on dry feed, being first diluted with water, or it is 

 mixed with some material which absorbs it and renders it easy to 

 handle, such as peat dust, or with some material rich in nitrogen, as 

 dried blood. In the latter case the mixture more nearly represents a 

 concentrated feed than the molasses alone, or molasses mixed with an 

 absorbent material only. Cane-sugar molasses is also used as a feed- 

 ing stuff. It differs from beet molasses in that it contains glucose in 

 addition to cane sugar, and has a much smaller percentage of salts. 



In this connection the experiments reporting the successful feed- 

 ing of cane molasses to over 400 work horses at a sugar plantation in 

 the Fiji Islands" are of interest. As high as 30 pounds of molasses 

 was fed per head daily at different times, but the ration finally adopted 

 consisted of 1.5 pounds of molasses, 3 pounds of bran, and 4 pounds of 

 maize. In addition, green sugar cane tops were fed. The health of 

 the horses remained excellent. Molasses did not cause diarrhea, but 

 rather constipation, which was counteracted by feeding bran. Feeding 

 molasses effected a saving of over $45 per head per annum. However, 

 it was believed that such a saving was possible only by reason of 

 large quantities of waste molasses and valueless cane tops available on 

 the spot. In discussing these experiments the following statements 

 were made: 



For working horses the sugar in cane molasses is a satisfactory substitute for starchy- 

 food, being readily digested * * * and 15 pounds can be given to a 1,270-pound 

 working horse with advantage to the health of the animal and to the efficiency of its 



«Agr. Gaz. New South Wales, 9 (1898), p. 169. 



