647 



distributed through the air in large numbers, get on the hands and 

 clothes of the milkers [and the udder and teats of the cow], are thus 

 conveyed to the milk, lind their way into the butter, caus(j ill-tasting 

 compounds to be formed, and injure its keeping quality. That the 

 sugar beet disti'icts of Germany are characterized by very poor butter, 

 there is no doubt." This, the authors imply, is due, in part at least, 

 to the cause above explained. 



A number of diseases of cattle and sheep are likewise named by the 

 authors as a])t to be induced by the organisms which find most favora- 

 ble conditions for development in the fermenting diffusion residue and 

 in the very wet manure jiroduced from it. The observations of veter- 

 inarians are (pioted which indicate that the danger of disease is much 

 less in feeding the dry than the wet residue. 



Drying of diffusion residue. — The drying of the residue is very effect- 

 ually accomplished by the apparatus referred to. This consists essen- 

 tially of two parts, a furnace in which brown coal or other fuel is burned, 

 and drying chambers in which the wet residue is exposed to the hot draft 

 from the fire. Arrangements are provided to keep the material in 

 motion and thus secure more rapid drying, and to admit cold air into 

 the chambers so as to lower the temperature when the material is 

 nearly dry and thus prevent its being injured by the heat. 



The report gives results of investigations of the composition and 

 digestibility of the dry residue which are very favorable for the drying 

 process. 



Feeding experiments with wet vs. dry diffusion residue. — A number of 

 j)atrons of the sugar factory at Hadmersleben desiring to obtain by per- 

 sonal experience an insight into the feeding value of the dry residue 

 as compared with the ensiled residue which they had been using, 

 arrangements were made for cooperative exi)eriments. Several other 

 proprietors or managers of large sugar beet farms joined with them, 

 and several series (O-V) of experiments with milch cows and fattening 

 oxen and sheep were planned and carried out in 1889 under the direc- 

 tion of Professor Maercker and Dr. Morgen of the Halle Station. 



Each experiment with cows included a preliminary period and three 

 test periods, the latter being separated by transition periods. The test 

 periods were 10 days each and the transition periods of the same or 

 nearly the same length. Of the test periods the first and third were 

 with wet and the second with dry, or the first and third with dry and 

 the second with wet residue. The results of the first and third were 

 taken together and compared with those of the second, to elminate 

 as far as practicable the effect of the change of the milk during the 

 period of lactation. In the experiments with fattening oxen or sheep, 

 the animals were divided into two (in one case three) equal lots, one 

 receiving the w-et and the other the dry residue. 



In each series a basal ration of coarse and concentrated foods was 

 used, and to this was added either the wet or the dry residue. The 



