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CHAPTER XXII 



Sale as Cattle Food. — The sale of molasses as cattle food was originated 

 on the large scale by Mr. G. H. Hughes, in 1902, who observed that the finely 

 divided interior pith of the cane was capable of absorbing large quantities 

 of molasses, affording a product which could be shipped in bags ; this 

 product was put on the market under the name of " molascuit." 



The manufacture of this article requires plant of a very simple nature, 

 which is generally capable of being placed so as to fit in with existing arrange- 

 ments. The method of manufacture in a certain West Indian factory 

 is as follows. The bagasse, before the manufacture of molascuit was 

 started, discharged itself from a scraper elevator on to the cross- carrier 

 which conveyed the bagasse in front of the furnaces ; a sifter of one-eighth 

 inch mesh and of 8 ft. x 4 ft. dimensions was interposed between the elevator 

 and cross-carrier ; the bagasse feU on to this sifter, to which an oscillating 

 motion was given by an eccentric driven off a convenient engine ; in the 

 passage of the bagasse along the sifter to the cross-carrier a number of the 

 finer particles fell through and these were directed down a shoot on to the 

 flue wall of the boilers. The brickwork on the top of the flue was replaced 

 by sheet-iron plates and a drying surface obtained for the bagasse ; after 

 the latter had been dried it was again sifted through a sifter of mesh one 

 thirty-second of an inch. Refuse molasses was mixed with the doubly 

 sifted bagasse powder in the proportion of seventy parts of molasses to thirty 

 parts of bagasse ; the molasses was concentrated to 85 ° Brix before mixing 

 and a much more even product was obtained when hot molasses was used ; 

 before bagging, the molascuit was allowed to cool. The mixing was performed 

 in a " Carter " kneading machine. The double sifting is of importance so 

 as to eliminate the larger particles of bagasse, especially splinters, consisting 

 of the hard and indigestible outer rind. In other installations more elaborate 

 machinery is employed, and in large plants the use of a dryer similar to those 

 used for drying sugar would be advisable both for the bagasse and for the 

 final product. The keeping quaHties of the product depend very largely 

 on the extent to which it is dried. 



Molasses feeds are not a complete food and are very deficient in proteid, 

 the percentage of nitrogen being only about o • 15 per cent. ; hence they re- 

 quire supplementing with other material, especially in the case of working 

 animals. In Mauritius the seeds of an acacia-like shrub, Luccena glanca, 

 are used in combination with molasses, and in Louisiana the ration of molasses 

 is frequently balanced with cotton seed meal. T. U. Walton^^ advises a 

 ration of 15 lbs. of molasses to a 1,270 lb. horse, and states that for working 

 horses this quantity has no undue fattening effect, that the salts in this 

 quantity of molasses are not deleterious, and that sugar is generally an 

 efiicient substitute for starch. 



The following analyses of molasses feeds are due to Browne^^ : — 



