Miscellaneous Feeding Stuffs. 225 



Animals advanced in pregnancy should be allowed only half the 

 usual quantity. 



346. Potash in beet molasses. The high potash content of 

 beet molasses, together with a considerable quantity of nitrogen, 

 shows that this by-product should not be wasted, but its ultimate 

 fertilizing constituents saved to the farm. 



347. Sorghum and cane-sugar molasses. Unlike bitter beet 

 molasses, that from the cane plant is palatable and much relished 

 by all farm animals. Cane molasses contains about fifty per cent, 

 sugar and twelve per cent. gums. The nutrients it contains are 

 about equal to those in corn, and, since starch and sugar have 

 practically the same nutritive value, cane molasses has the same 

 feeding value as an equal weight of corn. 



At the Texas Station, l Gulley fed molasses with cotton-seed 

 hulls and cotton-seed meal to fattening steers with good results. 

 When molasses was added to silage, the combination gave poorer 

 returns than silage alone. (552) 



Molasses is used to some extent for preparing animals for show 

 or sale. Its good effect for this purpose is doubtless due to its 

 palatability inducing large consumption of the feed substances 

 with which it is mingled. Flesh put on through molasses feeding 

 is not considered substantial, and this substance is said to be 

 deleterious to breeding animals, leading to sterility, especially 

 with males. 



343. Sugar. Lawes and Gilbert's investigations to determine 

 the relative value of sugar and starch in foods are well summar- 

 ized in the following: 2 "In conclusion, the evidence of direct 

 experiment clearly goes to show that all but identical amounts 6f 

 the dry substance of cane sugar and of starch are both consumed 

 by a given weight of animal within a given time, and are required 

 to yield a given weight of increase. The practical identity in 

 feeding-value, which from the known chemical relationship of 

 these two substances has hitherto been assumed, is now therefore 

 experimentally illustrated, and it probably only varies in point 

 of fact with their slightly varying percentages of carbon." 



1 Bui. 10. 



2 The Equivalency of Starch and Sugar in Food, Rothamsted Memoirs, 

 Vol. II. 



15 



