By-Products 177 



beets are washed at tlie factory. Quantities of root tips, 

 leaves, and stems are flushed into the sewers and go to 

 waste. If the water in the flumes carrying the beets to 

 the factory were made to run over a screen just below 

 the device for elevating the beets to the washer, con- 

 siderable valuable feed might be saved. Various feeding 

 practices are shown in Plates XX and XXI. 



SUGAR-BEET MOLASSES 



In factories not equipped with the Steffen process of 

 removing additional sugar from the molasses, there re- 

 mains from 3 to 5 per cent of the original weight of the 

 beet as a bitter molasses. Factories turning out molas- 

 ses as a by-product vary the quantity according to whether 

 the price of the sugar minus the cost of extracting is greater 

 than the price for which the molasses can be sold. The 

 ordinary amount that is sold as a by-product is about 

 forty to sixty pounds for each ton of beets sliced. The 

 purity of the juice, which in turn is modified by climatic, 

 soil, and other conditions, such as the manner of topping, 

 also modifies the quantity remaining after the sugar is 

 made. Formerly, it was almost impossible to make a 

 satisfactory disposition of the molasses, but today it is 

 highly valued both as a stock feed and for manufactur- 

 ing such products as alcohol, fusel oil, vinegar, and 

 certain kinds of fertilizer. Reference to Table V shows 

 molasses to contain about 60 per cent of digestible nutri- 

 ents. A large part of this, 50 per cent of the total weight, 

 consists of sugar that cannot be extracted except by the 

 Steffen process because of the high percentage of salts, 



