108 



THE SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



spoiling entirely. Whether this can be guarded against sufficiently to make the drying 

 process practical remains to be seen. Should it prove to be feasible, it is possible that 

 such evaporated or desiccated beets might be kept to supply the factories when their 

 original stock of beets was exhausted. In the absence of larger tests of this necessity, 

 it is useless to speculate about it, and the expense of cutting and drying the beets 

 seems to be an almost insurmountable obstacle. 



FEEDING AND STORING BEET PULP, TOPS AND MOLASSES. 



The pulp from the beets after the sugar is extracted, makes an admirable feed for 

 all stock horses, cattle, sheep, swine and poultry. Yet its value for this purpose is 

 only beginning to be appreciated! in this country, though in Europe the farmers would 

 no more think of allowing beet pulp to go to waste than our farmers would think of 

 curing hay for fuel. At the Utah factory, a feeding company has contracted for all 

 the pulp for a series of years, and have erected adjacent to the factory (so as to save 

 all hauling and handling possible) a complete system of sheds and feeding pens. Two 

 thousand head of cattle are fattened here each season for market. They eat the pulp 

 greedily, consuming from 100 to 125 Ibs per head each day, besides about 15 Ibs 

 of hay. These cattle command a very good market, the meat being .very juicy and 

 tender. The cattle fatten quickly under proper conditions and as the company gets 

 the pomace or pulp for nothing, except the cost of removing it from the factory, the 

 enterprise is a profitable one. The past season over 1000 sheep were fattened here on 

 pulp. At Watsonville, 1700 cattle were fed at the creamery silo, and beets that fall 

 from the wagons there are also used as stook feed, whereas it was formerly neces- 

 sary to dump the pulp in the ocean to get rid of it. Dairymen pay 15c per ton for 

 having the pulp loaded on cars at factory, and 50c to $1 per ton freight, so that it 

 costs them 75c to $1.15 per ton, besides hauling from local depot to farm; at these 

 terms, they consider it the cheapest and best feed. 



The feeding value of beet pomace depends mainly upon the quantities of protein 

 (nitrogenous matter), sugar, starch, fiber and fat it contains, and upon the propor- 

 tion of these ingredients that are digestible. The California experiment station's 

 analysis of beet pulp may be compared as follows with ensilage of corn fodder and 

 green clover : f 



AMOUNT OF FOOD DIGESTIBLE ELEMENTS IN 100 LBS 



Beet Clover Corn 

 pulp silage silage 

 2.0 



1.3 

 0.4 

 2.5 

 4.2 



$2.02 



1.4 



1.0 

 4.4 



9.2 

 $3.92 



0.6: 



6.5 



5.6 



$3.22 



Protein, Ibs, 2c, 

 Fat or oil, Ibs, 2c, 

 Fiber, Ibs, Ic, 

 Sugar, starch, etc, Ic, 

 Feeding value per ton*, 



*Based on 2c per Ib for digestible protein and fat 

 and Ic for the other nutrients, on which basis the 

 theoretical feeding value of wheat grain figures 

 $17.50 per ton, corn meal $17, potatoes $3,beets 74c, 

 mangels $1.52, turnips $2.75, rutabagas $12 and car- 

 rots $1.82 per ton. 



The protein contains 16 % of actual nitrogen, and the ash is rich in potash and phosphoric acid, as 

 also lime and magnesia. These ingredients are got back in the solid and liquid manure of the stock 

 that consumes the pulp, so that it has an important manurial value. Indeed, in this way, one can re- 

 turn to the soil much that the crop took from it. 



It appears that beet pomace that is nine-tenths water is yet worth for stock feed 

 fully half as much as corn silage only 70 per cent water. If the water was dried out 



