ROOTS USED FOR DISTILLING PURPOSES. 459 



somewhat different from that in the manufacture of sugar. 

 Here the root is sliced and macerated in hot water for a 

 certain time, for the extraction of the saccharine matter ; 

 it is then drained, and the hot pulp carted away to be 

 used as a feeding substance. The results of some experi- 

 ments at Grignon Agricultural College, for the purpose ot 

 testing practically its value, show that the milk produce 

 was greater when the cows were fed on the pulp than on 

 the fresh roots, that the proportion of butter was in- 

 creased, and that their weight and general condition were 

 improved. 1 



In this country both the manufacture of sugar and the 

 distillation of alcohol from mangold have been attempted, 

 the former on a considerable scale in Ireland, and the 

 latter on a comparative small scale at Farningham (Kent), 

 and at Minety (Wilts). 2 



In neither case, however, were the operations success- 

 ful in a pecuniary point of view, notwithstanding, the 

 question, both in a scientific and in a practical point of 

 view, has been so successfully and so extensively worked 

 out on the Continent. In Ireland, the luxuriant growth 

 and largely developed cellular tissues of the mangold in- 

 terfered no doubt considerably with the extraction of the 

 sugar in a crystallizable form, and reduced the manufac- 

 tured production. This cause, however, would not operate 

 against the fermentation and conversion of the sugar into 

 spirit, the only adverse conditions under which the pro- 

 cess of distillation laboured here, as compared with the 

 Continent, must have arisen, either from an imperfect 

 acquaintance with the chemical principles involved in the 

 process, or from the difference in the control over it exer- 

 cised by fiscal regulations. 



1 The details of the process of distillation from mangold are given in a paper 

 by M R. de Trehonnais, in the Roy. Agri. Soc. Jour., vol. xx. p. 68. 



2 Full details are given in Agri. Gaz., 1857, p. 28, and 1860, p. 72. 



