80 FEEDING WITH SUGAR BEETS, SUGAR, ETC. 



tion has done some excellent work. In Nebraska the active 

 interest shown in beet cultivation has led to a general utilization 

 of thousands of tons of refuse pulp from Grand Island and Nor- 

 folk factories. 



As farmers are not prone to (scientific observation, it will fall 

 upon the experiment stations to take the matter in hand. Prof. 

 Nicholson says: "Next to the matter of sugar production 

 itself, I regard it [feeding cattle on beets and beet refuse] as the 

 most important question to be studied experimentally in con- 

 nection with the beet-sugar industry." 



The question of sugar-beet feeding has been very fully dis- 

 cussed by Dr. Goessmann, of Massachusetts, who for years used 

 beets in rations for cattle. He says:'* "Sugar-beets when fed 

 pound for pound of dry matter, in place of hay rations, with the 

 same kind and quantity of grain-feed, have raised, almost with- 

 out exception, the temporary yield of milk, exceeding, as a rule, 

 the corn ensilage in that direction. * * * Corn ensilage, as well 

 as roots, proved best when fed in place of one-fourth to one- 

 half of the full hay ration. From twenty-five to twenty-seven 

 pounds of roots, or from thirty-five to forty pounds of com 

 ensilage per day (with all the hay needful to satisfy the animal 

 in either case) seems, for various reasons, a good proportion, 

 allowing the stated kind and quantity of grain-feed." 



In comparing beets with turnips, in 1888, Dr. Goessmann 

 said that he considered one ton of the improved variety of good 

 sugar beets equal to 2 or 2^ tons of turnips. The experiments 

 in Illinois commenced some years since. 



In Pennsylvania Prof. Armsby has given sugar beets a most 

 extended trial. The following statement emanates from the 

 Pennsylvania State College Experiment Station: " It must not 

 be forgotten that according to the standard authorities, the sugar 

 beet and its pulp may be considered entirely digestible; further- 

 more, it stimulates the appetite for other fodders, which silage 

 does not do to the same extent. However, in the feeding ex- 

 periment, involving two lots of five cows each, and covering 



* Eighth Annual Report of the Agricultural Experiment Station of Mas- 

 sachusetts. 



