112 FEEDING WITH SUGAR BEETS, SUGAR, ETC. 



leaves during the period of gestation, would bring dead calves 

 into the world, and their milk and butter would be of an inferior 

 quality, to say nothing of the resulting diarrhoea. Practical 

 experience has shown the absolute absurdity of such theories. 

 However, no one can deny that during the first stages of beet- 

 leaf feeding there is always certain evidence of diarrhoea, but 

 this laxation of the intestinal tubes is assuredly only temporary, 

 lasting, we will say, a few weeks, and no ill effects have been 

 known to follow, provided certain precautionary measures are 

 taken. 



It is claimed that soured leaves give sour milk, but the fact 

 of the matter is that it would require a very delicate palate to 

 distinguish between the milk of cows fed with hay and that 

 which has resulted from beet-leaf feeding. The observations of 

 Von Schmidt are not very reliable, for he claims that such milk 

 is in no way suited for the manufacture of cheese. It has been 

 noticed upon several occasions that butter produced from milk 

 obtained from cows fed on beet leaves is hard, but even if such 

 be the case this difficulty may be readily overcome. It is 

 sufficient to give to the cow or live stock being fed a certain 

 amount of oil cake in order to reduce the butter to any condi- 

 tion of softness that the locality may call for. It is, how- 

 ever, recommended that, when one wishes to give to live stock 

 turnip cake, the quamtity introduced into the ration should not 

 exceed one kilogram per diem if it is desirable that the butter 

 shall not have imparted to it a turnip flavor. The fault found 

 by Grouven with beet-leaf feeding is that this residuum does 

 not contain sufficient phosphoric acid. Such assertions do not 

 appear to be endorsed by modern science, as Stoklasa has shown 

 that a considerable quantity of this chemical is formed in the 

 leaves during their early development. However, very little is 

 shown to exist, and oil cake had better be added. 



Oxalic acid It has further been pointed out that beet leaves are actually 

 its influence, possessed of certain toxic influences due to the oxalic acid they 

 contain. Before refuting such assertions it is interesting to call 

 attention to Hertzfeld's experiments, which demonstrate that 

 oxalic acid, far from being the result of the decomposition of 

 the leaves, in reality disappears in notable proportions during 



