THE JOURNAL 
OF THE 
BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 
Vol, XVIIL No. 2. 
MAY, 1911. 
MOLASSES AND SUGAR FOODS FOR LIVE 
STOCK. 
Wm. Goodwin, M.Sc, Ph.D. 
Principal of the Midland Agriculttiral and Dairy College, Kingston, Derby. 
Molasses, or treacle, which is well known as an article 
of human diet, has also served as a food for horses and cattle, 
particularly during the past twenty-five years. This has been 
largely due to the development of the beet sugar industry in 
Europe, for molasses is the uncrystallisable residue left in the 
manufacture of sugar, either from the juice of the sugar cane 
or the sugar beet. Previous to the above-mentioned period, 
molasses had been used in various parts of England, parti- 
cularly in Norfolk, as a food for fattening cattle, but the 
frequent rises in price prevented more than small quantities 
being employed. When the price of molasses was low, then 
it was used to a considerable extent in certain districts, for it 
was recognised that where much straw had to be fed, a 
sprinkling of molasses, thinned down with water, made the 
chopped straw palatable to stock. 
Unpurified molasses, whether from sugar cane or sugar 
beet, is a thick, brown syrup with a peculiar, sharp smell. 
When it is bleached it gives the well-known golden syrup, 
which is largely used for human food and in the manufacture 
of confectionery of various sorts. The improved methods 
which are now in vogue in the sugar factories, both in the 
boiling down of the juice and in the separation of the crystals 
of sugar, have resulted in the molasses being of poorer quality 
than formerly. In the older processes of sugar making, before 
vacuum pans were employed and when the sugar was left to 
H 
