191 1.] Molasses and Sugar Foods for Live Stock.. 105 
This is because the peat is only digested to a verv slight 
extent, and the undigested portion takes with it what other- 
wise would go to nourish the body. In other words, peat moss 
has a negative food value. 
The writer, whilst at the South Eastern Agricultural 
College, found, from direct digestibility trials with sheep, 
that the crude fibre in a food said to be composed of pure 
cellulose and cane sugar molasses was only digested to the 
extent of 10 to 12 per cent. In the case of a well known 
feed, in which megass is said to be the base, the digestibility 
coefficient of the crude fibre was about 40 per cent. 
The buyer of any molasses feed ought to consider what is 
the feeding value of the absorbent material, and what is the 
money value compared with the molasses itself. It is unques- 
tionably much nicer to handle some of these dry preparations 
instead of having to deal with the molasses itself, but often 
this convenience is paid for at a high rate, and a thrifty buyer 
would generally do far better if he bought molasses and mixed 
it himself with the dry portion of the ration as directed 
in the earlier part of this article. 
It should further be noted that these molasses feeds often 
contain a high percentage of water (see table, page 104), and 
they are then very liable to ferment, particularly if the bags 
containing the feed are kept in a warm place close together. 
Once fermentation begins the sugar is attacked by micro- 
organisms of various kinds, and converted into acids, or 
otherwise so changed that its feeding value is greatly 
diminished. 
The writer, during the past few years, has examined a large 
number of molasses feeds kept under various conditions, and 
in the case of some of them this tendency tG ferment was 
very great, and quickly rendered the food unfit for use. Others 
remained unchanged for a long time if stored in a cool place 
with plenty of ventilation and on a board floor. 
If it were recognised that a molasses food is a mixture of 
an absorbent and molasses, and that where the former has 
no feeding value the latter alone comes into consideration, 
much of the present advertising of those foods, which are 
really only valuable for the molasses (sugar) which they 
contain, would not yield much return to the advertisers. 
