212 
On the Theoretical and Practical Value of 
chaff with pulped roots, and allows the mixture to heat to some 
extent, by keeping it for twelve hours before giving it to his 
cattle. In well-ripened mangolds, swedes, or carrots, as is well 
known, a large proportion of the solid feeding-matter consists 
of sugar ; and unquestionably it is in the shape of root-crops 
that sugar is employed for feeding and fattening purposes in the 
most economical manner. 
If root-crops have been more or less of a failure, or if a suffi- 
cient breadth of land cannot be put into roots, and the root- 
supply is in consequence too scanty to meet the requirements 
of the stock-feeder, especially if he wishes to consume much 
straw-chaff, I would recommend him to buy locust-beans, and 
to sweeten the straw-chaff with an infusion of these palatable 
bean-pods. They need not be ground into powder, but it will 
suffice to pass them through a chaff-cutter, or to cut them by 
hand into half-inch or inch pieces. Boiling, or even moderately 
warm, water poured upon the broken locust-beans, and allowed 
to remain in contact with them for a couple of hours, readily 
extracts the sugar, in which these bean-pods are very rich ; and 
this infusion, together with the more or less exhausted locust- 
beans, may then be poured over straw-chaff, which thereby will 
be rendered quite as palatable to stock as by employing syrup 
as a sweetener, if not more so. 
Locust-beans, as will be seen by the following analysis, which 
was made in my laboratory some time ago, and which fairly 
represents their average composition, contain in round numbers 
fully half their weight of sugar. In consequence they are very 
palatable, and much liked by every kind of farm-stock. 
Average Composition of Locust m- Carob-heatis. 
Moisture 17*11 
Oil 1-19 
Sugar 51-42 
Mucilage and digestible fibre 13 '75 
* Albuminous compounds 7'5P 
Woody fibre (Cellulose) 6-01 
Mineral matter (ash) 3-02 
100-00 
* Containing nitrogen 1-20 
Weight for weight, locust-beans contain nearly as much sugar 
as molasses. In addition to sugar, they contain a little oil, a 
moderate amount of albuminous or flesh-forming matters, and 
about 14 per cent, of mucilage and digestible fibre, or alto- 
gether 83 per cent, of solid feeding-matter ; whereas treacle 
contains no appreciable amount of albuminous substances, and 
