76 
Beet-root Distillery. 
cost of production, which, as I have just stated, is next to impos- 
sible — the other by taking as a basis the selling price of the roots. 
Of the two the former would of course be the most satisfactory, 
for the selling price of any goods is by no means a criterion of their 
intrinsic value ; but I will take the latter as the only one available. 
It may be assumed that the average market-value of beet-root in 
France, taking the range of the last six years, is about 145. per ton. 
The cost of manipulation being, as we have seen, 6s. ^^d., it follow s 
that the quantity of alcohol extracted from one ton of mangolds 
costs 2O5. bd. But from this amount must be deducted the value 
of the pulp ; and here is another difficulty which has become the 
theme of very angry discussions in French agricultural papers — 
What is the proportionate value of the pulp as compared with 
the root? A great many experiments have been made by the 
partisans of distilleries ; and if we were to accept the conclusions 
they have drawn it would appear that pulp is equal in nutritive 
qualities to the roots themselves, weight for weight. I shall 
presently refer to some of the experiments that have been made, 
in order to give an idea of the manner in which they were con- 
ducted. Nearly all the distillers visited by the French Com- 
mittee from the Imperial Society stated that from their expe- 
rience the pulp was equal to the roots. Thus, out of eighteen 
distillers examined, five were of opinion that the pulp is supe- 
rior to the root ; five gave no other opinion but that pulp is 
an excellent food for cattle ; two thought the pulp equal to the 
root ; two considered the pulp inferior to the root by at least 25 
per cent. ; one other declared pulp superior to many other kinds 
of fodder, without specifying which ; another said he preferred 
pulp at 9s. 6c?. a ton to beet- roots at 16.s. ; others gave no reply. 
The average value of these answers would lead us to the conclu- 
sion that a pound of pulp is equal to one of root in nutritive 
quality — a fact which requires confirmation by further ex- 
periments, and which, at all events, cannot be established by 
the mere assertion of the distillers. But, whatever the dif- 
ference may be, it is certain that pulp is a valuable food for 
cattle, and that, if it has lost some of its nutritive elements by 
the process of maceration, that loss cannot be considerable. It 
is further proved that pulp is exceedingly palatable to cattle, who 
eat it with avidity. It is also easy of digestion, and when mixed 
up with chaff, oil-cake, or any farinaceous food, it forms an 
energetic element of fattening. M. Baudement, in his very 
clever report, gives a value of 7s. 3rf. to the quantity of pulp pro- 
duced by a ton of roots after maceration, which being deducted from 
20s. bd.y there remains, as the net cost of the alcohol extracted 
from one ton of roots, the sum of 13s. 2d. ; and, consequently, 
the cost of one gallon of alcohol would stand at about Is. Id. 
