Beet-root Distillery. 
77 
This figure, however, does not represent the actual cost of a 
gallon of spirit fit for the market. When it comes out of the 
still it contains a certain quantity of essential oils, and about fifty 
per cent, of its bulk of water. This mixture is known under 
the name of Flegme, and must either be rectified or sold in 
the market as it is. The process of rectification up to ninety- 
four degrees, the usual strength of alcohol in the market, adds 
about 9c?. to the cost of a gallon of spirit distilled from beet-root, 
which gives us a total of 2s. Ad. per gallon. So it may be assumed, 
that whenever the price of spirits will allow a profit upon that 
cost, there is an advantage in distilling ; when otherwise, there is 
a loss. 
And yet there are certain distillers who contend that, at what- 
ever price alcohol may be, there is always an advantage to the 
farmer in taking his roots to the feeding-stalls by passing them 
through the distillery. Such warm partisans of the system main- 
tain that part of the expenses charged to the distillery would 
be incurred if the roots were given directly to the cattle. For 
instance, the roots must be washed, sliced, and, as is generally 
practised, boiled ; so that in both cases these preliminary expenses 
would be the same ; and the only difference would then be the loss 
of nutritive elements by distillation. In effect, the sugar has 
been abstracted and turned into alcohol ; but, to use the expres- 
sion of one of my informants, the sugar abstracted from the roots 
is safely stored in casks as alcohol for the market ; and experience 
proves that the value of the quantity of alcohol thus abstracted 
from the roots is greatly higher than that of the quantity of 
nutritive elements lost in the roots by the process. Then arises 
the question, whether alcohol is a necessary ingredient of nutri- 
tion, and therefore, whether the pulp in losing its sugar has lost 
any important constituent of its nutritive qualities ? These are 
questions which I would not presume to solve without making 
careful experiments, which, I understand, are now being made 
by Mr. Voelcker at Cirencester. But assuming that, weight for 
weight, pulp is equal to roots, it must be admitted that the dis- 
tiller's reasoning is a plausible one, and deserves the serious 
attention of agriculturists in this country. 
There is another point which must not be lost sight of. I have 
stated that the roots lost by maceration about 25 per cent, of 
their weight ; but we have seen that the raw spirit on its exit 
from the still contains 50 per cent, of water, — so that a large pro- 
portion of that loss of 25 per cent, in the weight of the roots must 
be mere water. At all events, it is very clear that pulp cannot, 
any more than roots, constitute a complete food for animals. 
Neither possesses all the requisite constituents of nutrition and 
fattening ; they must of necessity be mixed up with other ingre- 
