Beet-root Distillery. 
79 
and furnish the constituents necessary for the growth of young- 
animals, the preservation of a healthy condition, and the fatten- 
ing of cattle, I quote here from the Report : — 
" The fennented mixture containing a noticeable quantity of water possesses 
all the conditions necessary to the nutrition of ruminants ; it necessitates mas- 
tication, and produces a sufficient salivation to fecilitate rumination and 
digestion. It gets into the rumen at a temperature of from 30 to 36 degrees 
(centigrade), or almost the temperature of the body, and thus it does not cool 
the digestive viscera. This mixture, then, has not the fault of dry nutritive 
matters, which always require an abundant salivation, and always need to be 
warmed in the rumen." 
From this consideration, Mr. Delafond thinks that pulp thus 
prepared is to be preferred to mangold, turnips, carrots, potatoes, 
&c., given law and in an unfermented state to cattle. He thinks, 
further, as an important consideration, that the nutritive matter 
thus prepared and fermented softens and penetrates dry sub- 
stances, — such as the husks of corn, the leaves, the stems, and 
the seeds ; which thus become easier to ruminate and digest. He 
remarks also, that the acetic, lactic, pectic acids, together with 
the vinasse* appear to favour digestion, and render it more rapid, 
and thence more profitable. Besides, the animals, finding in the 
fermented preparation a quantity of water almost sufficient to 
quench their thirst, scarcely drink anything, and thus avoid 
introducing into their stomachs a quantity of cold water, always 
considerable, and so much greater in proportion as the food they 
take is drier. These injections of cold water, by cooling the 
rumen and overloading it, frequently cause terrible indigestions, 
w hich not unfrequently end in death. 
I am not aware how far the fermentation system of feeding 
cattle is practised in this country. I have never met with it in 
any of the many farms I have visited ; and I think, from the 
beneficial results obtained from that system in France, where it 
is generally adopted, that it deserves a trial in England ; for if it 
should be found advantageous, it would undoubtedly be a powerful 
inducement to attempt the distillation of mangolds. 
But here arises the question whether the roots grown in 
England possess the same constituents, or, at any rate, the same 
proportion of saccharine matter, as those raised upon French soil 
and under the influence of French climate. Chemistry alone 
can give an answer to this. With this view, I will therefore 
examine various analyses made in France and in England by 
men of unquestionable merits and abilities. 
There are several kinds of beet-roots, and all are not equally 
suitable for the production of either sugar or alcohol. 1 have 
* Name given to the dregs of the still used to macerate the sliced roots. 
