15G 
On Beet-root Pulp 
little water, is next placed into woollen bags ; a number of these, 
separated from each other by thin plates of sheet-iron, are 
placed under presses in piles, and submitted to a gradually in- 
creasing strong pressure. There are other plans of extracting the 
sugary juice from beet-root, but in most manufactories of beet- 
root sugar the juice is extracted by pressure of the grated roots. 
The residue left in the bags after pressure, or the fibrous portion 
of the roots, is the refuse which, under the name of beet-root 
pulp, is used extensively on the continent for feeding purposes. 
Beet-root pulp is much valued in Belgium, France, and Germany, 
for its fattening properties. In several places in Belgium, recently 
visited by myself and Mr. Jenkins, we saw fattening beasts 
kept almost exclusively upon beet-root pulp; although the beasts 
at the time of our visit were not in a fat condition, they were 
evidently doing well upon that food. 
The manufacture of beet-root sugar, most readers are aware, 
has recently been taken in hand in England with a fair chance 
of ultimate success. There is every likelihood that in another 
year Silesian sugar beet will be grown much more largely than 
in the past, and probably at no very distant period beet-root sugar 
manufactories will spring up in various parts of England, and 
the refuse pulp be placed at the command of the stock-feeder in 
abundance. For this reason it seemed to me desirable to make 
an inquiry into the composition of beet-root pulp, and to place 
before the readers of the Journal the results, which I trust will 
enable them to form a correct view of the nutritive properties of 
beet-root pulp, and the uses to which it may be applied. 
The material from which the subjoined analvsis was made 
was obtained from Mr. James Duncan's beet-root sugar manu- 
factory at Lavenham. 
The pulp here made is sold to the farmers, who supply the 
roots at the rate of 12s. per ton. The pulp is tolerably dry, and is 
greyish white in appearance. It has, when fresh, a rather insipid, 
or but slightly sweet taste, and rapidly turns faintly acid on 
keeping. The pulp is obtained at the manufactory in the form 
of thin press-cakes, which can be readily broken in pieces and 
mixed without difficulty with straw-chaff, meal, and such like 
materials. 
In its natural state the pulp contains from 70 to 72 per cent, 
of moisture, and thus it embodies a much larger percentage of 
solid feeding matter than the roots from which it is obtained, 
and still more than ordinary mangolds, in which the proportion 
of water amounts on an average to about 88 per cent. 
On submitting the Lavenham refuse pulp to a detailed analysis 
I obtained the following results : — 
