468 
ON BEET-ltOOT PULP. 
equal, if not superior, in feeding properties, to common 
mangolds or to sugar-beets. The advocates of the view 
which ascribes a very high nutritive value to pulp are very 
confident of the correctness of their statements, which they 
say are the result of their practical experience in feeding 
cattle upon pulp. As far as I know, however, there exist no 
records of any trustworthy practical feeding experiments, 
from which might he gathered what is the real comparative 
nutritive nature of pulp, and the roots from which it is 
obtained. 
In the absence of such direct experiments, which would 
give us the most satisfactory information on this subject, the 
analyses of common mangolds, sugar-beets, and pulp, supply 
us with data which will enable us, if I am not mistaken, to 
form a tolerably correct opinion with respect to the value of 
these three articles of food. 
In making comparisons between vegetable products, such 
as roots or different kinds of green food, it is well to remem- 
ber that their composition as well as their nutritive value varies 
exceedingly. Soil, climate, the character of the season, the 
manures employed, and a variety of similar circumstances, it 
is well known, greatly affect both the quantity and the quality 
of the produce. For this reason w r e should be on our guard 
when we compare the nutritive value of different kinds of 
roots, and not make more of such comparisons than they 
deserve. By singling out exceptional cases, and using them 
for special purposes, many well-established facts might readily 
be disproved. Proceeding in this way I should find no diffi- 
culty in proving that mangolds are no better than common 
turnips, for I have more than once analysed ordinary turnips 
which contained less water and more sugar, and other solid 
feeding materials, than mangolds grown in an unfavorable 
season. Again, I have analysed swedes which were superior 
to mangolds, and mangolds which were more nutritious than 
swedes, and might prove by isolated instances either the 
superiority of the one or the other. 
In all comparisons of that kind care should be taken to 
avoid extremes, and fairly to represent the average composi- 
tion of the materials under discussion. It may not always 
be easy to do so, and I experienced the difficulty in endea- 
vouring to draw up figures which may be regarded as fairly 
representing the average quality of common mangolds and 
Silesian sugar-beets, both grown in this country. The follow- 
ing tabular statement, however, I believe represents correctly, 
and in round numbers, the composition of English common 
mangolds and sugar-beets of fair average quality : 
