4 
bulletin 97. 
The great cattle ranges of the western states have for many 
years supported large herds of breeding or “she” stock and have 
grown immense numbers of calves, yearlings, and two and three 
year old cattle to supply the feed lots of the Middle West, or corn 
belt, with feeders. Frequently this is a very profitable business 
for the ranchmen of the West, but at times when corn is a light 
crop or a partial failure, there is little demand and low prices for 
feeders and the ranchman must either keep his cattle until a corn 
crop is assured or sacrifice..them, at less than cost. In those sec¬ 
tions of the West where water can be secured for irrigation pur¬ 
poses, ranchmen have frequently made a success of cattle feeding 
during the winter months. The alfalfa plant seems to have 
found in the irrigated sections of this western country its most 
congenial environment. The yield per acre is large and the 
quality is usually excellent owing to the fine weather that always 
prevails during the growing and harvesting seasons. The small 
grains grown in these regions are also of superb quality. The 
proximity of the snow capped mountains and the high altitude 
renders the nights rather cold and the growing season is a com¬ 
paratively long one, resulting in a very heavy yield of rich and 
nutritious grains. 
During recent years, however, the growth of the beet sugar 
industry has presented many new problems for solution. Promi¬ 
nent among these are the maintenance of the fertility of the soil, 
the profitable disposition of the alfalfa crop, which rotates best 
with the sugar beet crop, and last, and by no means least import¬ 
ant, the proper utilization of the beet pulp, a by-product from the 
sugar-factories. It is estimated that at least 60 per cent, of the 
total weight of the beet crop, exclusive of the tops, is returned 
as beet pulp with practically no change in its composition except 
the extraction of the greater portion of the sugar content of the 
beet. Since many ranchmen and stockmen of the West are not 
familiar with the process of sugar making from beets, a few 
words of explanation as to what beet pulp is, and how it is secured, 
may be appreciated. When the beets are received at the sugar 
factory, they are first thoroughly washed and then carried to the 
slicer where they are cut into small strips about two inches long, 
one-fourth inch wide, and one-sixteenth inch thick, called 
“cossettes.” They pass directly from the slicer into large tanks 
where running water extracts the sugar. The pulp, after the ex¬ 
traction process is complete, is drawn from these tanks at the 
bottom and transferred to a press where all the free moisture is 
expelled and is then transferred by means of screw carriers to a 
large flat pit or reservoir outside, termed the “silo.” In this pit 
the pulp is piled ten or twelve feet deep and rapidly forms an air 
tight crust on the surface which preserves the lower layers per- 
