N. K. AYYAR AND A. W.
ZUBERY
141
months; in summar, the feeding of
molasses had a deleterious effect on
the health of the animals.
In a later publication these authors [Singh and
Singh, 1937] have further shown that as a feed for
working bullocks, the factory molasses was as good
as the khandasari variety. The conclusions drawn
by Singh and Singh are, however, open to serious
criticism. A careful perusal of their data shows
that nutrients in the control ration of the working
bullocks were significantly more than those re-
quired for maintenance and the type of work
performed. The experimental animals, more-
over, were adults and one could reasonably assume
that the body-weights of these animals would
not vary significantly even when they were fed
at a higher level. Apparently, the change in
body-weight, which took place in their experiment
was of little value as an index to the influence of
rations. It would have been quite possible for
the animals to maintain the same trend of body
weight, if 2 lb. of maize had been altogether
absent from the control ration. As such, the
replacement of the superfluous 2 lb. of maize
by 2 lb. of molasses in the experimental ration
cannot be regarded as evidence of the nutritive
values of maize and molasses being equivalent.
This, together, with the fact that the total diges-
tible nutrients in molasses are 30 per cent lower
than in an equivalent amount of maize [Morrison,
1937], affords strong arguments against the con-
clusion reached by Singh and Singh. A further
point to be considered in this connection is, how
far one can justify, particularly under Indian
conditions of feeding, the ignoring of the digestible
protein in maize and bran, while advocating their
replacement by molasses which does not contain
any digestible protein.
In this communication are reported the results
of an investigation carried out to throw light on
the following points.
(1) Whether a molassed feed has any dele-
terious effect on the health and work-
ing capacity of the animals, and,
(2) Whether the molassed feed is suitable for
working stock.
In order to secure information on the above
points, experiments were carried out on three
lines to study (a) the effect of the addition of
bagomolasses to an inadequate village ration,
(b) the effect of the addition of bagomolasses to
the village ration enriched by a supplement and
(c) the effect of replacement of gram husk by
bagomolasses from an adequate ration for work-
ing bullocks.
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF BAGOMOLASSES
The bagomolasses used in the experiments men-
tioned above was chemically examined and the
percentages dry on matter basis are given below:
Crude protein
.
.
.
.
.
Ether extract
.
.
.
.
.
Crude fibre
.
.
.
.
.
Nitrogen-free extract
.
.
.
.
Total ash
.
.
.
.
.
Acid-soluble ash
.
.
.
.
CaO
.
.
.
.
.
P 2 O 5
.
.
.
.
.
2.64
0.41
13.60
67.02
16.33
100.00
11.04
1.25
0.13
A perusal of the data given above would show
that the protein content of molasses feed is low
and comparable to that of a dry roughage such
as wheat bhusa. Unlike the dry roughages,
however, the crude fibre in bagomolasses is prac-
tically one-third of what is present in the former
feeds. The outstanding feature in bagomolasses
is the presence of a large percentage of nitrogen¬
free extract which is mainly composed of easily
absorbable sugars. The amount of ether-ex-
tract present in molasses feed is negligible. Turn¬
ing to mineral constituents, it may be seen that
bagomolasses is rather rich in total ash nearly
68 per cent of which is acid soluble. In the acid-
soluble ash constituents, there is an extraordinary
preponderance of lime over phosphate, the former
being ten times the latter. The chemical
composition of bagomolasses as set out above
indicates that this material cannot be put in any
definite category of feeding-stuffs available in
this country. Because of its low fibre-content,
it cannot be considered as a roughage although
it resembles a roughage in its poor protein content.
For its rather large nitrogen-free extract content,
bagomolasses can be assigned a place with gram
or oats.
EXPERIMENTAL
Twenty-four healthy working bullocks of the
Hariana and Dhani breeds were selected and
divided into three groups of eight for each of the
three experiments planned above. Each group
was again divided into two sub-groups of four
each, so that while one sub-group was receiving
the control ration, the other received the experi-
mental ration. In order to make the two rations
strictly comparable, one animal of each group
had a mate in the other of the same breed and
F2