The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-05-23
BEET PULP VS.. oEErcIAI1sM.

A few months ago Minneapolis had one
Of it's spasums. 1t has to have one about
in SO often. If it isn't "copperbeads'' it
must be frogs, ana If it can't be frogs
1t Is water, and IL not that then some
thing else. The particular spasum to which
we now allude was a milk spasum, and
health officer gave the shock that threw
the city into fits. He had been out to the
beet sugar refinery and seen the dump
where the pulp was piled up. and smelled
Of 1t and went away holding his nose.
He saw sundry nlilkmen ut the dump
picking out the sound portions, and they
told him they were getting 1t to feed their
cows. The health officer forthwith sought
Minneapolitans were in a pepperjee over
the kind of milk they were getting, as
they read the interview with the official
guardian of their health
About this time the assembled wise
men Of the state were In biennial session
and new dairy law was being incubat-
ed. One of it's sage provisions was a pro-
hibition Of sundry things that were not
to be fed to cows producing milk. AS
drafted, the waste of sugar reffnerfes,
by which is meant the pulp after the wa
ter content of the beets is expressed. was
put into the index; but wiser counsel
prevailed and the provision was made
that pulp properly preserved in silos was
exempt from anathema. AS the managers
OF the refinery were taxing the milkmen
SO cents ton for their refuse pulp,
thus decreasing some 40 cents a ton
the cost of their beets, it seemed but rea-
sonable that they should preserve 1t in
proper shape for feed. The fact, also.
that they were being paid one cent from
the general treasury for each pound Of
sugar produced may have been taken into
consideration in requiring them to siIo
their pulp If they would make market
for it.
Now, however, comes the health officer
and declares that he and the state dairy
and food department will cooperate to
preSBBt the utilization of sugar beet pulp
as food for mich cows. What he may
try to do is, of course, impossible Of con-
lecture, but the present officers of the
state dairy and food department appear
to be DESTROYS only of executing the law
as the legislature has laid 1t down. If
the refining company concludes to con-
struct silos and fill them with pulp and
sell 1t to any one for cow feed, we ap-
prehend that the health officer Of Min
neapolis, puissant as he may be or even
as he may deem himself to be-, will find
that he has played his limit when he at
tempts to prevent it's use.
Even were the pulp not sliced, but
dumped out as it was during the last
campaign, still no injury would have coma
to milk consumers from it's being fed to
cows In the first place, decomposition
would only have taken place on the outer
edges. while the interior of the pile would
be as sweet as If sliced In loading the
pulp no dairyman would have been so
simple as to take the decomposed por-
lions; he would throw that aside and take
the best. But if properly preserved in ST.
los there is every good reason why the
entire waste should be utilized as food.
There is no reputable authority on agrf-
cultural matters who condemns It, On
the contrary, the department at Washing
ton urges it, and Prof. Hacker, of our
owl college of agriculture, commends it,
great portion of the price reductions.
which have been so great factor in bet
tering conditions of life in the last two
decades, is due to the utilization of what
was once treated as waste. No interfer-
ing hand Of officialism and no misapplied
power Of law making should be allowed
to prevent the economies of production.