Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1910-01-04
Feeding MOlasses.
MAINE Farmer.)


Is it a business proposition to feed
molasses this winter costing II cents per
gallon, including freight?
For many years expert feeders have
occasionally fed molasSes for tho pur-
pose of putting a gloss, polish or bloom
on to show animals and have found its
effects satisfactory for that purpose. 1t
has also been occasionally fed on trial
for its effects as regular stock feed.
Stock will eat it readily and apparently
like it. We have never heard of case,
however, where it was rated a profitable
article in business feeding. Some arti-
cles may be fed for time as an appe-
tizer or condiment and prove satisfac-
tory for that purpose when they would
not prove profitable to be continued as a
part of the regular feed.
q. A. G.
We have not been feeding molasses
this winter to our stock but from pre-
vious experience and what have been
able to gain from others | think sur
rounding conditions would determine
whether it was profitable feeding at l7c
a gallon or not. II a man has plenty of
silage, roots, or other succulent feed
probably he would not receive as much
benefit from the molasses as would some
of his neighbors who had nothing but
dry fodder. Molasses has decided ad-
vantage in that it adds to the palatabili
" of the ration and as grain prices are
about the same as they were last winter
and many feeders claimed at that time
that they got good results probably the
same would be true this season.
Yours very truly,
F. A. Campbell.
Molasses at II cents per gallon as a
food for animals is far more than it is
worth; yet under certain conditions, it
would be economy for farmers to pay
much more for it. Molasses in animal
feeding is much like the putting of
sugar in coffee for humans. The cup Of
coffee for breakfast without sugar would
not be relished by many people, as most
people love the taste of sugar. The
same love of sweets holds good with
animals. Many nutritious foods are un-
palatabe. As an illustrations: Many
times hay when being harvested becomes
wet with a shower of rain; the hay from
the same field that was gotten in the
barn before the rain fell on it is relished,
while the hay that got wet the animals
don't relish. The chemist in his anal
ysis finds both alike as far as chemical
constituents are concerned and the mas
tication aud digestibility are equal; yet
the horse or COW this hay is fed to is not
as ready to eat it, neither do the animals
that eat it thrive as we'll upon it. What
is the reason? Simply the smell is not
right and the first taste of it is not what
it was before it got wet. Now when
that class of hay is to be fed or other
food, it will pay big to mix half pint
of stock molasses with quart of hot
water and sprinkle the hay or fodder
with it, and in some cases it will pay to
wet malt sprouts, dried brewers grains
or other by-products that are fed to
dairy cows. Molasses has also another
value when fed to colts or horses when
they are not supplied with succulent
food of some kind. 1t is great bowel
regulator, being slightly laxative. Mo-
lasses when viewed in this light is of
great value, but not as food in the
proper sense of the term.
C. D. Smead, "