companies is the Carolina Trucking and Development Company of Wilmington. The splendid showing made by North Carolina at the Ohio Valley Exposition in September, 1910, and at the National Horticultural Congress at Council Bluffs, Iowa, in November, 1909 and 1910, and the draining of our swamp lands in the eastern section, are attracting the attention of many settlers to the State. Respectfully submitted, ELIAS CARR, Secretary. SIR-I beg to submit a report of the several lines of work committed to my charge during the past two years (December 1, 1908, to December 1, 1910). The report will be made under the following heads: The number of analyses made during the two years is shown in the following summary: Official samples of fertilizers... Fertilizers and fertilizer materials for farmers. Cotton-seed meal Waters. Marls, lime and lime rock Rocks, ores and minerals identified and values reported.... cally.... Condimental stock feeds Soils.. Total for two years 1,890 722 383 175 166 220 1,690 74 400 5,646 We have been called upon to do considerably more work during the two years just past than in the previous period of two years, there having been made in that time 1,010 more analyses then in the years 19071908. The main increase has been in the samples of fertilizers collected by inspectors, fertilizers and fertilizer materials for farmers, commercial stock feeds and soils. Analyses of fertilizers and feeds have been published in Bulletins of the Department. Some of the soil analyses have been published in connection with the reports of the experimental work on the Test Farms, and a general report is now being prepared, giving the analyses of the samples of the various type soils of the State collected and analyzed up to this time. The results of the examinations of ores, marls, waters, and other products of a general nature, have been sent to those we were specially interested in and for whom the analyses were performed. 2. CONCENTRATED STOCK FEEDS. The first law governing the manufacture and sale of stock feeds went into effect in July, 1903. In 1909, the law was amended so as to cover all classes of commercial products used for stock feeds and made several minor changes in the law. The number of samples analyzed each year since the law went into effect are as follows: In 1903, 203 samples were collected and analyzed. The analytical work during 1909 and 1910 was much larger than in previous years, on account of the fact that a provision of the new law made it necessary to make two additional determinations. Inspection.-Inspections are made throughout the State, at frequent intervals during the year by the regular inspectors to see that all feeds offered for sale have the proper tax stamps attached to them and to make the necessary samples. As often as possible, certainly once each. season, a microscopic inspection is made of the principal markets and distributing points in the State. At this time a microscopic examination is made in the warehouses, or wherever feeds are offered for sale, and any adulterated or low grade feeds are immediately withdrawn from sale. This method of inspection has been used for some years and has proven very satisfactory, so that at present the markets of the State are remarkably free from adulterated and low grade products. As a rule, manufacturers and dealers show a willingness to comply with the requirements of the law. One of the chief effects of the law is that it has kept off the market low grade and adulterated feeds which could be sold at a very low price and has thus enabled the small miller in the State to sell his feeds in fair competition with the larger manufacturers who ship feed into this State. Branding and Guaranteeing.-The law has now been in effect long enough for all of the manufacturers doing business in this State to understand the requirements and practically all of the feeds offered for sale are now properly branded with the proper guarantee. One of the requirements of the new law is that the manufacturers must state on the tag the ingredients of which the feed is composed. This requirement is very effective in preventing the use of low grade materials in mixed feeds and also gives the purchaser very valuable information in regard to the feed he is buying. Information Concerning Feeds.-The Department, through the feed bulletins and Farmers' Institutes, is endeavoring to show farmers and stockmen how to buy their feeds by analysis, and to take advantage of the differences existing between feeds as shown by the guaranteed analyses they bear. We are constantly called upon by dealers and consumers for information concerning the quality of different feeds, their feeding value and their suitability for different kinds of stock, and we readily furnish manufacturers all information we can relative to compounding new and better feeds and the proper guarantee to place upon them. Standards Adopted. The present law gives the Department authority to adopt standards for different feeds. Experience has shown that having standard guarantees for different products is a very effective means of keeping low grade products from being offered for sale in the State. These standards are made up from a large number of analyses of the products for which the standard is adopted, and are such that a pure product which comes up to what is claimed for it will come easily within the limits of the standard, but an adulterated or low grade product will not have a sufficiently high analysis to come within the limits of the standard and consequently can not be put on the markets. The following standards have been adopted: Standards for other feeds will be adopted as soon as sufficient analytical facts have been accumulated to justify the adoption of standards. that will be fair to the manufacturers and protect the consumers. Adulteration.-Feeds are as much subject to adulteration as are commercial fertilizers. Before the first feed law went into effect, they were adulterated to a large extent in this State with materials having but little feeding value, such as ground corn cobs, peanut hulls, oat hulls, rice hulls, etc. The enforcement of the law has gradually driven out this class of goods. Every year has shown a decrease in adulteration, and during the past few years only a few cases of serious adulteration were found each year. The present high prices of all feeds make it all the more necessary that the consumers' interests should be protected by the proper enforcement of the law. Use of the Microscope in Feed Analysis. In addition to the regular chemical analysis, all the feed samples are examined microscopically. This is the final test of their purity, as it shows the materials of which the feeds are composed. The chemical analysis shows the percentage amounts of the nutritive constituents of the feed, but it gives no idea of the source from which they are derived, and as the protein and fat are more digestible, and hence more valuable, in some classes of feeds than in others, it is very important to know just what substances go to make up the feed. The microscopic examination is the only way this can be done with any degree of accuracy. In addition to showing from what sources the nutritive elements of a feed are derived the microscopic examination is the only accurate means of detecting adulteration and showing the use of spoiled or objectionable materials in feeds. Many feeds are now put on the market in a finely ground condition, and as this destroys the characteristic appearance of the ingredients, it is very easy to adulterate them with finely. ground rice hulls, corn cobs, peanut hulls, etc. All of these substances are readily distinguished under the microscope. For example, if a mixed feed contains 15 per cent of fiber it would not be considered low grade, provided, it is made from good materials; but if the microscopic examination shows that part of this fiber is furnished by rice chaff or corn cobs, it would be considered a very low grade feed. Uniform Feed Law.-For many reasons it is important that the feed laws of the different States be as near uniform as possible in the requirements which they make the manufacturer conform to. The matter of a uniform feed law for the Southern States was first taken up by the Southern States Association of Commissioners of Agriculture, in 1906. Since then a number of trade associations have taken up this matter and it has also been discussed at the meetings of the above named association. In February, 1910, a number of feed officials met in Washington and formed the Association of Feed Control Officials, which has for its object the adoption of a uniform feed law and the adoption of uniform rulings and regulations for the various commercial feeds. At this first meeting an executive committee was appointed to draw up a uniform law to be presented to the Association. The second meeting of this Association was held in Washington early in November, 1910. At this meeting the committee presented the uniform law and it was discussed at length by a number of manufacturers and officials from a number of States. On account of the local conditions in the various States represented in this Association, it is not practicable to adopt a law which can be exactly the same for all States. But the more important points which affect the manufacturer who markets his products in a number of States can be uniform. This was the result of the meeting-that a law was adopted which is uniform for all the States in its main requirements. This enables the manufacturers to ship goods into several States without changing the labeling on the bags. This uniform law embodies the main features of the present North Carolina law. This Association will next take up the definitions and rulings for feeds. It is believed that this Association will do a great deal of good in bringing about co-operation between the officials of the various States and a better understanding between the manufacturers and the officials. Condimental Feeds and Stock Tonics.-The Legislature of 1909 passed a law regulating the sale of Condimented, Patented, Proprietary, or Trade-Marked Stock or Poultry Tonics, Regulators or Conditioners. Quite a number of brands of these conditioners have been found on sale in the State. These medicines usually consist of a base material, such as linseed meal, wheat bran, or middlings, to which is added a variety of powdered condiments and drugs. Some brands are of value as medicines and tonics, while many of them can only be regarded as high priced products of little merit. The work on these preparations is now nearing completion and will be published as a Bulletin of the Department. Mr. G. M. MacNider has done the work on commercial feeds, tonics, conditioners, and regulators in a most satisfactory way. 3. SOIL WORK. The soil work of the Department has been continued during the last two years in accordance with the plans outlined about ten years ago by Mr. Kilgore. The methods of investigation laid down at this time were to include the following lines or work. 1. A detailed soil survey of each county of the State, showing the exact location, extent and boundaries of each different soil type. The cooperation of the United States Bureau of Soils was secured to help with this division of the work. 2. The collecting and analyzing of samples of the various soils found in each county in order to determine what amounts of the different elements of plant food were contained in each soil type. 3. It was further planned to locate test farms in several sections of the State where field tests could be carried on with various fertilizer combinations. A fourth line of work was started last spring which includes a systematic plat test on each important soil type of the State. This is to supplement the chemical analyses of the various types, and from the combined data it will be possible to establish a method of fertilization, together with a definite crop rotation best adapted to our soils. While it is not safe to draw definite conclusions as to the fertilizer requirement for a long period of time from either a chemical analysis or a field test alone, the combination of the two gives us data which is of inestimable worth to the farmers of the State. During the last two years detailed soil maps have been completed of Caswell, Pitt, Gaston, Scotland, Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, and Granville counties, and work studied in Johnson, Randolph and Richmond counties. This survey work is being done in co-operation with the Bureau of Soils of the United States Department of Agriculture as explained in the discussion of soil work in previous reports. The Bureau of Soils |