EIGHTH REPORT ON CONCENTRATED FEEDS AND COTTON

SEED MEAL.

BY G. M. MACNIDER, FEED CHEMIST AND MICROSCOPIST,

ASSISTED BY

E. W. THORNTON AND W. H. STROWD, ASSISTANT CHEMISTS.1

Since the publication of the last Report on Concentrated Feeds, 550 samples of feeds and 110 samples of cotton-seed meals have been analyzed, making a total of 660 samples.

The number of samples of each class of feed are as follows:

Miscellaneous Mixed Feeds..

Microscopic Examinations on Feeds not analyzed..

Cotton-seed Meals ....

Total

56

69

13

41

5

17

13

23

27

3

18

29

3

1

30

32

35

54

81

110

660

SUMMARY OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE STATE FEED LAW.

A copy of the State Feed Law, together with the rulings and standards adopted by the Board of Agriculture, will be mailed upon request. The following brief summary gives the chief points of the law, with which every manufacturer must comply before offering feeds for sale in this State:

All feeds offered for sale in this State shall be in standard weight packages of 25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 175, and 200 pounds.

Some of the determinations of fiber, moisture and ash were made by J. K. Plummer.

The packages or bags shall bear a plain statement of the name, brand or trade-mark under which the feed is sold; the name and address of the manufacturer, jobber or importer; the names of each and all the ingredients of which the feed is composed, and a statement of the minimum percentage of protein and fat and the maximum percentage of crude fiber and the percentage of carbohydrates.

The term "Concentrated Commercial Feeding Stuff" includes all feeds used for live stock and poultry, except hays, straws, corn stover and whole grains.

Every manufacturer selling goods in this State must register each brand with the Commissioner of Agriculture and file a statement of the requirements as stated in section 1 of the law.

The manufacturer must pay to the Commissioner of Agriculture an . inspection tax of twenty cents per ton for every ton of feed offered for sale in the State. Each package must have attached to it a tax stamp, furnished by the Commissioner, showing that these charges have been paid.

Section 7 states the conditions under which feeds shall be withdrawn from sale and defines adulterants.

Section 9 gives the Board of Agriculture power to adopt such standards and regulations as may be necessary for the enforcement of the law. It is the duty of the Department of Agriculture to regularly inspect the feeds offered for sale in the State and to see that all feeds bear the tax stamp and are properly labeled. The Department is required to collect and analyze at least one sample of every brand of feed found on sale in the State during the year and to publish the results for the benefit of those interested in this class of goods.

The Department will be glad, at any time, to furnish information regarding the character and value of any class of feed.

RESULTS OF THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE FEED LAW.

The first feed law in North Carolina went into effect in July, 1903. At that time it was found that the markets of the State were flooded with low-grade and adulterated feeds, with no branding on the bag to indicate that they were made of anything but high-grade materials. Such materials as rice chaff, ground corncobs, peanut hulls, oat hulls, etc., with very little feeding value and now classed as adulterants, were used extensively in the composition of feeds.

Since the first law went into effect the Department has made frequent inspections each year in all parts of the State, and wherever adulterated or misbranded feeds have been found they have been withdrawn from sale. The result of this work has been the steady decrease, from year to year, in the number of adulterated feeds on the market and the steady increase in the quality of the feeds of all classes. With the publication of this, the eighth report on feeds, it will be noticed

that there are very few cases of adulteration reported. Following each table of analyses will be found a statement of the number of samples which fail to come up to the manufacturer's guarantee. While this number is comparatively large in some classes of feeds, it will be noticed in the majority of cases that the difference between the analysis. and the guarantee is comparatively small. This trouble is due largely to the manufacturers not adhering close enough to the chemical analysis of their products in making up the guarantees for them.

The present law requires the statement on the bag or tag of the ingredients of which the feed is composed. Several seizures have been made during the year on account of this requirement not being complied with; but as a rule the manufacturers have shown a willingness to state what ingredients their feeds are composed of, and it is believed that this requirement will make the mixed feeds put on the markets of higher grades than in previous years.

A few cases of adulteration have been found, in which a small amount of corn meal had been mixed with wheat shipstuff. Such cases are not considered as serious adulteration and there has been no trouble in adjusting the matter with the manufacturers.

In some of the corn products it was found that corn bran had been used in such amount as to cause the feed to fall considerably below its guarantee. In such instances the manufacturers have either changed the composition of the feed or reduced their guarantee on protein and fat so as to conform with the analysis.

In the examination of cracked corn only one sample was found which contained damaged corn. This shows up remarkably well for the large amount of this product used in the eastern part of the State.

The most serious cases of adulteration have been with one brand of molasses feeds, Mueller's Molasses Grains. The examination of several samples of this feed have shown them to be adulterated with rice hulls and ground corncobs. Only a small amount of this feed was found on the markets during the early part of the season, and owing to the continued efforts of the Department this feed is now very seldom found on the markets of the State.

During the latter part of the season one lot of low-grade rice bran was shipped into the State. This was found before it was offered for sale, and as the analysis showed it to be low grade, containing an excessive amount of rice hulls, its sale was prohibited in the State.

The results of the chemical and microscopic analyses of the samples of feed taken by the inspectors of the Department during the past year, on the whole, show a remarkably clean grade of products, with very little adulteration. This is due to the efforts of the Department in enforcing the feed law, and as the work is extended each year the markets of the State will be kept free from adulterated and misbranded feeds.

PURCHASING FEEDS.

The present high prices of feeds have created a market for low-grade materials, that is, materials low in protein and fat and high in fiber, which under other circumstances would not find a ready sale. While many of these feeds are of good quality, so far as maintaining their guarantee is concerned, still the average farmer grows sufficient hay, straw and other materials low in protein and fat to supply his needs, and it is therefore to his advantage in buying concentrated feeds not to buy a feed low in protein and fat and high in fiber, but to get the largest possible amount of protein and fat for the money invested. This can best be done by paying strict attention to the guarantees made for the different brands of feeds and comparing them with the analyses of the same brands made by this Department, and buying only those which come up to the guarantees. Then if the prices of several feeds, all of which come up to the guarantees, are compared with the guarantees, and the one selected which gives the largest amount of protein and fat and the smallest amount of fiber for the money invested, the purchaser will in this way get the best returns for his money.

Every feed dealer, to protect himself and his trade, should insist on feeds being shipped him in strict compliance with the law. If he will do this and buy only from those manufacturers who do comply with the law, he will save considerable trouble and inconvenience by having his feeds seized and confiscated by feed inspectors.

THE CHEMISTRY OF FEEDS.

In the chemical analysis of feeds the following determinations are made: protein, fat, fiber, nitrogen-free extract, moisture and ash. Without going into a detailed description of the chemical properties of these classes of substances, the following general discussion will be found valuable in interpreting the analysis of commercial feeds:

PROTEIN.

The term protein or crude protein as used in feed analysis includes all the nitrogenous compounds contained in the feed. These compounds are divided, chemically, into two classes-the true proteins and the amido compounds. Familiar examples of the true proteins are the white of egg, lean meat and the gluten of flour. In seeds and cereal products the amido compounds are present in very small amount, and hence all the nitrogen is regarded as present in the form of protein. The protein compounds contain, approximately, 16 per cent of nitrogen, so to determine the amount of protein in a feed the total amount of nitrogen is determined, and this, multiplied by the factor 6.25, gives the amount of protein.

The protein compounds are of very great importance in feeds, for it is from them that the animal derives the nitrogenous materials from which its muscular tissues are built.

FATS.

Fats, or more properly termed ether extract, include all the substances soluble in dry ether. These substances include the pure fats, such as cotton-seed oil, linseed oil, etc., and the waxes, resins, chlorophyl, etc. In most feeds the waxes and resins are present in such small amount that the entire ether extract may be regarded as fat. In a few feeds, such as alfalfa products, the ether extracts the chlorophyl or green coloring matter of the plants. This amounts to only a small per cent.

CRUDE FIBER.

The term crude fiber includes the woody parts or the structural materials of plants. It is composed largely of cellulose and is the most indigestible part of the feed. As a rule, a feed with a high percentage of fiber is considered to be a low-grade feed.

MOISTURE.

Water is present to some extent in all classes of feed. Hays and commercial feeds usually contain from 6 to 15 per cent of water.

ASH.

Ash is the inorganic or mineral matter of plants. It is composed principally of soda, potash, lime and magnesia, combined in the form of phosphates, sulphates, chlorides and carbonates. The constituents of the ash furnish the material for the bony structure of animals and is used only to a small extent in the tissues and organs.

NITROGEN-FREE EXTRACT.

The term nitrogen-free extract includes the non-nitrogenous constituents of feeds. The principal classes of substances included in this term are the sugars, starch, organic acids, pentosans, etc. In the ordinary feed analysis the nitrogen-free extract is determined by difference; the sum of the percentage of protein, fats, fiber, moisture, and ash is subtracted from 100, and the remainder considered as nitrogen-free extract.

CARBOHYDRATES.

The term carbohydrates includes the nitrogen-free extract and the crude fiber. In publishing the analyses the nitrogen-free extract and the crude fiber are reported separately. To get the per cent of carbohydrates in a feed it is only necessary to add the percentages of these two constituents.

The percentage of carbohydrates as stated in the manufacturer's guarantee should be, as above stated, the sum of the per cent of nitrogenfree extract and the per cent of crude fiber.