No. a. 



DEPARTMENT OE AGR1CULTURI<; 



• Supposed from location of manufacture to be derived from winter wheat, 

 t Supposed from place of manufacture to be derived from spring wheat. 



A microscopic examination of the foregoing samples revealed little 

 of special interest except in a few cases : 



No. 27 was quite dirty; a small quantity of oat hulls and the black 

 hulls of a weed seed {Polygonum d\h tutor um var. scandens) in con- 

 siderable quantity. This weed is related to buckwlieat and its hulls, 

 while of probably very slight food value, are not known to be directly 

 injurious to animals. 



No. 222 contains somewhat more oat hulls, but fewer weed seeds. 

 The latter are chiefly Polygonum. 



No. 262 shows rather more oat hulls; the amount is, however, prob- 

 ably under 5 per cent. 



No. 8 contains some straw, though in small proportion. 



These results indicate that the process of winnowing is not thor- 

 oughly carried out in all mills and that, in some mills, either very 

 impure wheat is ground or oat hulls are added to the contents of the 

 bran bin. In none of the above cases is the amount of impurity 

 present such as to indicate a deliberate attempt to substitute other 

 cheaper substances for bran; but lack of care for the purity of this 

 feeding stuff is indicated. 



Compared with the brans sold recently in neighboring States, the 

 Pennsylvania samples make the following showing: 



57—6—1901 



