558 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



former are sold at from five cents to |1.00 per pound, and may 

 safely be said to cost, on the average, ten times as much as the com- 

 mon ingredients of a grain ration. 



The subject would be of small importance if such wares were but 

 rarely passed over the counter to unusually credulous buyers; but 

 the papers contain many advertisements of their manufacturers' 

 claims; the rural mail-bag bears many a circular filled with glow- 

 ing testimonials to the virtues of such feeds; in the grange hall, 

 stands many a case or pailful of them; brisk, persuasive tongued 

 agents are crying their praises from county to county; numerous 

 inquiries regarding them reach the Experiment Station, and the 

 buyers, we are told, are a multitude. 



It is deemed worth while, therefore, to attempt to answer three 

 questions concerning them: 



1. Of what are they composed? 



2. What are their nutritive and medicinal virtues, as revealed by 

 close observation and exact experiment? 



3. How do their selling prices compare with the cost of their raw 

 materials? 



In reply to the first question, the formulas printed, in a very few 

 cases, on the packages give some information; but the answer is 

 chiefly obtained by consulting the analytical records of the Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Stations. In the laboratories of the Stations of 

 Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, -New York, Vir- 

 ginia, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, a large number of chemical and 

 microscopical analyses have been made of the condition powders, 

 stock and poultry foods now offered for sale to the American pub- 

 lic. It is but just to all parties concerned to state that such analyses 

 present many difficulties; so that only the chief constituents can be 

 regarded as definitely determined, while other ingredients present 

 in very small proportions have entirely escaped notice. It is, never- 

 theless, believed that the existing analyses afford a very fair knowl- 

 edge of the nature of these mixtures. 



In an appended table is presented a statement of the composition 

 of nearly one hundred of these condimental foods. Among those 

 there listed are some which are offered without the extravagance of 

 claim with which most of them are put forth; the basis of selection 

 has been the composition of the food, not that of the advertisement. 



In the ninety-three (93) feeds for which particular ingredients are 

 specified, the number in which each ingredient identified was found 

 is as follows: 



VEGETABLE MATERIALS. 



Linseed or flax-seed meal, 43. 



Wheat feed, bran or middlings, 48. 



Corn products, 32, 



Barley products, 6. 



Cereals in general, 7. 



Beans, 8. 



Fenugreek, 39. 



Pepper, 17. 



Cayenne pepper, 11. 



Mustard or hulls, and ginger, each 6. 



Gentian, 15. 



