No. 7. DEPARTMElSTT OF AGRICULTURE. 42i 



by a number of firms in our own State. These feeds are sold to tbe 

 consumer at an average of about 2| cents per pound. In some locali- 

 ties, they run a little less and in other sections, they retail at 3 

 cents per pound, or they retail at |45 to |60 per ton. I have pre- 

 pared a table showing what these different ingredients would cost 

 per hundred pounds. 



Wheat, 11.60 



Oats, 1.20 



Buckwheat, 1.20 



Barley, 1 . 10 



Kaffir Corn, 2.00 



Millet 2.10 



Corn, 1.50 



$10.70 



Dividing this by the seven cereals of which it is composed, we find 

 that they cost on an average of one dollar and fifty cents a hundred 

 or 1^ cents per pound or |30 per ton. The cost of these cereals com- 

 pared with that of the different scratch grains that we find shows a 

 large profit to the mixer or compounder of the same. Of course, 

 there is one reason that might be given for this difference in cost 

 and that is the profit that must go to the wholesaler also the profit 

 that must go to the jobber. This table consists of the price of the 

 feeds as they are on the market today, but there is one way that 

 the manufacturer of the scratch grains can reduce his mixture and 

 that is by mixing wheat screenings with the same. The larger per 

 centage of the scratch grains that are found upon the market are 

 made up of wheat screenings. I am not condemning the scratch grain 

 as a feed. I am only calling your attention to the difference in 

 price between that which can be mixed by poultryman or farmer 

 and those that are bought in the convenient Avay from the dealer. 



A few years ago, the Department brought prosecution against a 

 number of firms that were manufacturing chicken feed or scratch 

 grain which contained a large percentage of weed seeds, but after 

 our new law went into effect, these have been eliminated to a large 

 extent and the chick feeds that have been found upon the market, 

 with but few exceptions, comply with the Feeding Stuff Law of Penn- 

 sylvania. 



There are a number of inquiries come to the Department in regard 

 to condimentals that are found upon our markets. These condi- 

 mentals known as invigorators and blood purifiers, are all sold on 

 the market as feeds for domestic animals. In analyzing a number of 

 these preparations, we find that they contain drugs that can be pur- 

 chased in any drug store, and if our farmers and dairymen will se- 

 cure Bulletin 175, pages 147, 148 and 149, they will find the formula 

 or composition of these different condimentals. 



I find that the farmers and poultry feeders are always more anx- 

 ious to get something to feed in a convenient form, which they pay 

 from 100 to 200 per cent, more for, than if they i)urchased the mate- 

 rials and compound it themselves. This seems to be the natural way 

 of doing things at the present time. We would all sooner have other 

 people to do this work in a wholesale way than to be bothered with 

 it ourselves, but that is a matter for each individual to decide. 



