SULPHUR BLEACHING OF COMMERCIAL OATS AND BARLEY. 11 



bleached oats as readil}' as unbleached oats, a feeding experiment was 

 carried on at the Arlington Experiment Farm, near Washington, D. C, 

 in cooperation with Prof. L. C. Corbett, Horticulturist in Charge, 

 with two teams of farm horses and one team of carriage horses used 

 by the Department of Agriculture. 



The tirst part of the experiment extended through a period of 15 

 days and was confined to 2 teams of horses, which were being worked 

 on the farm at the time, after which, for a 5-day period, the carriage 

 team was fed. Sulphur- bleached and unbleached oats in equal (juan- 

 tities were fed in separate boxes at the same time to each horse of the 

 3 teams. In order to exclude a possible error due to the convenience 

 in the positions of the feed boxes, which were placed side by side, the 

 bleached and unbleached oats were fed in different boxes on alternate 

 days. It was observed that each horse ate the bleached oats as readily 

 as the unbleached oats. Frequently the horses ate from the boxes 

 alternately, so that they finished eating both the bleached and the 

 unbleached oats at practically the same time. 



PROFITS RESULTING FROM BLEACHING. 



There are two sources through which a profit is derived by the 

 process of bleaching oats. (1) By purchasing low grades of oats, im- 

 proving their appearance, and selling them at approximately'^ the 

 price of unbleached oats of similar appearance, and (2) by increasing 

 the original weight by the addition of moisture during the bleaching 

 process. 



GAIN BY IMPROVED APPEARANCE. 



From a comparison of the grades before and after bleaching, as 

 shown in figure 2, it is obvious that sulphur-bleached oats bring a 

 higher price than unbleached oats because of the improvement in ap- 

 pearance brought about by the bleaching. In order to ascertain to 

 what extent prices are increased by bleaching, the market value of the 

 bleached oats from the standpoint of appeai-ance was compared with 

 the prices current for the various grades of oats on "track" on the 

 davs when the bleaching was done. 



As shown in figure 4 the range in price before and after treatment 

 was not alwa3S constant. This was due largely to the variation in 

 efficienc}' of the bleaching processes employed at the various places 

 where the samples were collected. On the basis of the before-men- 

 tioned oat quotations, before bleaching, the minimum price per bushel 

 was 49 cents; the maximum, 55 cents; and the average, 52.39 cents. 

 After bleaching, the minimum price per bushel was olh cents; the 

 maximum, 56 cents; and the average, 53.96 cents. An average in- 

 crease in price of 1.73 cents per bushel was due to bleaching. 



[Cir. 74] 



