98 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH SILAGE. 



Preliminary experiments in ensiling legumes, such as sweet clover, 

 alfalfa, soy beans, and cowpeas, and the last two crops mixed with 

 corn, have resulted in very satisfactory silage which did not have a 

 strong putrefactive odor. None of these furnished silage which 



E roved as palatable as that made from corn, and none seemed to 

 ave a feeding value equal to that of corn silage. 



FEEDING VALUE OF VEL^vET-BEAN MEAL. 



In a feeding experiment of 100 days with two lots of three cows 

 each, meals from hulled velvet beans and cottonseed m?al were com- 

 pared. Alfalfa hay and corn silage were fed ad libitum and the meals 

 compared were supplemented by a mixture of corn meal and wheat 

 bran, equal parts. An effort was made to feed ea^h cow 4 pounds of 

 the meal a day and in addition enough of the corn-meal-and-bran 

 mixture to insure her receiving 8 pounds of ^ain for each pound of 

 butterfat produced. It was found impossible, however, to get all 

 the cows to eat 4 pounds of velvet-bean meal. While the trials 

 are only preliminary, the indications are that 1 pound of cottonseed 

 meal is approximately equivalent to 1.5 pounds of velvet-bean meal 

 for milk and butterfat production. 



MEAT INSPECTION DIVISION. 



The Federal meat inspection has continued under the Meat Inspec- 

 tion Division with R. P. Steddom as chief. The statistics for the 

 fisca' year show a decline in the total number of animals slaughtered 

 and an increase in the quantity of meats processed and in the 

 quantity of meats and products certified for export. 



INSPECTION OF DOMEST C MEATS. 



Inspection was conducted at 884 establishments in 263 cities and 

 towns, as compared with 883 establishments in 253 cities and towns 

 dur ng the fiscal year 1917. 



Inspection was begun at 83 establishments and withdrawn from 74 

 establishments cKu'ing the year, as compared with 84 and 82, respec- 

 tively, during 1917. Inspection was withdrawn from 67 establish- 

 ments on account of discontinuance of slaughtering or of interstate 

 business, from 2 for failure to comply with department requirements, 

 from 3 by request, and from 2 which were exempted from inspection. 



ANTE-MORTEM INSPECTION. 



The ante-mortem inspections, given in the following table, show 

 an increase in the number of cattle and calves inspscted and a de- 

 crease for each of the other species, the decrease in tho total inspec- 

 tions being 7.9 per cent from those of the fiscal year 1917. 



