60 The Bulletin. 



the sixth day and only one enduring so long as 22 days. These 22 rabbits 

 show that cottonseed meal is poisonous. 



We began feeding 8 rabbits the same amount of cottonseed meal with 

 all the conditions the same as above, except that an iron salt was 

 added to the feed. We fed 3 of them 64 days, 3 of them 91 

 days, and 2 of them 106 days, and discontinued the experiment. 

 Each of them remained normal during the whole period, and each ate all the 

 cottonseed meal given. The iron salt enabled them to withstand any dele- 

 terious effects of the cottonseed meal, from three to five times as long as the 

 hardiest rabbit could endure the meal without the iron salt. Clearly these 8 

 rabbits testify to the fact that iron salt kept the meal from making them sick. 



We took 3 rabbits that had eaten all the meal given to them for 64 days 

 when an iron salt was mixed with it, and had remained normal during the 

 whole period. At that time we ceased adding flie iron salt to their feed. 

 After a few days some of them began to refuse some of their feed, and all of 

 them died in 23 days. Here 3 rabbits testify that an iron salt will make 

 cottonseed meal harmless, and if taken from the feed the meal begins to 

 show its harmfulness. 



To sum up these experiments, 27 rabbits show the poisonous effects of cotton- 

 seed' meal and 12 show the efficiency of an Iron salt in preventing or over- 

 coming its poisonous properties, and in each case the conclusion was clear 

 and unmistakable. 



Of course the practical herdsman is not interested in what may happen to 

 rabbits, if the results apply to them alone. The question is, what about 

 swine, or cattle, or sheep? We have not yet been able to undertake to test 

 the efficiency of the iron as an antidote to cottonseed meal if fed to cattle 

 or horses, but we have made some tests with swine. Twelve pigs 

 weighing an average of 50 pounds each were taken and placed in two separate 

 lots, each in a pen to himself. We began feeding to each daily one-half pound 

 of cottonseed meal and 1% pounds of corn meal. To one-half of the animals 

 we gave in addition a solution of an iron salt. The feed was increased as 

 the animals grew. No green feed was given, and the animal got only such 

 exercise as was possible in a small pen. These conditions are not the best, 

 of course, but we wished to make a severe test. On today,* which is thirteen 

 weeks from the beginning of the experiment, four out of the six pigs receiving 

 the cottonseed meal without an iron salt are dead. The other two have made 

 an average gain of only 35 pounds and do not have a very thrifty appear- 

 once. On the other hand, the six pigs which received an iron salt with the 

 cottonseed meal have gained an average of 54 pounds, or nearly half as much 

 again as the straight cottonseed meal pigs. The pigs receiving the iron salt 

 are in the best of condition. 



Based upon these results, iron salt appears to be of value in diminishing, if 

 not entirely preventing, the harmful effects to swine of cottonseed meal feed- 

 ing, provided that feeding is not in excess of the rate of one pound of meal 

 daily to each 100 pounds of live weight. It may be of value if the feeding is 

 in larger amounts, but we prefer to confine our statements to the experiments 

 already performed by us. Should an animal refuse his feed, if given cotton- 

 seed meal and an iron salt, I would suggest that the cottonseed meal be with- 

 held from the feed for a few days, until the appetite of the animal returns, 

 and then the meal feeding may be resumed. I should continue the feeding 

 of the iron salt. 



I have purposely withheld until the last, directions as to preparing and 

 feeding the iron solution. The directions are so simple that one may easily 

 remember them. Dissolve one pound of copperas (ferrous sulphate) in a 

 barrel (about fifty gallons) of water. For each pound of cottonseed meal 

 take one gallon of the solution, mix thoroughly daily for each 100-pound pig. 



*0n October 29, 1913, which is twenty-two weeks after the beginning of this experiment, five of the 

 six pigs consuming cottonseed meal without copperas are dead, but all six of the pigs receiving cop- 

 peras with the cottonseed meal are alive, gaining in weight, and apparently without any ill effects 

 from the cottonseed meal. 



