208 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



to properly guarantee their products, but to the Department in car- 

 rying out the provisions of the law with respect to labeling. 



From time to time as the 1915 feeding stuffs registrations were 

 being received early in the year and where the information con- 

 tained in these registrations raised the question as to whether or 

 not the character of the samples listed would pass the requirements 

 of the law, a request was made for samples to be submitted for ex- 

 amination. While the number of such sami)les submitted was not 

 large, the information in these cases resulted in corrections being 

 made, certain products being eliminated and in a few cases registra- 

 tions being refused until the objectionable features or ingredients 

 were eliminated. 



During the year the Bureau co-operated wtih the Feeding Stuffs 

 Officials of other states for the Association of Feed Control Officials 

 in analyzing samples of cottonseed meal. This work was done for 

 the purpose of continuing the work started in 1914 in attempting 

 to arrive at some standard composition for cottonseed meal and 

 especially for a crude fiber standard. The number of these samples 

 of cottonseed meal and also cottonseed analyzed was 50 and were 

 secured from various cottonseed mills located in the South by one 

 partment of Agriculture. The results secured were reported to the 

 of the chemists of the Bureau of Chemistry of the United States De- 

 Committee of the Association of which the Chief Chemist was a 

 member and that committee after carefully considering the results 

 of the two years' work, made a report to the November meeting of 

 the Association held in Washington, that from the information se- 

 cured on all the samples analyzed, it could not recommend that a 

 standard for crude fiber should be adopted for cottonseed meal. The 

 variation in the composition of the seed from the various localities in 

 the South where it is grown and also from the fact that the samples 

 of meal secured did not fairly represent all brands of meal being 

 produced, made it impossible for a standard for crude fiber to be 

 agreed upon which could be accepted by the officials in all the 

 States. This report, however, will not affect the character of the 

 meals being sold in Pennsylvania, for the reason that the law re- 

 stricts the content of fiber to 9%. The official samples of meal an- 

 alyzed during the year show an average fiber content close to this 

 amount. 



In addition to the samples of cottonseed meal analyzed in the co- 

 operative work, there were approximately 100 additional samples, 

 including feeding stuffs and a few other products, analyzed for the 

 purpose of securing information for the Bureau as to the composition 

 of certain feed by-products and in co-operation with other chemists in 

 securing check results. A few of these samples were examined in 

 accordance with the direction of the Secertary of Agriculture, and 

 included tests for strychnine in a sample of corn suspected of caus- 

 ing the death of birds and the analysis of a few samples of fertiliz- 

 ing materials 



Early in the year it was discovered that a feeding stuffs was being 

 sold in the State for distillers' grains which, upon examination, was 

 found to be not straight dried grains from the distilling processes, 

 which product was selling for |6 to |7 a ton less than straight dis- 

 tillers' dried grains from corn. The product had a composition 

 similar to that of brewers' dried grains analyzing less than distill- 



