EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XXTI. Ma v. 1910. No. 6. 



The injurions effect which often follows the feeding of cotton-seed 

 meal to certain kinds of live stock has been a subject commanding 

 much attention from the experiment stations ahnost from their estab- 

 lishment. The loss which has followed cotton-seed meal feeding, 

 especially with pigs and calves, has detracted greatly from the use 

 which could be made of this exceptionally rich material, and has 

 made a better understanding of its physiological effect a matter of 

 the greatest importance. For obvious reasons it has been recognized 

 as one of the live problems of the stations in the Southern States, 

 and the desirability of a wider and more safe utilization of this home 

 product has lent a special zeal to the investigation. It has been made 

 a prominent project under the Adams fund at a number of places. 



These studies have been pursued from the standpoint of the chemist, 

 the veterinarian, and the animal feeder. Chemical investigations 

 have been made to discover if possible the character of the toxic 

 body, and extracts of various kinds have been examined as to their 

 composition and their toxicity. The symptoms of affected animals 

 have been extensively observed ; and a great variety of feeding 

 experiments have been made with different mixtures and methods of 

 feeding, in the attempt to get a clue to the nature of the difficulty 

 and the practical means of avoiding or overcoming it. It has been 

 variously ascribed to the lint, the oil, the high protein content, to a 

 toxalbumin or toxic alkaloid, to cholin and beta in, to resin present in 

 the meal, and to decomposition products. 



But despite the amount and diversity of the study, the cause and 

 nature of the toxicity have continued to baffle investigators, and the 

 problem has been greatly confused by variations in the toxicity or an 

 entire absence of it, difficult to account for on the ground of individ- 

 uality of the experimental animals. At an interesting stage in the 

 study it would be found that the animals did not seem to be seriously 

 affected bV eating the meal in considerable quantities, and in certain 

 localities injury was far less prevalent than in others. These things 

 have served to interrupt the investigations, to make the point of 

 attack more difficult to discern, and to lend complexity to the whole 

 problem. 



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