2 EDITORIAL. 



"glucose meal," "cream gluten," "gluten flour," "gluten feed," "grano 

 gluten" (which is dried distillery refuse), "glucose feed," "glucose 

 refuse," " sugar feed," " sugar meal," " maize feed," " corn germ," " corn- 

 germ meal," and even others. The confusion was complete. Only a 

 person familiar with the process of manufacture could tell to what class 

 the different materials belonged, and as they ranged in protein all the 

 way from less than 10 to over 35 per cent there was a chance for great 

 deception or misunderstanding. The case is similar with cotton-seed 

 meal and the newer "cotton-seed feed." Although different in appear- 

 ance, the purchaser is likely to be misled by the name and to think the 

 mixture of cotton seed meal and hulls a richer feeding stuff than it 

 really is. 



Finally, the feeding-stuffs control acts as a preventive of adulteration, 

 intentional or otherwise. When a guaranty of composition is required, 

 there is no temptation to adulterate with foreign substances or a cheaper 

 grade of materials, and there is less likelihood of deceptive trade names 

 being used. In this country not much is heard of adulteration of feed- 

 ing stuffs, and very little has been done in studying their purity at 

 the experiment stations further than determining the composition by 

 analysis. How much of the variation observed is due to adulteration 

 or to deceptive practice in manufacture it is impossible to say. There 

 is little positive ground, however, for suspecting manufacturers of 

 intentional adulteration of this class of materials. 



In Europe, where considerable attention has been paid to studying 

 the purity of feeding stuffs, some remarkable eases of adulteration have 

 been disclosed. The brans have so frequently been found to be adul- 

 terated that the German stations are continually cautioning their con- 

 stituents against buying wheat or rye brans except on a guaranty of 

 composition. In some sections nearly all the bran has been found 

 to be adulterated. The admixtures consisted of sweepings, finely 

 ground oat chaff, -round peanut hulls, sand, large quantities of weed 

 seeds, etc. Other classes of concentrated feeding stuffs have been 

 found to be extensively adulterated, and also to contain injurious weed 

 seeds, as ergot, molds, and other fungi, and to he in bad condition. 

 It is said that in general adulteration and contamination of commer- 

 cial feeding stuffs are much more common in Germany than in the case 

 of commercial fertilizers. A voluntary control has been arranged in 

 Germany by which the principal dealers in concentrated feeding stuffs 

 place themselves under the control of the stations and agree to give a 

 rebate on a fixed scale in case their goods are found to be below the 

 guaranty. But the need of a more comprehensive and binding plan 

 is keenly felt by the German stations. 



The action of these States is in the righl direction and is unmis- 

 takably a mark of progress. It should lead to successful agitation in 

 other States which will ultimately add to the general security of farmers 

 in buying concentrated feeding stuffs, a practice becoming more exten- 

 sive as the advantage of feeding better-balanced rations is realized. 



