SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART V. 



187 



COST or .MAXl'FACTURING CONDIMENTAL STOCK FOODS AXD TONICS. 



Where is the value in these compounds that warrants the manufac- 

 turer in charging for them such exorbitant prices — especially since it 

 has been demonstrated that these foods and tonics do not work the mir- 

 acles they are warranted to perform? The great bulk (one-half or more) 

 Is made up of some common feeding-stuff that markets at not more than 

 $1.50 per hundred pounds. In one instance, ground pine bark was used, 

 Which cannot cost much more. About one-tenth is common salt and an- 

 other one-tenth is charcoal. This leaves three-tenths to be made up of 

 Ruch simple drugs and remedies as anise, sulphur, ginger, red pepper, sas- 

 safras and the like. 



On page 39 of Merk's Report for February, 1906, is the following for- 

 mula: 



RURAL CONDITION POWDER. 



Foenugreek 3 oz. 



Cream tartar 3 oz. 



Powdered gentian 3 oz. Calculated 



Powdered sulphur 3 oz. ! to the 



Pottassium nitrate 3 oz. ' basis of 



Resin 3 oz. 100 pounds. 



Black antimony 3 cz. 



Flaxseed meal 16 oz. 



8 pounds 

 8 pounds 

 8 pounds 

 8 pounds 

 8 pounds 

 8 pounds 

 8 pounds 

 44 pounds 



Tablespoonful in feed night and morning. 

 Put in parafRne lined boxes and label. 

 Sell for 25 cents. 



This condition powder would cost the maker at wholesale $6.56 per 

 hundred, and at the above price of 25 cents per box would retail at $10.82 

 per hundred pounds. 



Cream tartar costs 32 cents per pound wholesale, and is so expensive 

 that few manufacturers of these commodities use it. We have found none 

 in the stock foods we have examined. 



The average run of stock foods and tonics cost only a fractional part 

 of the above, which is objectionable for general purposes, on account of 

 the black antimony it contains. It, however, serves to show the amounts 

 in which these drugs are sometimes used. 



Three tons of stock food, made after the following formula, 



was sold in one city in Iowa during 1905: 



Powdered gentian 1 pound 



Powdered ginger 1 pound 



Foenugreek 5 pounds 



Common salt 10 pounds 



Bran • 50 pounds 



Oil meal 50 pounds 



Total 117 pounds 



