156 Feeds and Feeding. 



first consists of three or four pounds of cotton-seed meal, whicli is 

 gradually increased to six, eight or even ten pounds per head 

 daily, with all the hulls the steers will eat additional, which 

 amounts to about four pounds of hulls for each pound of meal. 

 The feeding period lasts from ninety to one hundred and twenty 

 days. (558-560) 



In reply to an inquiry from the writer. Swift & Co. (Packers, 

 Chicago) state that cotton-seed meal makes a good quality of beef. 

 They express the opinion that a still better quality is produced 

 where the meal is fed in connection with other concentrates. 



215. Effects of cotton seed on steer fat. — At the Texas Sta- 

 tion, 1 Harrington and Adriance found the kidney, caul and body 

 fats of steers fed raw, roasted or boiled cotton seed to have melt- 

 ing points of 4.1,* 3.2° and 8.7° C. higher than the correspond- 

 ing fats of corn-fed steers. The influence on tallow was somewhat 

 less than that produced with butter; while on mutton suet it was 

 marked as with butter. Butterine from beef tallow of steers fed 

 cotton-seed by-products might give Becchi's test, thus confusing 

 ordinary chemical tests for pure butter. 



216. Cotton-seed meal for dairy cows. — At the Maine Station, ' 

 Jordan found that the substitution of cotton-seed meal for an 

 equal quantity of corn meal increased the production of milk and 

 butter to a profitable extent. At the Pennsylvania Station,' 

 Hunt fed six pounds of cotton-seed meal per day to cows without 

 apparent injury to health, and by substituting equal weights of 

 cotton-seed meal for wheat bran increased the milk yield one-fifth. 

 In general, feeding cotton- seed meal to dairy cows has proved 

 satisfactory when the allowance has not exceeded five or six 

 pounds daily for short periods, and three or four pounds for long 

 periods. (637, 644, 646, 723) 



217. Effects of cotton seed on the quality of butter. — At the 

 Texas Station, * Harrington and Curtis, experimenting with cot- 

 ton-seed and its by-products with dairy cows, conclude that these 

 feeds materially raise the melting point of butter and lower its 



1 Bui. 29. 



» Repte. 188&-87. 



»Bul. 17. 



• Agricultural Science, III, p. 79; Rept. 1889; Buls. 11, 29. 



