Minor Cereals, Oil-bearing and Leguminous Seeds. 157 



volatile fatty acids; that wlien cotton seed is fed alone or forms 

 a large part of the ration, a light- colored butter of inferior quality 

 results. Butter produced from the heavy feeding of cotton seed 

 showed poor flavor and had the appearance of being overworked. 

 Fed in reasonable amount, cotton seed and its by-products pro- 

 duce satisfactory butter, which is firmer and will stand shipment 

 better in warm climates than where no seed is fed. Harrington's 

 results were corroborated by Wiley, ^ and Lupton and Anderson. ' 

 The results of recent experiments at the Iowa Station » go in the 

 opposite direction. The preponderance of evidence at hand shows, 

 however, that cotton-seed meal hardens butter, gives it a tallowy 

 consistency and makes it deficient in natural color. 



218. Cotton-seed meal for calves and pigs. — At the North 

 Carolina Station, * two calves getting from one to six ounces of 

 cotton-seed meal daily, died after one month's feeding. Other 

 instances of the same kind are reported. 



The use of cotton seed and cotton-seed meal for swine has been 

 extensively investigated at the Texas Station ^ by Curtis. As a 

 check in his experiments one lot of pigs was fed com in each trial, 

 and these pigs always made excellent gains, with no deaths, 

 thereby showing that normal conditions generally prevailed. On 

 the other hand, many pigs fed cotton seed or cotton- seed meal sick- 

 ened and died in from six to eight weeks after feeding began. The 

 mortality of the pigs receiving cotton-seed meal was 87 per cent. ; 

 when roasted seed was fed it was 75 per cent., and for boiled seed, 

 25 per cent. In these experiments no trouble occurred until sev- 

 eral weeks after feeding commenced, and it was observed that 

 pigs escaping sickness and death for thirty days beyond the time 

 when the trouble usually began were safe from attack, though they 

 were permanently stunted in growth. As a result of his studies 

 Curtis concludes: "There is no profit whatever in feeding cotton 

 seed in any form, or cotton- seed meal, to hogs of any age." 



219. Cotton-seed poisoning. — According to Curtis, 'Hhe first 

 sign of sickness appears in from six to eight weeks after cotton- 



' Proc. Soc. Prom. Agr. Science, 1889, p. 84. 



* Bui. 25, Ala. Sta. 



* Bui. 32. 



* Bui. 109. 

 « Bui. 21. 



