286 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



seed has been found about equally harmful, but boiling the 

 seed very greatly reduces the danger. The ill effects have 

 been ascribed to the lint, to moulds, and to changes in the 

 composition of the meal through exposure. Others think 

 they are due to the presence of some principle in the meal 

 itself that is poisonous to swine, and cumulative in its 

 action Notwithstanding, some feeders affirm that cotton- 

 seed meal may be fed to swine with safety when it is fed in 

 the form of a thin slop, about the consistency of buttermilk. 

 This they clam will prevent injury from the lint which 

 they believe to be the source of the danger. 



For horses, as a concentrate, cottonseed meai should 

 be fed only as a small part of the ration. In trials 

 made, as much as 2 pounds per animal per day have 

 been fed with safety, but when the amount fed was in- 

 creased much beyond 2 pounds per day, the outcome was 

 not entirely satisfactory. Experience in feeding it up to 

 the present would indicate that it should only be fed in lim- 

 ited quantities to horses and mules. 



Cotton seed hulls, in the ground form, are fed with 

 much freedom to cattle and sheep that are being fattened, 

 also to cows giving milk (see p. 425). To cows in milk 

 as much as 14 or 15 pounds per day have been fed for each 

 1000 pounds of live weight in the cows, without produc- 

 ing harmful results. Feeding large amounts has resulted 

 in deranged digestion, evidencd in some instances in a 

 lax condition of the bowels, and in others in a constipated 

 condition of the same. When fattening cattle and sheep 

 in proximity to the mills, they are frequently given hulls 

 to take the place of roughage and are allowed to consume 

 virtually all that they will eat up clean. 



While cottonseed meal is possessed of great value for 

 feeding live stock, from what has been said, it will be evi- 

 dent that there are restrictions which must be observed in 

 feeding it. Its highest value is found in fattening cattle 

 and in feeding cows for milk. It should only be fed in 

 small quantities to horses, while the wisdom of feeding it 



