200 DESCRIPTION OF FEEDING STUFFS 



sells for only a few dollars per ton below cotton-seed meal; hence 

 the wisdom of buying only the best grades of cotton-seed meal. This 

 applies also to so-called cotton-seed feed which has been placed on 

 the market during late years. This is " a mixture of cotton-seed 

 meal and cotton-seed hulls (1:5), containing less than 36 per 

 cent protein" (definition); as a matter of fact, it contains only 

 10 per cent protein, 3.4 per cent fat, and 33.1 per cent fiber. 10 



Test for Impurities. The Vermont station has published the 

 following simple test for impurities in cotton-seed meal: 11 



Place a teaspoonful of the meal in a tumbler and pour over it two 

 ounces of hot water. Stir the mass until it is thoroughly wet and all the 

 particles are floating. Allow it to subside for from five to ten seconds 

 and pour off. If a large amount of fine dark brown sediment has settled in 

 this time, a sediment noticeably heavier than the fine mustard-yellow meal, 

 one which upon repeated treatments with boiling hot water keeps settling 

 out, the goods are a feed meal, i.e., meal containing relatively large quan- 

 tities of ground hulls. If, however, there is found a larger amount of this 

 residue, one which persists in remaining after several washings, it is surely 

 composed of hulls, and it is a feed meal or an adulterated cotton-seed meal. 

 The results are striking when a feed meal is compared with ai sample of 

 pure cotton-seed meal. 



Uses of Cotton-seed meal. Cotton-seed meal is a very valu- 

 able feed when rightly used. In most sections of the country it is 

 our highest protein feed and the cheapest source of protein for 

 stock feeding. It is an excellent feed for milch cows, and may be 

 fed in large quantities (six pounds per head daily) apparently for 

 any length of time; ordinarily only one to two pounds per head 

 are fed daily, however, with other concentrates, and this is, in 

 general, the better practice, since heavy feeding of cotton-seed meal 

 gives the butter a hard, tallowy texture, raises the melting-point 

 of the butter fat, and decreases the percentage of volatile fatty 

 acids (p. 23), in short, produces a low-grade butter. 12 



Fattening steers may also receive similar heavy feeds of cotton- 

 seed meal as milch cows, if desired, but only for a period not to 

 exceed 90 days ; if fed cotton-seed meal longer and in larger quanti- 

 ties, sickness and death are likely to occur, owing to the presence of 

 certain poisonous principles in the meal. Cotton-seed meal cannot 

 safely be fed to calves or pigs for the same reason. The poisonous 

 properties of cottonseed meal have been" ascribed by various in- 

 vestigators to the ' presence of nitrogenous bases, like cholin and 

 betaine, to alkaloids, and to salts of pyrOphosphoric acid. Withers, 



10 Pennsylvania Bulletin 28; Wyo., b. 106. 



u-Bullet-ra : -loi, Texas Bulletin 109 ; Experiment Station Record 20, 

 p. 510. - 



" Proc. Soc. Agr. Science, 1889, p. 84, 



