INSPECTION OF COMMERCIAL FEEDSTUFFS 



By Philip H. Smithi 



The first feeding stuffs act in the United States became effective in Massachu- 

 setts on July 1, 1897. Since that time bulletins have been issued at least annually 

 and if a need was indicated, semi-annually. This is the fifty-first of the series. 



Early feed legislation required little of the manufacturer but was sufficient in 

 a general way to protect the consumer from fraud. As there were but few com- 

 mercial feedstuffs, a considerable part of each bulletin was devoted to advice 

 on the home mixing of rations, a function later cared for by Extension Service 

 which was not then in existence. 



About the turn of the century the mixing of prepared rations by commercial 

 millers began and has gradually increased up to the present. The sale of ready 

 rations now far exceeds the sale of ingredients for home mixing. 



The manufacture of efficient feeds is a highly specialized business. Many of 

 the larger companies maintain laboratories and experimental farms in an attempt 

 to keep pace with progress of knowledge in the field of nutrition. To conform 

 to the guarantee requirements of the State law for protein, fat, fiber, and in- 

 gredient content is relatively simple. We now know that rations can be made 

 which conform to all these requirements and yet prove far from satisfactory 

 because various vitamins and trace elements are also essential in a ration. Our 

 knowledge of the significance of these is far from complete but progress is being 

 made. 



With a view to furnishing information somewhat broader than that required 

 by the feeding stuffs act, Control Service is interested in making other analyses 

 and assays so far as time and facilities permit. The data thus secured are presented 

 as a part of the annual bulletins. 



Credit should be extended to the industry for meeting so satisfactorily the 

 abnormal conditions of the present. While substitutions in ingredients have 

 often been necessary because of actual shortages and regulations, there has been 

 no general attempt to make capital out of the situation. Adulteration and mis- 

 representation have been no greater than in normal times. 



^The following staff members assisted in the inspection: John W. Kuzmeski, Albert F. Spelman, 

 C. Tyson Smith, and Henry B. Rodman, chemists; Frederick A. McLaughlin, micro.'scopist; James 

 T. Howard, inspector; Joseph A. Kartell, laboratory assistant; Cora B. Grover, clerk. 



