COMMERCIAL FEEDING STUFFS. 93 



more valuable ingredients. I have lately learned that a New Jersey firm 

 is making a mixed feed into which coffee hulls, rice polish and other in- 

 ferior materials enter. This fraudulent stuff has been sold in part through 

 a New York firm. Is there not good reason for advising consumers to 

 avoid all unknown mixtures and buy only standard goods? 



Even the ground cereal grains, such as corn meal, are adulterated. 

 Two materials are at present used for adulterating corn meal, one of which 

 is hominy feed and the other is corn bran. It may be claimed that the 

 mixture of hominy feed with corn meal does not constitute an adulteration, 

 because the former is nearly equal in feeding value to the latter. It is an 

 adulteration, however, when the hominy feed can be purchased at a con- 

 siderably less price than the corn meal, because by selling the former at 

 the price of the latter an imposition is practiced upon the consumer. He 

 buys at the higher price a material of lower commercial value. 



I have in my possession a circular letter addressed by a prominent 

 jobber in the State of New York to millers, explaining to them how, by the 

 introduction of ground corn bran into corn meal, they can make corn meal 

 at a price which will enable them to compete successfully in the market 

 against other millers or dealers. This is also an adulteration which is an 

 imposition upon the consumers. Corn bran is sold for much less than corn 

 meal at the present time, and has undoubtedly a lower feeding value. It 

 is easy to see that the kind of adulteration practiced will be determined by 

 the relative prices of feeding stuffs. When two materials similar in ap- 

 pearance have quite different selling prices, there is always temptation 

 for dishonest dealers or millers to mix the one with the other. 



PRECAUTIONS AND PREVENTIONS. 



At the present time the people of this country are much inclined to 

 resort to legislation as a means of curing various evils. Such legislation is 

 generally wise. As applied to feeding stuff control, it is of undoubted value. 

 First of all, feeding stuff inspection laws have an educational value. 

 When the terms of such a law become known, buyers are inclined to give 

 a great deal more attention to the composition of feeding stuffs than 

 before. This is true, because laws of this nature now on our statute 

 books in several states require that manufacturers or dealers shall file with 

 some state department the guaranteed composition of their goods, and 

 that the goods when sold shall be properly marked with the name of the 

 manufacturer and the guaranteed composition of the goods. Through 

 these means, and the publications which are occasionally issued as a 

 result of the inspection, consumers become more familiar with the comoo- 

 sition of the various feeding stuffs than would otherwise be the case. 



Moreover, through the guarantees and the proper marking of the various 

 brands of feeding stuffs, the purchaser is protected against buying inferior 

 materials. To illustrate, cottonseed meal should carry no less than 42 per 

 cent, of protein, linseed meal should carry at least 35 per cent., gluten meal 



