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SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE. March, 1921. 



Control of Feeding Stuffs 



Synopsis of Address Given iy Mr. Geo. H. Clark, Seed Commissmier, before the Eastern Ontario Branch of 

 the Canadian Society of Technical Agriculturists, February 18, 1921. 



The Commercial Feeding Stuffs Act, 1909, required a 

 statement of chemical analysis, guaranteed by the man- 

 ufacturer, to be printed on the sacks or other recept- 

 acles which contained the feed. A sample of the mat- 

 erial of vrliich each feeding stuff was composed was filed 

 confidentially in the office of the department admin- 

 istering the ' Act. lately the Department of Health. 



For several years samples of feedmg stuffs have been 

 examined in our seed laboratories and reported upon to 

 farmers in respect of their content of noxious weed 

 seeds. Numerous communications received from farm- 

 ers indicated that it was their primary desire to obtain 

 information as to the ingredients of which the feedmg 

 stuff was composed in order to protect the health of 

 their live stock. They had learned from experience that 

 altliough some feeding stuffs were rich in protein and 

 fat, and low in fibre, they were nevertheless injurious 

 to the health of live stock. 



To meet their needs we provided a service of qual- 

 itative analyses of ground feeding stuffs by process of 

 vegetable rnicroscopy, which in part led to strong de- 

 mands from live stock organizations for more compre- 

 hensive regulation of the trade in feeding stuffs. 



The Feeding Stuffs Act. 1920, pro^-ides that commer- 

 cial feeding stuffs shall be labelled with the specific 

 name of everv ingredient contained in the feed as well 

 as the analysis as guaranteed by the manufacturer. In 

 addition special regulations are provided for chop feeds 

 and for bran and shorts or middlings. Further, any 

 material that is designated by regulation of the ilmister 

 of Asricnlture as injurious to the health of live stock, is 

 placed under severe restriction. The specific names of 

 ingredients of feeding stuffs have been standardized by 

 regulations recommended by an advisory board under 

 the Feeding Stuffs Act. 



Under this new act, before any manufacturer may 

 legally sell anv commercial feeding stuff in Canada he 

 must have it registered, and with his registration he 

 must state preciselv. using the standardized names of 

 ingredients, the material of which the commercial feed- 

 ing stuff is composed and also the percentage of pro- 

 tein, fat and fibre as guaranteed. 



These standarized names of ingredients of feeding 

 stuffs appeared to be somewhat of a disturbing factor 

 to manv of the manufacturers. Manufacturers of oat- 

 meal had. seldom if ever sold oat hulls as such. Bran 

 and shorts mixed with ground screenings had proven to 

 lie hi"-hlv troublesome to feeders who had paid for bran 

 or shorts. Gluten meal was the name commonly used 

 for a product of starch factories composed of corn 

 t'luten meal mixed with aU of the other by-products of 

 the miU. A great deal of the meat meal sold in the trade 

 was in fact ground cracklings or tankage. 



Systems and regulations for the control of feeding 

 stuffs are applied in most countries. Several of the 

 states to the south have excellent feed laws and are well 

 equipped for administering them. In consequence the 

 dre"^ of the trade that are fortiidden from sale in those 

 stat'es commoiilv find a market in other states or coun- 

 tries where the resrulations are less exacting or are not 

 efficientlv administered. A survey of the situation m 

 Canada would seem to indicate that we have been one 

 of the few remaining dumping grounds for inferior and 



objectionable by-products of the packing houses, distil- 

 leries, linseed and cottonseed oil plants, and the indus- 

 tries employed in the manufacture of peanut, rice and 

 fisli products. 



The efficient administration of our new Feeding 

 Stuffs Act may be expected gradually to correct this dis- 

 advantage to the Canadian live stock industry. It will 

 be necessary for those charged with the enforcement of 

 this Act to acquire a good working knowledge of the 

 grain trade, the milling industry, starch factories, oil 

 mills, cereal plants, packing houses, sugar refineries 

 and even of peat bogs, from which feeding stuffs are 

 placed on the market in Canada. 



We are now in process of developing six inspection 

 districts. The three maritime provinces, for instance, 

 are included in district No. 1. We hope ultimately to 

 have each inspection district supported by a service 

 laboratory that will handle all of the analytical work 

 for the district. As yet we have only three service 

 laboratories, our laboratory at Ottawa being now con- 

 gested with seed analyses. Consequently we have had 

 to issue instructions to our inspectors that we will not 

 he able to handle many samples of feeding stuffs for 

 them until after the middle of April. 



For the present we obtain a service of chemistry from 

 the laboratory of the Department of Health. Inspectors 

 are instructed to give attention to the plants where 

 feeding stuffs are manufactured, and to draw their 

 samples of the material before it enters the grinder, 

 because after it is ground it is not possible to make a 

 quantitative analysis as to percentage by weight of 

 each ingredient. 



The milling industry yields by far the largest out- 

 put of feeding stuffs sold in the Canadian market. Sam- 

 ples sent in by inspectors indicated wide variability, as 

 between different miUs. in the nature of the product 

 that was sold under the name of bran, shorts or mid- 

 dlings. A conference was held on February 4th be- 

 tween three live stock representatives on the Advisory 

 Board under the Feeding Stuffs Act, and three repre- 

 sentatives from the Canadian National Millers' Asso- 

 ciation. This conference was not productive of con- 

 clusive results and was adjourned to February 10th. 



The chemical standards for bran were 14 per cent, 

 protein 3 per cent, fat and not more than 10 per cent, 

 fibre. There are numerous small mills throughout the 

 country which are still operating under the old "'short 

 process" of milling and which yield a bran that will 

 conform to this old chemical standard. It was estimat- 

 ed, however, that fully 85 per cent, of the Canadian 

 milling capacity was now operating under the newer 

 "long process" of milling, which process extracts prac- 

 tically all of the flour out of the bran and shorts, thus 

 leaving a bran containing 16 per cent, of protein, 4 

 per cent, of fat and 12 per cent, of fibre, but in whicli 

 the carbohydrate is much reduced. 



Practically all of the large mills have been grinding 

 their mill run of screenings and mixing them with the 

 bran and shorts before the bran and shorts have been 

 separated by screening. As a residt of the conference 

 with millers they have agreed to keep their bran pure, 

 to manufacture a product suitable for the feeding of 

 young pigs and calves by blending what is known as 



