62 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
by pounding or, better, by chopping in a meat chopper before drying. Sand should be 
avoided in the whole process, as it will damage the grinder. If the foot is to be ground, 
the whole meats must be dried by artificial heat to about one-seventh of the wet weight. 
This entails some additional expense for fuel and ovens. The loss of nutritive substance 
in discarding the foot is not great; but it is obvious that practical difficulties are encoun- 
tered in separating the tough from the soft parts before grinding. The whole trouble 
arising from the toughness of the foot is obviated by putting the wet meats through a 
sausage grinder before drying and then regrinding the dried masses of meat in any 
suitable mill; the product thus obtained is not a fine meal, but a coarsely granular 
material, practically dust free and very suitable in form for use as food for poultry or 
fish. At the Fairport station the ground meats have been found to be very acceptable 
to chickens when moistened to make a mash and mixed with grain. Experiments made 
by the Bureau of Animal Industry show that the dried mussel meats are a suitable food 
for chickens, having about the same value as fish meal. To obtain like results, a slightly 
larger quantity of these substances than of meals made from the red meats must be used. 
For some years fresh mussel meats have been used as a food for fish at the station, and 
it has been found best to allow them to sour a little before feeding them. The ground 
dry meats have also been used in feeding small fish in aquaria and in ponds, and they 
have proven a very satisfactory food material. The ground mussel meats have recently 
appeared upon the market in the form of feed for poultry and fish. 
The meats of the mussels could, perhaps, be used for human food if they were 
collected under sanitary conditions and properly prepared. This question should be 
subjected to experiment; but it would be obviously impossible to consider with reference 
to human food the use of meats saved as a by-product of the shell fishery under the 
conditions now prevailing. 
Analysis of the mussel meats made for this Bureau by the Bureau of Chemistry indi- 
cates a very desirable content of protein, glycogen, phosphoric acid, and lime, if the meats 
are considered with reference to their use as a food for poultry or fish. Approximately the 
percentages are: Protein, 44 per cent; glycogen, 9 per cent; phosphoric acid, 9 per cent; 
and lime, 8 per cent. An analysis in detail of meats of fresh-water mussels from the 
Mississippi River is stated in the following table: 
ANALYSIS OF Dry MussEeL MEaTS.2 
Per cent. 
Water, at 65° in vacuole). ee DD ee a ee eee ee 7-59 
Btheriextracted!. .:ostz. aes aie. heismstls -modie. sie yeast -blee-ge- dete tees -faelh aise 2. 84 
Total, nitrogen... |. p05 memeeiege gets melee nd peeysee hes mepserer sty: geet of! serene’ yo vetine ete ges Hh yaa 
Protein (NU O:25) oo gece slept ogo sep nin esol ype oan oie ictal alee alo coe aka ceria else geod cae oie cio on 44.44 
Gly CORE swe nrsi aaioe siteto sie ete mci mtn rps sols o'r watetcta aualale oe ete) e totaal ieials tel scin maa Lae easton iole oie 9. 35 
Undetermined (nonnitrogenous organic material). ......... 02.02 e eee eee eee teen eee eee ees 13. 02 
DSW eos w coa cog: aseiend aia bis oie Sula ayeimioleveeleis!s:svayes ate sub e shu latedatalelstsiatelallele is/iens jetehegetaeteds/aRaite ede AdaaNele RMS lates 22. 76 
Ash content: 
Phosphoric acid, PlOg. 0.0.2.2. c cece ee eee eee cece cence eens t ete e eee de renee seca 39. 31 
Lie). CaO. 02 TIMI MAIN GES ARLROO Me REE. SALE INS SSIS SIR YS Ne aes 34-71 
Silica} SiQs. 914 -saddasvs -varciies seth ik. apeelt feoge dost -yieer? -sigisois, <ER9- 9 15. 86 
Qualitatively, there were present in the ash small amounts of sodium, potassium, iron, magnesium, 
and a considerable amount of manganese. No copper or zinc was detected. 
ne 
a The sample for analysis was from a lot of more than 100 poutids of ground, dry mussel meats, representing a collection 
of all of the ordinary species taken in the Mississippi River near Fairport, Iowa, and Lake City, Minn. 
