July 5, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



31 



This past winter preparations for a migra- 

 tion test under control conditions were made 

 by raising from seed young apple trees in a 

 greenhouse safe from any possible infestation 

 of the " woolly aphid." 



This spring elm leaf curl was obtained from 

 the south and the emerging winged forms were 

 eaged over apple seedlings while depositing 

 their young. As a result, the progeny, a fine 

 lot of nymphs that are growing along creases 

 where the thin bark is scaling back, in the 

 axils of the leaves and on exposed roots of the 

 apple seedlings, covered by a typical flocculent 

 white secretion, would be pronounced " woolly 

 aphid of the apple " by any nursery inspector. 



Though several kinks in the life cycle of 

 this important species remain to be deciph- 

 ered, the synonymy of ScMzoneura lanigera 

 Hausman (S. americana Riley) is the chief 

 step in their solution. If the American spe- 

 cies on elm is the same as the European spe- 

 cies, our orchard pest, the woolly aphid, will 

 revert to the name ScMzoneura ulmi Linn. 



Extended tests for the range of food plants 

 of this species are under way, the reception 

 of southern specimens adding about two 

 months to the time possible for experimenta- 

 tion with the progeny of the spring migrants; 

 which as they will be treated in detail later, 

 need not be further indicated in this prelim- 

 inary note. 



Edith M. Patch 



Maine Agricultiibal 

 Experiment Station 



a method for the removal of the toxic 



properties from cottonseed meal 



a preliminary report 



In our studies upon cottonseed meal in- 

 toxication we have used a method of treat- 

 ment which has rendered the meal non-toxic 

 to rabbits. We desire to test the treatment 

 further with other meals and with other 

 classes of animals, and we desire also, if these 

 experiments result favorably to devise a 

 method by which the treatment may be used 

 upon a commercial scale. As it will take 

 some time to carry out these experiments we 



wish to make this preliminary publication 

 and to request others who are engaged in 

 cottonseed meal studies to repeat our work so 

 that the method may be thoroughly tested 

 before being offered for use for commercial 

 purposes. 



Our experiment was as follows: 630 grams 

 cottonseed meal previously extracted with 

 gasoline were boiled on a water bath for two 

 hours with 2 liters of alcohol to which had 

 been added 40 c.e. of an aqueous solution con- 

 taining 20 grams of NaOH, previous experi- 

 ments having shown that this amount of 

 NaOH was a little more than enough to com- 

 bine with all the meal. The mass was filtered 

 while hot, washed with hot alcohol and dried. 

 14.6 grams corresponding to 15 grams of meal 

 were fed daily since March 18, 1912, to each 

 of six rabbits averaging 1,992 grams in weight. 

 These rabbits are all in good condition to-day 

 (April 25, 1912) after 39 days' feeding, but 

 have lost upon an average 134 grams. The 

 feed eaten corresponds to 7.5 grams of cotton- 

 seed meal daily for each kilogram of initial 

 weight of rabbit or a total of 292 grams per 

 kilo for the 39 days. 



Previous experiments with rabbits have 

 shown that 7.7 grams of cottonseed meal fed 

 daily per kilogram of initial weight of rabbit 

 is fatal on an average after 13 days' feeding 

 or a total of 100 grams per kilo of initial live 

 weight. Our feed No. 189 has run for three 

 times that period, the daily feed is practically 

 the same and the total amount consumed is 

 nearly three times as great. From this we 

 conclude that the alkaline treatment very 

 greatly diminishes if it does not entirely re- 

 move the toxic properties of the meal. This 

 feed contains 1.70 per cent, of sodium instead 

 of 0.04 per cent, as in the untreated meal. 

 The beneficial effect of the alkaline treatment 

 may be due to hydrolysis, or to the formation 

 of a sodium salt, or to some other change not 

 yet determined definitely. 



We request that those who repeat our work 

 follow the method closely, except to use 40 

 grams of NaOH instead of 20 grams. 



We wish to acknowledge our obligation to 

 Mr. E. S. Curtis, animal husbandman, and to 



