FISH MEAL AS A STOCK AND POULTRY POOD. 7 



but it must be fed with care since an excessive quantity in tbe ration may- 

 affect the quality of the pork. Moderate quantities contribute to the animal's 

 general health. The use of fish meal for feeding to swine is increasing in Ger- 

 many from year to year. 



In 1914 Klein ^ conducted feeding experiments on pigs older than those used 

 in previous experiments but which were still growing, comparing skim milk 

 with fat-free fish meal and dry fermentation residues. By substituting equiv- 

 alent quantities of fish meal and of the dry residues for skim milk in the 

 rations, the assimilation of these two food stuffs was observed as compared 

 with skim milk. The results obtained show that fish meal and fermentation 

 residues are well adapted as substitutes for skim milk. There was no marked 

 difference in the character or fiavor of the meat after slaughter. 



E. Haselhoff,' in an article which includes the results of examination of 23 

 brands of fish meal found on the German market, points out that since this 

 material has come to be quite extensively used in Germany as a feeding stuff 

 its quality in many instances has greatly deteriorated. Fish meal prepared 

 from strongly salted and from decomposed fish is condemned. One very repre- 

 hensible practice of adulteration has been the admixture of " cadaver " meal 

 with the fish meal, to which serious outbreaks of disease (particularly anthrax) 

 among stock have been traced. Such outbreaks result from the insufficient 

 sterilization of the product prepared from animals dying of disease. 



The composition of the different brands examined varied greatly. It was 

 the opinion of the author that a fish meal deserving to be classed as a high- 

 grade product should have a fat content of from 2 to 4 per cent, depending on 

 the quantity to be used in the ration, and that the meal should not contain over 

 3 per cent of common salt. He recommends the following amounts of a high- 

 grade meal in feeding rations : 



Cattle, 2 pounds per 1,(X)0 pounds, live weight. 



Hogs, one-fourth to one-half pound per head, according to weight. 



Sheep, one-fourth to one-half pound per 200 pounds, live weight. 



The statement is made that the quality of the meat and lard is not injured 

 by feeding hogs a little over one-half pound of fish meal per head per day. 



In a special article ^ the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries of England called 

 attention to the manufacture of fish meal and its value and use as a stock food. 

 After the closing of the German market for this product, which consumed 

 practically the entire amount (over 18,000 tons), the English farmer was urged 

 to adopt its use. 



In support of the use of fish meal for feeding purposes experiments are cited 

 where a meal containing 3.5 per cent of fat and 55 per cent of protein material 

 was fed to pigs for four months at the rate of 1 pound per head per day without 

 any harmful effect on the flavor of the meat. In another feeding experiment 

 cited, cows were fed very large amounts of a herring meal containing 20 per 

 cent of oil without the fiavor of the milk being affected. In a more recent feed- 

 ing experiment quoted in this article the feeding of English fish meal to pigs in 

 the proportion of from 15 to 80 per cent of the other foods given led to a marked 

 increase in the weight of the pigs so fed compared with those fed on a ration 

 containing no fish meal. The substitution of fish meal for a definite proportion 

 of the various foods in the ration gave increased profits, amounting in one series 

 to 42 per cent and in another to 94 per cent per pig, notwithstanding that the 

 actual cost of feeding was higher. 



1 Milchwirtsch. Zentr., 1914, kS, 452, 458. 

 •Fuhling's Laadw. Zeit., Feb., 1914, 6i (4) 137. 

 •Jour, Board of Agric, Nov., 1914, 21, 6S8. 



