OFFICIAL INSPECTIONS 72. Ill 



Some cotton seed meal is shipped with a minimum guaranty 

 of 38.62 per cent protein on the package, but with a verbal 

 understanding between the shippers and the buyers that the 

 meal carries 41 per cent protein and that the shippers will make 

 good any shortage on that basis. It is the claim of such ship- 

 pers that they do this to protect themselves from unintentionally 

 infringing the law and that their meals fall below 41 per cent 

 no more frequently than those carrying an honest 41 per cent 

 guaranty. In the case of one brand shipped under such an ar- 

 rangement, only a little over one third of the samples examined 

 this season carried 41 per cent protein. In the case of another 

 brand (but one of which only a very few samples were obtained) 

 no samples carried 41 per cent protein. Not one of the com- 

 mon brands carrying a straight 41 per cent claim had less than 

 60 per cent of its samples up to guaranty. Buyers of cotton 

 seed meal should remember that a verbal claim is not a guar- 

 anty and that only the legal minimum guaranty on the package 

 can be recognized as binding on the shipper. 



In fat content, practically all the samples examined were in 

 accord with guaranty. The only one that fell below was not 

 unusually low in fat, but fell below because it carried an 

 abnormally high fat guaranty. In the case of fiber, however, 

 the showing is very bad. Of course, several of the samples 

 which were examined for fiber were those which had been 

 found deficient in protein. In the case of such samples, an ex- 

 cess of fiber is to be expected, for in general, the same causes 

 that tend to decrease the protein content tend to increase the 

 fiber. But even of the samples which were up to guaranty in 

 protein, the ones that are in accord with the guaranty in fiber 

 are the rare exceptions rather than the rule. A reference to the 

 reports of the analyses made in previous years will show that 

 this situation is not a new one. In general, the cotton seed 

 nieals claiming to carry 41 per cent protein guarantee not over 

 10 per cent fiber and those claiming 38 per cent protein, 12 per 

 cent fiber. It would appear as if the shippers ought to increase 

 these figures to 12 and 14 per cent respectively or else take 

 care to get less hulls into the meal. 



No samples of cotton seed feeds were submitted by dealers. 

 Only two lots of goods of this class were found by inspectors. 

 Both of these had been in the dealers' hands so long that they 



