FEEDING STUFF INSPECTION. 39 



WHEAT BRAN AND MIDDLINGS — MIXED FEED. 



The refuse products in the milling of wheat are very important 

 cattle foods. With the exception of Indian corn, whole and 

 ground, there is probably no other class of foods used so largely 

 in this State as food for dairy stock. "Wheat, rye and buck- 

 wheat brans or middlings, not mixed with other substances, but 

 sold separately, as distinct articles of commerce" are, under the 

 law, exempt from inspection. In order that the character of 

 these feeds might be investigated, soon after the law went into 

 effect the Station analyzed a large number of the wheat offals 

 which were being sold in the State. As this class of feeds are, 

 in addition to their mineral matters, of chief importance as a 

 source of nitrogen, only the protein was determined in them. 

 All suspicious samples were examined under the microscope, but 

 in no instance was foreign matter found that indicated adultera- 

 tion. In a few cases oat and barley hulls were observed but in 

 no greater amount than sometimes occurs in wheat. 



As the result of this study and after consultation with the 

 Secretary of the Board of Agriculture it was decided that 

 the spirit of the law would not be broken if all wheat offals 

 should be considered as exempt from its requirements, even 

 though they might be called mixed feeds. 



As noted elsewhere in this bulletin, in the fall of 1899 it was 

 found by samples sent from correspondents that advantage was 

 being taken of this exemption and that wheat brans adulterated 

 with worthless foreign materials were being sold under the gen- 

 eral name of mixed feeds and that one company had even the 

 face to call such a mixture "purity" mixed feed. Because of 

 this discovery the inspector was instructed to collect samples of 

 brans, etc., paying particular attention to goods of suspicious 

 appearance. As a result 24 samples were found of these low 

 grade goods. The results were printed in bulletin 63 of this 

 Station. 



After consultation with the Secretary of the Board of Agricul- 

 ture (who is by law the prosecuting officer of violations of the 

 feeding stuffs law), it was decided to reverse the earlier decis- 

 ion and bulletin 63 contained the following statement : 



"In view of the fact that these adulterations make it necessary 

 for the Station to examine all mixed feeds in order to see 



