62 Bui^LETiN 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 oi? Dry Mussei/ Meats.^ 



Per cent. 



Water, at 65° in vacuo 7. 59 



Ether extract 2. 84 



Total nitrogen 7. 11 



Protein (N x 6.25) 44-44 



Glycogen 9. 35 



Undetermined (nonnitrogenous organic material) 13. 02 



Ash 22. 76 



Ash content: 



Phosphoric acid, P2O6 39-31 



Lime, CaO 34- 7^ 



Silica, SiOa 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. 



a The sample for analysis was frojn a lot of xnore than loo pounds of ground, dry jnussel xaeats, representing a collection 

 o! all of the ordinary species taken in the Mississippi River near Fairport, Iowa, and Lake City, Mian. 



