16 Grain Screenings. 



false flax, wild mustard, stinkweed, peppergrass) ; other weed seeds, 

 0-65 per cent (sedge, mayweed, black bindweed, cinquefoil, worm- 

 wood); chaff and dust, 37-6 per cent. 



These fine flax screenings constitute about 40 per cent of the 

 material removed from the flax by the cleaners. The remaining 

 60 per cent is composed of the coarser material, including flax bolls 

 (seed pods), wheat, oats, wild oats, wild buckwheat, wild mustard, 

 hare's-ear - mustard, ball mustard, cow cockle, etc., which passes' 

 over the upper screen in the cleaners. This material is recleaned 

 to reclaim the valuable portions. 



POISONOUS PROPERTIES. 



Difiiculties have been encountered in feeding flaxseed screenings 

 unmixed with other grain products. A letter received from a Sask- 

 atchewan farmer under date May 14, 1915, is quoted in part:— 

 "I am sending you a sample of cleanings from flaxseed 

 which is deadly poison. It contains principally frozen 

 blossom buds, which must contain the poison. I had never 

 heard of its being poison before using it with fatal results. 

 Since I have learned my lesson I have heard that a neighbour 

 lost several cattle by its use a few years ago. A few weeks 

 ago I fed about three gallons to a cow and two gallons to a 

 heifer. Both were in convulsions in less than twenty minutes. 

 The heifer died in about two hours, the cow in about eight 

 hours. " 



An analysis of the sample gave the following: immature flax 

 bolls and chaff, 75 per cent; flaxseed, 18 per cent; wheat, 4 per cent; 

 weed seeds, 3 per cent. The weed seeds were chiefly lamb's quarters 

 and wild buckwheat, with traces of tumbling mustard. None of 

 these is suspected of being poisonous. 



Dr. A. McGill, Chief Analyst, Laboratory of the Inland Revenue 

 Department, reports on this sample of flaxseed screenings: "We 

 find considerable quantities of prussic (hydrocyanic) acid, quite 

 sufficient to explain the toxicity of the article." 



Similar results from feeding flaxseed screenings are reported 

 ia Special Bulletins, Nos. 31 and 35 of the North Dakota Experiment 

 Station. In one herd of nineteen all died; while in a second of 

 ten, five died. Analyses made of several samples of flaxseed screen- 

 ings showed clearly the presence of hydrocyanic acid. This poison 

 was also found in immature seed bolls of flax analysed separately. 

 A healthy, well-fed 2-year-old heifer which refused to eat flaxseed 

 screenings was fed by force from a bottle with an extraction obtained 

 from A}i pounds of screenings. Toxic symptoms developed, from 

 which she recovered, as was the case with a second feeding obtained 

 from 4 pounds. An extraction from 12 pounds resulted in the death 

 of the animal in ninety-two minutes. Quantitative determinations 

 showed that 0-9583, 0-10736 and 4-892 gms, of hydrocyanic acid, 

 respectively, were fed. Thus it is clearly evident that flaxseed 

 screenmgs may contam hydrocyanic acid in sufficient quantities 



