POULTRY FEEDS AND FEEDING 



or short fiber, a very large amount of cake or meal was 

 produced for feed or to be used as a fertilizer. Cotton- 

 seed itself used to be fed to stock but very little is fed now 

 because of the high value of cottonseed oil and cotton- 

 seed meal. The oil is pressed out of the cottonseed ker- 

 nels by heating and crushing, leaving as a residue the cot- 

 tonseed cake. This cake is finely ground, making cotton- 

 seed meal, and sold largely in that form in Eastern and 

 Central States. Cottonseed cake is also broken into small 

 pieces for cattle and sheep feeding instead of being 

 ground. About one-fourth of the crop of this country is 

 exported, usually in the form of whole cake. Cottonseed 

 meal is the only form in which cottonseed products are fed 

 to poultry. 



Cottonseed meal varies greatly in quality, depending on 

 its protein quality and its freshness, and should be bought 

 on a guaranteed analysis. Standards for different grades 

 have been fixed as follows : 



Choice cottonseed meal must be perfectly sound and sweet in odor, 

 yellow, not brown or reddish, free from excess of lint, and must con- 

 tain at least 41 per cent of crude protein. 



Prime cottonseed meal must be of sweet odor, reasonably bright in 

 color, and must contain at least 38.6 per cent of crude protein. 



Good cottonseed meal must be of sweet odor, reasonably bright in 

 color, and must contain at least 36 per cent of crude protein. 



Cottonseed feed is a mixture of cotton seed meal and cottonseed 

 hulls, containing less than 36 per cent crude protein. 



Dark or dull color may be due to age, to adulteration 

 with hulls, to fermentation, or to over-heating during the 

 process of cooking. All of these changes reduce the feed- 

 ing value of the meal. The crude protein content of cot- 



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