200 DESCRIPTION OF FEEDING STUFFS 
sells for only a few dollars per ton below cotton-seed meal; hence 
the wisdom of buying only the best grades of cotton-seed meal. This 
applies also to so-called cotton-seed feed which has been placed on 
the market during late years. This is “a mixture of cotton-seed 
meal and cotton-seed hulls (1:5), containing less than 36 per 
cent protein” (definition) ; as a matter of fact, it contains only 
10 per cent protein, 3.4 per cent fat, and 33.1 per cent fiber.?° 
Test for Impurities—The Vermont station has published the 
following simple test for impurities in cotton-seed meal :1t 
Place a teaspoonful of the meal in a tumbler and pour over it two 
ounces of hot water. Stir the mass until it is thoroughly wet and all the 
particles are floating. Allow it to subside for from five to ten seconds ° 
and pour off. If a large amount of fine dark brown sediment has settled in 
this time, a sediment noticeably heavier than the fine mustard-yellow meal, 
one which upon repeated treatments with: boiling hot -water keeps settling 
out, the goods are a feed meal, i.¢., meal containing relatively large quan- 
tities of ground hulls. If, however, there is found a larger amount of this 
residue, one which persists in remaining after several washings, it is surely 
composed of hulls, and it is a feed meal or an adulterated cotton-seed meal. 
The results are striking when a feed meal is compared with a sample of 
pure cotton-seed meal. 
Uses of Cotton-seed meal.—Cotton-seed meal is a very valu- 
able feed when rightly used. In most sections of the country it is 
our highest protein feed and the cheapest source of protein for 
stock feeding. It is an excellent feed for milch cows, and may be 
‘fed in large quantities (six pounds per head daily) apparently for 
any length of time; ordinarily only one to two pounds per head 
are fed daily, however, with other concentrates, and this is, in 
general, the better practice, since heavy feeding of cotton-seed meal 
gives the butter a hard, tallowy texture, raises the melting-point 
of the butter fat, and decreases the percentage of volatile fatty 
acids (p. 23),—in short, produces a low-grade butter.?? 
Fattening steers may also receive similar heavy feeds of cotton- 
seed meal as milch cows, if desired, but only for a period not to 
exceed 90 days; if fed cotton-seed meal longer and in larger quanti- 
ties, sickness and death are likely to occur, owing to the presence of 
certain poisonous principles in the meal. Cotton-seed meal cannot 
safely be fed to calves or pigs for the same reason. ‘The poisonous 
properties of cottonseed’ meal have been ascribed by various in- 
vestigators to the presence of nitrogenous bases, like cholin and 
betaine, to alkaloids, and to salts of pyrophosphoric acid. Withers, 
* Pennsylvania Bulletin 28; Wyo., b. 106. 
“Bulletin 101, Texas Bulletin 109; Experiment Station Record 20, 
p. 510. 
* Proc. Soc. Agr. Science, 1889, p, 84, 
