Nov. 1900.] 



389 



Edible Pi oducts. 



been undertaken with cottonseed meal as a human food. The introduction of 

 macaroni wheat, its milling qualities, its value as a bread wheat has received the 

 most careful consideration of the National Department of Agriculture, and this 

 has resulted in the introduction and growth of durum, or hard wheats, in the 

 great wheat growing regions of the Northwest by millions of bushels ; but when 

 we scan government literature for information concerning cottonseed meal as a 

 human food, Ave seek bread only to find a stone. In the report of the Bureau of 

 Animal Industry for 1901 there is but one line of a table devoted to cottonseed meal. 

 This merely shows in the middle of a 3-page table its digestible nutrients and 

 relative value. But even the figures there presented seem to be counted of no 

 value by the authors, although out of the total list of feed stuffs given in three 

 pages of tabulated matter to show their relative money values s Southern cotton- 

 seed meal heads the list in value per hundred pounds with the exception of a single 

 other Southern product, peanut meal. Reckoning all of the feed stuffs of this 

 country on their digestible features and counting the protein at 3 - 37 c. per pound, 

 carbohydrates at 0.32 c. per pound, and fats at 0.56 c, per pound, it is there 

 shown that corn is worth 50 c. per hundred pounds, wheat 57 c. oats 48 c. 

 rice 39 c. linseed meal $1*09, and cottonseed meal 11*37. Nowhere else in this 

 report of 032 pages is cottonseed meal given mention. But it cannot be argued 

 that it is an insignificant product, for in 1905, according to census reports just 

 published, there were 3,345,370 tons cottonseed meal. This should contribute 

 somewhat to the gaiety of the nations and would minister to the welfare of the 

 human race could this supply be commanded for the hungry peoples of the world, 

 in condition to use it as we are now so freely doing for hogs, horses, cows, sheep 

 and all the poultry thriving in the barnyard. 



But referring again to the position of the Bureau of Animal Industry for 

 the National Department of Agriculture which has engaged in experiments with 

 food stuffs and digestion with livestock and with the human family in all parts 

 of this country, it has just i*ecently organized systematic experiments in co-oper- 

 ation with the Alabama Experiment Station for a careful investigation of the 

 feeding value of cassava roots with livestock, and other experiments with the 

 Texas Station for the investigation of rice mill products. But there exists in the 

 minds of many scientists and officials of this country a harsh prejudice against 

 cottonseed meal. Northern writers in the agricultural press have for years hurled 

 their shafts of criticism against cottonseed meal, declaring it to be an active poison 

 and dangerous at all times and in all quantities. At the recent Louisiana Exposition 

 dairy test held in St. Louis, Southern owners of Jersey cattle were unable to induce 

 committees having the rations in charge to use more than lh pounds of cottonseed 

 meal for a cow, affirming that it would be dangerous. And yet this was the first 

 feeding trial under government supervision in which cottonseed meal had ever 

 been recognized as a practicable dairy feed. Some people are so slow to learn. 

 Antagonism to the products of cottonseed may be read in nearly every annual 

 report of the United States Dapartment of Agriculture, and yet there is no question 

 of quality, yes, even the superiority of cottonseed products as compared with other 

 industrial competitors. As proof positive of this assertion, read with me the 

 following admission appearing in the Year Book of the Department of •„ sericulture 

 for 1904, by L. M. Tolman, of the Division of Feeds, with reference to cotton oil. 

 I commend this to your attention as a case of misdirected energy. He writes J— 

 "The determination of the presence of small quantities of foreign fat in lard is 

 exceedingly tkfficult and taxes the skill of the chemist to the utmost." Then in 

 discussing the failure of ordinary tests for cottonseed oil (page 395) he confesses 

 as follows :— " In this country cottonseed oil is the cheapest fat available, and is 

 used to a great extent. * * * The chemist must be able to say that the lard 



