been coated with this layer is a very tedious and difficult opera- 
tion. 
Two years ago this Station began experiments in grinding 
algaroba beans and soon came to the conclusion that special 
machinery was needed for this purpose. It was found that vari- 
ous milling machines would successfully do the work for a few 
minutes, or perhaps for half an hour, but that ultimately the 
coating of moistened sugar on the machinery rendered further 
operation impossible. It was found, however, that the addition 
of a very small quantity of water to the cracked pods was suffi- 
cient to render the sugar in the pods no longer sticky. The ex- 
traction of a portion of the sugar, by means of water, makes it 
possible to dry the cracked pods in a condition in which any 
feed-grinder will successfully crack the seeds. The removal of 
a portion of the sugar, how T ever, takes away some of the feeding 
value of the beans and renders an alcohol or vinegar plant neces- 
sary in order to utilize the sugar thus extracted. The desirabil- 
ity of special machineiw, which would successfully crack the 
beans in fresh, untreated pods, became therefore more and more 
apparent. Finally the interest of a trained mechanic and in- 
ventor, Mr. C. W. Renear, was enlisted, and after several months 
of experimenting, he succeeded in devising a machine which 
would grind the fresh beans, cracking all of the seeds, and thus 
renderino- them available for stock. The feeding test made by 
this Station showed that the seeds thus cracked are completely 
• liar- ted by horses, mules and cattle. 
In repeated tests with the algaroba bean meal, just referred 
to, it was found desirable to adopt the suggestion made by this 
Station as to the advantage of a minute spray of water to pre- 
vent the sugary material from adhering to the roller of the mill. 
After this device was adopted, no tendency was shown for the 
sugar to adhere, and the roller remained perfectly clean. The 
amount of water added in this process is altogether too small to 
endanger the keeping qualities of the meal. The sugar in the 
pods does not ferment unless considerable water is added. The 
