3°2 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. VII, No. 7 
as an adulterant in the manufacture of so-called concentrated feeds. 
Some instances are given where as much as 50 per cent of this material has 
been added. 
In the last few years considerable attention has been attracted in this 
country to the enormous amount of waste material produced by ivory- 
button factories, and many attempts have been made to discover a 
practical use for the material aside from fuel. 
The material experimented with had the appearance of a mediufn-fine 
meal, white in color, though flecked here and there with particles of the 
brown outer coating of the nut. It was tasteless, odorless, and very hard, 
being almost gritty to the touch. 
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF VEGETABLE-IVORY MEAL 
Considerable work has been done on the chemistry of vegetable ivory 
both in this country and in Europe. Tollens (14, p. 113), Fischer and 
Hirschberger (7), Liebscher (11), and others have worked with ivory 
meal as a source of mannose and have otherwise investigated the material, 
A considerable amount of corroborative chemical investigation of vege¬ 
table ivory has been undertaken and an attempt made to determine 
quantitatively the mannose present. The results are presented with as 
little detail as possible, the fodder analyses being given in Table I. 
Tabi<3 I .—Fodder analyses of vegetable ivory 
Constituent. 
Maximum. 
Minimum. 
Average.® 
German anal¬ 
yses for com¬ 
parison. 
Moisture. 
12. 64 
2. 30 
5. 26 
I. 18 
7-75 
77- 56 
6. 13 
.80 
3- 94 
. 60 
6.13 
74- 17 
H- 39 
I. 08 
4-63 
.92 
6.89 
75-«>9 
18. 30-13. 20 
I. 30- I. 10 
4. 60- 4. 00 
I. IO- O. 80 
I79. 80-75. So 
Ash. 
Protein. 
Fat. 
Fiber. 
Nitrogen-free extract. 
a Average of nine samples. 
At a glance Table I shows not only the variations met with in different 
samples but that by far the greater part of the material is carbohydrate 
in nature. The protein rarely exceeds 5 per cent and was found to con¬ 
tain about one-third of its nitrogen in the amido form. The fat or ether 
extract had the appearance of a heavy light-colored oil and possessed a 
pleasant nutty odor. 
The fiber in all cases was fairly uniform in amount, being about 7 per 
cent of the dry matter. It was noticed while making the determinations 
that the vegetable ivory acted as an indicator, the change from light 
buff with acid to a deep wine color with alkali being quite abrupt. Both 
the residue from the fiber determinations and the original material were 
