THE EFFECT OF SODIUM HYDROXID ON THE COM¬ 
POSITION, DIGESTIBILITY, AND FEEDING VALUE OF 
GRAIN HULLS AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIAL 1 
By J. G. Archibald 2 
Assistant Research Professor of Chemistry , Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment 
Station 
The aim of this investigation has been to improve the digestibility and 
feeding value of grain hulls and similar fibrous material. The agency 
used for this purpose has been sodium hydroxid, and its effect in vary¬ 
ing concentrations on five different substances has been studied. The 
substances are oat hulls, barley hulls, rice hulls, cottonseed hulls, and 
flax shives. 
It is of interest to note here that the annual output of oat hulls by 
three of the leading oat-milling concerns in the United States totals over 
100,000 tons. 3 Although at the present time this by-product is mixed 
with the oat middlings and dust, which are also by-products of the mills, 
and is marketed as “oat feed,” the product is admittedly of inferior 
feeding value, due to its high content of indigestible fiber. Any method 
the employment of which will bring about a considerable increase in 
digestibility of this and similar by-products is worthy of investigation. 
Aside altogether from their possible significance in a practical way, the 
facts brought out by the investigation are of considerable scientific 
interest. 
Originality is not claimed for the method employed in the work. It 
was devised by Dr. Ernst Beckmann, of Berlin, Germany, for the pur¬ 
pose of hydrolyzing straw, and has been patented by him both in Ger¬ 
many and in the United States Q). 4 However, a careful search of the 
literature reveals that while considerable investigation has been carried 
on with straw, work with hulls has never before been attempted. The 
writer has studied the action of dilute sodium hydroxid as it affects the 
proximate and, to a certain extent, the ultimate composition of grain 
hulls, and has fed the untreated and treated hulls to sheep, ascertaining 
by the usual procedure of digestion experiments the effect of the alkali on 
the digestibility of the hulls. 
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 
The review has been arranged under three headings: The chemistry 
of fibrous material; the action of sodium hydroxid and other alkalies on 
fiber; development of the process of hydrolyzing fibrous material for 
feeding purposes, together with the results of feeding experiments with 
the various products. 
These different phases of the problem overlap more or less and some 
investigators have dealt with all three of them, but each forms a suffi¬ 
ciently clear-cut division to warrant dealing with them individually. 
1 Accepted for publication Nov. 24, 1923. 
* This investigation was made under the direction of J. B. Lindsey. It was begun by C. L. Beals, who 
made a partial study of oat and rice hulls, and to whom due credit is given. It is published with the per¬ 
mission of the director of the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station, and constitutes the review 
and experimental data of a thesis to be presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree 
of master of science in the graduate school of the Massachusetts Agricultural College. 
3 From approximate estimates furnished by the manufacturers. 
4 Reference is made by number (italic) to “Literature cited,” p. 263-265. 
(245) 
Journal of Agricultural Research, 
Washington, D. C. 
Vol. XXVII, No. 5 
Feb. 2, 1924 
Key No. Mass.-xo 
