250 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Ocr., 1902. 
TUBERCLE BACILLI AND TUBERCLE POISON. 
A new work on ‘tuberculosis has been published by Behring, who gives 
the results of his investigations into the nature of tubercle poison and of the 
characteristics of bacilli in human and animal organisms. The investigations 
extended over a period of six years, and are said to prove that bacilli extracted 
from tuberculous men and oxen are of the same species, the differences in 
appearance, growth, and virulence being explained by the adaptiveness of the 
bacilli to the conditions of life of the organisms they attack. The identity of 
the species is said to be proved by the fact that the specific poison produced 
by the tubercle bacillus is chemically and physiologically the same whether it 
be extracted from men or from oxen. Further, it is stated that, by treating 
oxen with tubercle bacilli of human origin, it is possible to produce complet® 
immunity from infection. It is asserted that the principle of this treatment 
is being applied with increasing success in various parts of Germany.—The 
British Food Journal. 
VALUE OF COTTON SEED TO THE FARMER. 
The results of two years’ feeding experiments with milch cows to deter- 
mine the value of cotton seed to the farmer are reported in a bulletin of the 
Mississippi Station, of which the following is a summary :— 
The facts as demonstrated are: (1) 1 lb. of cotton seed has a greater value 
for feeding cattle than 1 lb. of corn; (2) 1 lb. of cotton-seed meal has a feeding 
value about equal to 2 lb. of corn; (8) thatat least 85 percent. of the fertilis— 
ing ingredients in the feeds is excreted by the animals fed, and may be 
recovered in the manure; (4) that nearly half of the fertilising ingredients 
excreted is found in the urine; (5) that both cotton seed and cotton-seed meal 
may constitute a very important part of the grain feed of cattle without injury 
to their health ; (6) that cotton seed and cotton-seed meal, when fed to dairy 
cows in proper quantity and properly combined with other feeds, do not injure 
the quality of either milk or butter. 
With corn at 40 cents per bushel (about the average price in this State) 
a ton of cotton seed is worth 16°70 dollars as a feed for either beef cattle or 
dairy cattle. At present prices for commercial fertilisers, nitrogen costs about 
12 cents per lb. and phosphoric acid and potash each 5 cents per lb. Allowing 
these prices for the same ingredients in manure, we have 9°90 dollars as the 
fertilising value of the manure for each ton of seed fed, making for a farmer = 
total value per ton of 25:79 dollars. Farmers sell their seed for 4 dollars to G 
dollars per ton. Some of them sell for 2 dollars per ton. 
In a similar way we find the feeding value of 1 ton of cotton-seed meal to 
be 28°56 dollars, and the manure to be worth 19:13 dollars for every ton of 
meal consumed, making a total value of 47:69 dollars that a farmer might 
derive per ton by first feeding the meal to cattle and applying the manure to 
his ies eel et 
The cotton crop for the south (in 1897-98) was 11,200,000 bales and 
5,600,000 tons of seed, having a combined feeding and fertilising value of 
144,424,000 dollars. At 5 dollars per ton the seed would have brought 
28,000,000 dollars. * * * ‘The farmers of the cotton belt lost 116,424,000 
on this one crop. 
The present disposition of the cotton-seed crop secures to the farmer w 
very small part of its real value, and must of necessity give place to a practice 
that will secure to the farmer the maximum benefit which he may derive frons 
this product. i 
The time will come when the southern farmer will realise that the fertilis- 
ing value in cotton seed must stay on the farm to maintain its fertility and 
productiveness. : 
