To the Manufacturers and Users of Commercial Feed Stuffs:

The Seventy-sixth General Assembly of Ohio, at its regular session in 1904, enacted a law to regulate the sale of Commercial Feed Stuffs, and charged the Secretary of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture with its administration. Since the enactment of the law the Secretary has had the state thoroughly canvassed by Deputy Inspectors for the purpose of securing samples of commercial feed stuffs to be analyzed, and acquainting manufacturers and dealers with the provisions of the law. Many commercial feed stuffs have been found on sale in the state; a large percentage, however, were purchased before the law went into effect. Of the sixty-four brands licensed according to law, samples of sixty were found, and analyzed by the Official Chemist. The claims of feeding ingredients of these sixty brands, together with chemical findings, are here published, as provided by law.

All licenses to sell commercial feed stuffs in Ohio expire this day; therefore the necessity of securing licenses for the year 1905 before feed stuffs are sold or offered for sale by manufacturers, importers or dealers. Dealers should be very careful not to purchase or accept goods on commission not properly licensed by the undersigned for the year 1905.

All manufacturers of, dealers in and users should co-operate with the undersigned in enforcing the law to regulate the sale of commercial feed stuffs, and I sincerely hope they will do so.

Manufacturers and importers, when applying for licenses, will greatly aid the Secretary in sampling their goods, by stating where goods may be found.

SAMPLES SENT BY MANUFACTURERS.

To comply with the law, manufacturers should always send samples of commercial feed stuffs, when making application for licenses, that they may be used in comparison with those drawn on the markets of the

state.

ADVANCE REPORTS.

It is my custom to send advance reports of analyses to manufacturers, to give them an opportunity to check the Chemist's work, before the results are published in the annual report, in order to insure accuracy. The analyses reported will be published unless some errors are shown. It is not sufficient to claim the analyses are wrong because they show lower percentages than the manufacturers claim; this is not proof or evidence of error. The object of sending these advance reports is to enable me to eliminate errors, should they exist. When manufacturers are dissatisfied with findings I will have samples re-tested, and will, if requested, cause parts of the samples in question to be sent to any member of the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists, of which Prof. Harvey W. Wiley, of Washington, D. C., is Secretary; but the manufacturers making such requests must pay the chemists they select for making analyses.

REGULAR ANALYSES.

The work of sampling and analyzing feed stuffs is done in accordance with the law of the state, and under this law the Official Chemist analyzes such samples as are furnished him by the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture.

Samples are drawn from the open markets of the state, and from stocks purchased by consumers, by my duly authorized Deputy Inspectors, F. A. Derthick, Ed. Loewer, R. H. Ramsdell, B. M. Derthick and M. R. Merritt. Great care is taken in this work, and samples are drawn from every brand that can be found in the state by diligent search and inquiry. It is regretted that samples of all licensed goods could not be found.

SPECIAL ANALYSES.

I sometimes have requests from manufacturers, dealers and consumers to make special analyses of samples of commmercial feed stuffs. I am obliged to say that the law does not provide for these, and I have no fund for paying for the work involved. If it will be an accommodation, I will have special analyses made by the Official Chemist of such samples as may be sent me, with the proper fees of ten dollars ($10) each. In selecting samples for analyses great care should be taken to secure fair average of the goods.

FEEDING STUFFS.

The materials employed in the feeding of farm animals are varied in character and money value. Few of them can be successfully fed alone, because of the unfavorable relation of the nutrients for the production of the best results desired by the feeder. For this reason empirical observations long ago led to a limited combination of feeding materials, without any special regard to their chemical composition. Thus the general practice of feeding grain, bran, legumes, etc., with hay, straw and tubers or roots, for the evident improvement in the production of work, flesh, milk, wool, etc., had its origin. Valuable as these observations were in the treatment of farm animals, there was still the same groping in the darkness which existed in the production of plants before scientific investigations developed a rational system of vegetable nutrition. What science accomplished in the intelligent use of plant food for the production of crops it was destined later to accomplish for the other important agricultural industry, in establishing a rational system of animal nutrition. This is not the place to even refer to the intricate metabolic changes which nutrients undergo in the animal economy in building up the various constituents and products of the animal body. For the present purpose it will suffice to say that the system recognizes a knowledge of the chemical composition of feeding stuffs employed. The proximate principles of a feeding stuff are as follows:

I.

2.

Protein (albumin, casein, fibrin, gluten, amides, etc.)'
Fat (ether extract).

3. Nitrogen-free extract (sugar, starch, gum, pectin, etc.)
4. Fiber (cellulose).

5. Ash (mineral matter).

In addition to the chemical composition, the digestibility of the various nutrients must be known before a proper ration can be made from a given number of feeding stuffs. Generally the digestibility of a nutrient in a given feeding stuff is expressed by the percentage of the same digested, as determined by actual digestion experiments. This percentage is called the digestion coefficient, and holds good in calculating the digestibility of the nutrient in all other samples of the same feeding stuff. For instance, if a sample of wheat bran shows upon analysis to contain 15 per cent. of protein, and if the digestion coefficient of protein in bran had been found by direct experiment to be 80, in order to calculate the amount of digestible protein in 100 pounds of the bran, the percentage, 15, is multiplied by 80 and divided by 100, which gives 12 pounds of digestible protein in 100 pounds of the bran.

The digestion coefficient of the same nutrient varies greatly in different feeding stuffs; thus, while it is 80 in wheat bran, it is 39 in oat hulls, and only 17 in corn cobs. From this it will be seen that arbitrary

21-O. S. B. of A.

mixtures of commercial feeding stuffs operate to the disadvantage of the feeder, because the digestion coefficients of such unknown mixtures have never been determined. The consumer is, therefore, at a loss to calculate the amount of digestible protein, fat and carbohydrates in such mixtures, with any degree of accuracy. A guaranty of the amount of protein, fat, etc. in feeding stuffs of this kind does not solve the whole problem, although it gives the purchaser some protection against wholesale frauds.

It is evident from the above considerations that concentrated or commercial feeding stuffs, which alone have come under state control, should be sold under their proper names, without any unnecessary admixture with other materials. The state could do no greater service to the purchaser of commercial feeding stuffs than to correct, as far as possible, the growing evil of throwing upon the market mixtures of all kinds. This is especially true when the practice allows a high-grade feeding stuff to be mixed with inferior and indigestible by-products, as oat hulls and corn cobs.

DISCUSSION OF ANALYSES.

Among the limited number of analyses of commercial feeding stuffs thus far made, there will be found eight analyses of oil meal, to which special attention should be called. Oil meal is the by-product resulting from the manufacture of linseed oil, and comes into the market in two forms. Old process oil meal is obtained by expressing the oil from the crushed seed by hydraulic pressure, and grinding the resulting cake to a meal. New process oil meal is produced by extracting the oil from the ground seed by means of a solvent, like naptha. The only difference between the two kinds of oil meal is that the latter has a lower content of fat than the former. Oil meal is one of the oldest and most important of the concentrated feeding stuffs. The analyses show not only that the commercial articles are equal to the guaranty, but also that they are free from adulterations of any kind.

The analyses of malt sprouts and brewers' grains show that these feeding stuffs are equal to the guaranty and pure. They are both rich in protein, and can be well employed to raise the protein content of a ration.

Germ Meal is the ground germ of corn grain after the oil has been ́expressed, and is a by-product obtained in the manufacture of glucose and starch. The analysis shows that it is fully equal to the claims, that it has a high content of both protein and fat, and would, therefore, be useful in feeding, in connection with roughage poor in these nutrients.

Gluten feed and gluten meal are also by-products obtained in the manufacture of starch and glucose from corn. They are concentrated feeding stuffs, rich in protein, and comparatively low in fiber. They are useful in supplying protein for making a proper ration. The analyses show that they are equal to the guaranty and pure.

The oat feeds, oat and corn feeds, etc., are equal to the guaranty, it is true, but the uniformly high content of fiber with a low content of protein and fat, shows that in their preparation oats have been replaced by oat hulls or corn cob meal. This is especially true of those samples. where the content of fiber exceeds 20 per cent. of the feeding stuff. In food value these feeding stuffs are about equal to poor timothy hay, and fall below good hay.

The law to regulate the sale of commercial feed stuffs in Ohio will be found on last pages of this report. W. W. MILLER,

Secretary.