The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-03-04

| making inquiry in regard To the ,Nred
| icncy Of feeding cotton seed meal u
/ hogs. The scarcity AM li-h p-5cc or
! corn has set farmers 10 thinking arout
substitute, not only for frcediae swine.
! but also horSo and mules \ letter vas
/ published in this department Tor on this
! paSe) some weeks AGO from farm.r
1 Wno stated that he pad FED cottoa mca!
! to fatteaing hoes with safety ana sa,s-
faction. l remember tho letter. but ii
was not edited by this writer ana Tho
name and address is not known 10 hnl.
70 such inquiries | have replied that
but few eXperiments'in the use of cotlun
neal as food fer horses and mules had
been published but these few Were
Favorable At least no harm had result
ed to the animals 50 fed in reply ,o
an inquiry from " i. Rrohston / have
advised farmers to make experiments i'll.
feeding the meal TO one or two of their
mules or horses, and appended to the re-
ply several suggested rations.
Put in regard to feeding cotton seed
meal to hogs the reports from expert
men- station tests are almost uniformly
unfaVorable
| append short quotations from several
Of these reports, taken from Feeds and
| teedlng, by W. a. Henry:
AT the North Carolina station two
calves getting from enc to six ounces OF
cotton seed meal daily died after one
months feeding.
The use of cotton seed and cotton seed
meal for swine has been extensively in
vostigated al the Texas experiment sta
tion by Curtis tTexas bulletin No. 2D.
One lot Of pigs was fed corn in each trial.
mic 3l1 40 inc.
With 10 deaths. On the ether hand many
pigs fed cotton seed or cotton meal
sickened and died IN from six to eight
weeks after feeding began The NOR
tality Of the pigs receiving cotton meal
was 81 per cent when roasted seed WAS
fed it was = per cent. and for boiled
seed. p per cent. In these experiments
no trouble occurred until several weeks
after feeding commenced, and il Was ob-
served :haf pigs ESCAPING sickness and
death for thirty days beyond the time
when the trouble usually began We're
safe from tho attack though they were
permanently stunted in growth.
.As result Of his statistics Curtis
concludes:
"'There is 10 profit whatever in feed
ing cotton meal or cotton secd II any
for INTO hogs OF any age
.'AcccrdnG to Curtis. the first sign o,
sickness appears in six 10 eight weeks
after cotton seed meal is added TO the
ration shown by moping duliEoss. loss
cf appetite and tendency to lie apart
The fatal cases all show spas
modic breathing, and in many cases the
animal will t3Hn in one direction only
At death a Quantity OF bloods
foam eXudcs from mouth and noStrils.
rl,J f,plf I,G -s,II rti.,
4.3 ard G.6 pounds. respectively. o.
bronwish yellow Egyptian cotton seeC
meal with fatal effect. dog weighing
ffty-thrcc pounds was killed by su5cu-
taneous injections of a Watery cXtraci
from II pounds of cotton seed
'.AII efforts to determine the poisonou:
: principle in the cotton secd-if there
: really be one-havc thus far proved fu-
: tile and the matter IS still mystery
The oil pressed from the seed has N
: poisonous properties.
at the Virginia station h1l}ctin 10
pigs were fed all they would eat Of :
ration Of five parts cottonscc1 meal, two
parts bran and two parts beel scraps
giving q nutrityc ratio Of 1:2.33. Al
died.
The results of the foregoing tests ar'
of such decided character they shoul'
be enough to deter any farmer iron
feeding cotton seed or cotton seed mca
IN any form to togs unless for the pur
rose Of verifying or rcfutng the conclu
sions reached. Numerous cases may hay'
occurred where fattenins hogs have beer
fed partly on cotton soed. OF meal dur
ing the few last weeks Of the fattanini
process. ard were tutchercd before an.
ill-effects We're manifest but in tho ligh
= OF the results reported il is doubtful /
any benefit resulted from such feeding
), Some thirty years ago the writer va
10 short on corn and long on "fatten
If ing hogs. Equal weights Of cotton sce'
II and shellod corn were daily boiled unit
. both wers pretty thoroughly cooked. an
fec to q pen Of porEcrs for period 0
n three weeks. It was observed that tn
# animals aoscd out and consumed ever
+s grain of corn before they would purpcs
20 " eat the cotton seed. and these wer
cbewed and spat out. Although none yer
,e made sick 50 far as known the resul
,e was not satisfactory ana the experimeu
IS was not repeated
/ ISinee tae above was written hay
Z, received Bulletin No i from Oklahom
in experiment station saltwater Okla.J. il
= which are given the results OF some
10 what elaborate experiments IN feedin
lc a mixed grain ration Cf one-fiffh cottol
rs meal and four-ff ffths corn meal TO ''wean
ar fed on wheat rliddlings with other lot
IT fed Oh wealth middlngS ard corn mea
le The experiment was conducted for pc
Id riod Of several months. Three out Q
m eight pigs fed on the mixture Of fou
in parts corn meal and one part cotton mea
n died in less than six weeks. The gentle
men conducting the experiment. MGssr.
IS 2 c. Burtis ard J. S Malone were en-
m couragcd to believe that cotton meal ma
er BE fed under proper conditions and Wit
to certain precautions, with profit and wit
little danger. Their final conclusions a