Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1905-03-08
Prevents Adulteration.

time past been carrying on an import
ant line Of work in Investigating the
composition Of concentrated CONNER
cial feeding stuffs sold in the state, and
in enforcing the feeding stuff law of
1901, which provides that all concen-
trated feeds must be licensed and that
they must be free from adulteration.
In order to protect farmers and cattle
raisers against dangerous authorizations
in the mixed feeds which they buy for
their live stock, the professors at
the experiment station each year an
aIyze many hundreds OF samples OF
these concentrated feeds collected from
all parts of the state. As soon as any
authorizations are found. the station
issues warnings Ia order that all raisers
of live stock may guard against these
poor feeds. At the close of each year
the university station issues bulletin
containing the results Of these analy-
ses, explaining the adulterations that
have been found, and showing the
comparative value of the various feeds.
The work of the experiment station in
this field alone, it is estimated, has
saved farmers and stock ralsers many
hundreds of thousands of dollars
annually.
Through the work Of the expert
ment station the law affords protec-
tioD to the farmers and cattle raisers
Of the state against impure and defic-
lent feeds The law requires thai con-
centrated feeds before being placed on
the market must be licensed for sale
by the manufacturer or dealer; and
that a guarantee of the percentage of
protein, or fesn-forming substances,
and of fat or oil found therein, must
be plainly printed on the back of the
the manufacturer. Thus it makes it
possible for purchasers of feeds to
know the quality and exact compost
ton Of uenious kinds or brands of feed
ING it exposes frauds in the
feed h.siness, a-d keep ort of the
state material Of low grade and doubt
ful value as feed for live stock,
Although many of the most import
ant feeding stuffs, such as mill feed,
ground corn and oats and oil meal.
are generally Of excellent quality and
free from foreign admixtures, gross
adulterations are not infrequently
found through the analyses made by
the experiment station. Occasionally
ground and even whole wheat screen
ing5 consisting largely of noxious
weed seeds are mixed with wheat
bran. A single sample of wheat bran
which was forwarded to the university
experiment station for examination,
contained over $1,000 whole weed
seeds in one pound of bran When
the shipper was warned that the
transaction would come under the state
feeding stuff law. the carload was
taken out of the state again and was
sold in the state farther west from
whence it came, and where no feeditg
stuff laws as yet interfere with the sale
of such goods as pure wheat bran.
So-called ground feed. or corn and
oats, ground together, was often found
adulterated with oat hulls, ground
corn cobs and the like, during the first
two years Of feed inspection work, but
the quality Of the feeds of this class on
the feed market has Of late greatly
improved, aud it now no longer diff
cult to obtain pure feeds of this class.
Large quantities of mixed oat feeds or
corn and oat feeds, however, are still
sold in the state. Some of these are
good feeds; but none are Of equal
feeding value as the pure grains,
ground together, and the high price
which they all command is due large
" to the MISREPRESENTATION on the part
of the feed dealers who argue that they
are almost equal to ground corn and
oats in feeding value. This is not the
case with the best of them, and a num-
Der of these feeds sold in the state
are no more valuable for feeding pur-
poses than ground corn stalks or oat
hulls would be,
The way iu which the University
Experiment station protects the farm
ers and cattle raisers of the state by
warning them of possible adultera-
tions has been we'll illustrated during
the past month. Early in February