§ Mr. CHARLES BATHURSTasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture, whether, in the opinion of the scientific advisers of the Board, the statement on an invoice, as required by Section 1 (2) of the Fertilisers and Feeding Stuffs Act, 1906, that a particular cattle or poultry food contains certain percentages of oil and albuminoids without any reference to the description of such oil or to any of the other constituents, however non-nutritious, indigestible, or deleterious, is any real guide to the feeding value or to the commercial value of such food; and, if not, whether the Board will take steps to procure an amendment of the Act and so protect the agricultural classes against easily practised fraud?
§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the BOARD OF AGRICULTURE (Sir Edward Strachey)A guarantee of the percentages of the oil and albuminoids contained in a manufactured feeding-stuff is of considerable value to the purchaser, although it does not, of course, afford complete evidence of its feeding or commercial value. The hon. Member will remember that the question of the information required to be given by vendors of feeding-stuffs was carefully considered by Lord Burghclere's Committee of 1903, and that the Committee came to the conclusion, for the reasons given in their Report, that, although the percentages of oil and albuminoids should be guaranteed, a statement as to other constituents should be left to the seller's option. The Act of 1906 was based on this recommendation. I am not in a position to promise further legislation on the subject, but the suggestion of the hon. Member will be kept in view.
§ Mr. C. BATHURSTasked whether, in the case in which the Board recently refused its consent to the prosecution by the Devon County Council under The Fertilisers and Feeding Stuffs Act, 1906, of the vendor of a feeding-stuff found by the county analyst to contain 40.4 per cent, of sawdust, the samples submitted by the county council for analysis by the chief Government analyst did, in fact, contain such percentage of cellulose; and whether 1103 such cellulose consisted of woody fibre incapable of digestion or assimilation by farm animals; whether such cellulose was sawdust in a highly triturated or pulverised form or derived from sawdust; whether the invoice contained any information indicating the true feeding value of the article sold; and what relation the price of the article as stated in the invoice bore to its true commercial value as disclosed by the analysis of the Government analyst?
§ Sir E. STRACHEYThe, feeding-stuff to which the hon. Member refers was found by the Chief Agricultural Analyst to contain 27.42 per cent, of crude fibre. The percentage of cellulose is not separately stated in analyses of feeding-stuffs. In this case it was derived from wood, but the exact source could not be ascertained. There is no reason to suppose that the crude fibre was incapable of digestion or assimilation by farm animals. The invoice contained no information from which the true feeding value of the feeding-stuff could be ascertained, and in the absence of a digestion co-efficient for the crude fibre, it was not possible to estimate its commercial value.
§ Mr. C. BATHURSTI should like to ask whether, if it were proved to the satisfaction of the Board that this so-called feeding-stuff was made out of the legs of a kitchen table, they would still decline to give their consent to a prosecution?
§ Sir E. STRACHEYThe answer I have given to the hon. Gentleman is based on the legal and scientific advice of the Board's advisers.