COMPOSITION OF FEEDING STUFFS, 1887. 



209 



and the meal adds flavour and palatability to the cake. It 

 must not be forgotten, however, that the object in view in 

 using feeding cakes is to increase the proportion of albuminoids 

 and oil in the dietary of stock, and not to increase the carbo- 

 hydrates, which already form the predominant constituent of 

 the rough fodder, such as turnips and straw, which constitutes 

 the bulk of their food. 



As regards deficiency of oil, it would appear that it is not so 

 much in the so-called linseed cakes that it is felt now-a-days as 

 in some other cakes less commonly employed for feeding. The 

 following list shows the composition of some of those analysed 

 for members during the past year : — 



Poor as the last four cakes are in oil and in albuminoids, they 

 are not to be despised as bye-fodders. They are very well 

 adapted for yoimg stock and lean cattle, and are capable of being 

 fed to them with greater economy and safety than more concen- 

 trated feeding cakes, for the risk of waste, and even of injury, 

 increases with the concentration. The advantage or otherwise 

 of using compound cakes depends in the first place upon the com- 

 position of the cakes, and next upon the kind of stock that are 

 eating them, the stage of progress they are in, and the character 

 of the rough fodder that the cakes are intended to supplement. 

 It is not a subject on which one may dogmatise, but it is rather 

 one for experiment, and it would be of great advantage if careful 

 comparative experiments were made by feeders and the results 

 duly recorded. 



STACK SILAGE MADE FROM BRACKENS. 



During the past year several samples of silage made from 

 the common bracken have been analysed in the laboratory. 



A sample sent by Sir James Stewart Richardson of Pitfour, 

 Bart., had the following composition : — 



Moisture, 

 Solids, 



73-59 

 26-41 



100-00 



VOL. XX. 



O 



