206 



CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT. 



COMPOSITION OF FEEDING STUFFS ANALYSED IN 1887. 



Linseed Cakes. — The great majority of oil cakes analysed for 

 members of the Society were called linseed cakes, and the follow- 

 ing was their composition : — 



It has been noticed that during the last three years there 

 was a great falling off in the amount of oil contained in 

 linseed cakes. The improved crushing machinery recently 

 introduced enabled the oil-crusher to extract the oil more 

 thoroughly than he had previously been able to do. The 

 result was the production of a very hard cake, poor in oil but 

 rich in albuminoids. Feeders complained that the linseed cake 

 so made was not so good feeding material as the old-fashioned 

 kind, and the deterioration was attributed to the want of oil. 

 That the want of oil had much to do with it there need be no 

 doubt, but the hardness of the cake was sufficient to account 

 for much of its inferiority as a feeding stuff. It has been 

 noticed that, even when such cakes are crushed before being 

 presented to cattle, they are only imperfectly masticated ; so 

 that there are many little lumps of cake that pass through the 

 alimentary tract protected by their mucilaginous coat, and 

 escape digestion altogether. Some specimens of hard-pressed 

 cake which came under my observation were of such stony 

 hardness that it seemed inevitable that they must either be 

 refused by cattle, or, if eaten, remain in great measure undi- 

 gested by them. Such cakes are not given to cattle without 

 considerable risk of injury to their health, and farmers should 

 be cautioned against their use. They cannot be economically 

 consumed by cattle until they are ground to meal. These cakes 

 are rich in albuminoid matter, though they are poor in oil ; and 

 it has been the practice of some crushers for some years back to 



