SECRETARY'S REPORT 223 



On Cotton Seed Meal as Cattle Food. 



At a time like the present, following an unusually short crop of 

 the chief agricultural product of the State, and when pressing 

 need is felt of the utmost economy in the use of hay, and of the 

 substitution to an unusual extent of other foods in its place, any 

 contribution of knowledge regarding these, will be doubly wel- 

 come. In my report for 1858, mention was made of oil cake as a 

 cattle food, and an extract was given from a then recent report by 

 Prof. S. W. Johnson, of Yale College, regarding cotton seed oil 

 cake and meal, prepared by a process recently invented for hulling 

 the seeds of cotton preparatory to the extraction of oil, as prac- 

 ticed by the Union Oil Co., of Providence, K. I. After presure, 

 the cake is ground into meal and used as a cattle food. In another 

 paper on the same subject, by Prof. Johnson, he says : 



" Eespecting the sample of cotton seed cake received from you, 

 for chemical examination, I have the honor to report, that its com- 

 position is not inferior to that of the best linseed cake, and, in 

 some points, its agricultural value surpasses that of any other 

 kind of oil cake of which I have knowledge, as will appear from 

 the following statement of its composition, compared with that 

 of linseed cake : 



Nitrogen, . . . .1.05 4.4Y 



Phosphoric Acid in Ash, . . 2.36 



Sand, .... .94 



" On comparing the analysis with the linseed cake, it will be 

 seen that the cotton seed cake is much richer in oil and albuminous 

 matter than the linseed cake. A correspondingly less quantity 

 will, therefore, be required. Three pounds of this cotton seed 

 cake are equivalent to four of linseed cake, of average quality. 

 The dung of cattle, &c., fed upon this article, will be greatly 

 richer, both in nitrogen and phosphates than that of animals fed on 

 • hay alone. Where stock is kept, probably the best way of using 



