342 



evidence of some of them at pp. 160-161, and the 

 comment thereon by the committee (p. 167) in the 

 report of 1866, on the meat trade, will be slow to 

 credit them all with that character. The truth is, the 

 whole history of the cattle plague visitation, from the 

 first moment to this day, has been one long melan- 

 choly illustration of defects of the Anglo-Saxon 

 nature— arrogant incredulity, sudden panic, amazing 

 superstition and faith in quackery ; then a good 

 deal of jobbing, and a display of eveiy kind of ex- 

 tortion and over-reaching. The labours of the Cattle 

 Plague Commission were most successful ; there we 

 liad men eminent in science, of established character, 

 unlikely to be biassed either by butchers, jobbers, or 

 electors, and personally anxious to sustain their pro- 

 fessional reputations. They examined witnesses, 

 perused reports and documents furnished by the autho- 

 rities of almost all European countries ; their three re- 

 ports will be the text-book of future veterinary science, 

 and are exhaustive of the subject of the plague. When 

 we ask what is the practical result of this outlay and 

 trouble, we are forced to admit that it is temporary 



Ilc Country Gentleman s Magazine 



and inadequate. " We recommend," they say, " that 

 with regard to the future, foreign cattle should be slaugh- 

 tered at the port of disembarkation ; that good landing- 

 places, lairs, and sheds, in which the cattle may be 

 properly housed, tended, and inspected, should 

 at once be constracted at the ports where cattle 

 arrive. . . . It is now the time to carry out fully 

 and permanently the changes required in the mode in 

 which meat is supplied to our large towns." Yet the 

 first time that a measure is introduced in accordance 

 with these suggestions, and which woidd at any rate 

 have served as the commencement of progi-ess to a 

 better state of things, a small knot of noisy and un- 

 scrupulous persons has had power to defeat it ; and 

 the " marrow -bone and cleaver" party are, as well 

 they may be, jubilant and sanguine over their pro- 

 spective har\^est. 



Of the average Englishman it has well been said — 

 "To-day and to-morrow is all he looks to; yester- 

 day he cares not for, it is past and gone." He 

 despises science, and men of science, and now and 

 then gets punished accordingly. 



CATTLE FEEDING STUFFS. 



THE residuaiy matters of oil seeds which have 

 been exposed to heavy pressure for the purpose 

 of extracting the oil, are of considerable value to the 

 agriculturist. Various seeds are crushed for the oil 

 they contain. Amongst the most important are linseed, 

 rape seed, cotton seed, mustard seed, poppy seed, &c. 

 The oil is never effectually separated from these 

 residuary matters, hence this valuable component of a 

 feeding material is present in a much larger quantity 

 than in other cattle food. The feeding value of an 

 oil - cake, however, depends very much upon the 

 nature of the seed employed for crushing, some of these 

 seeds containing medicinal principles, which act in 

 an injurious manner upon the health of animals which 

 consume them, and are only fitted for use as manures. 

 Linseed cake is by far the most extensively used oil- 

 cake for feeding purposes. It is highly valuable for 

 all kinds of stock, but more particularly for animals 

 feeding for the butcher. The great increase in the de- 

 mand for this kind of cake has led to an enormous 

 amount of adulteration. Various materials have been 

 employed for this purpose, some of them harmless in 

 themselves, but of considerably less value than the 

 genuine material ; while others contain poisonous 

 principles highly injurious to animal life. Possibly, 

 one i-eason why this variety of oil-cake is noM' so in- 

 ferior, is the great difficulty the oil-crushers experi- 

 ence in obtaining pure samples of linseed. Few 

 samples of this seed can be obtained free from a large 

 admixture of other seed. Some Petersburcrh seed has 



been found to contain as much as 70 per cent, oi im- 

 purities ; Black Sea linseed, 20 per cent. ; and Riga 

 seed nearly 50 per cent. In many instances it is im- 

 possible to remo\'e all these foreign seeds from 

 a sainple of linseed ; still, samples could be vastly 

 improved if crushers were inclined ; but as long as 

 they can obtain as good a price for a cake made of 

 impure seed as for one made of genuine seed, no im- 

 provement will be attempted. Dr Voelcker, in a 

 lecture on oil-cakes, stated : — " From several samples 

 of linseed, I have separated the seeds and ascertained 

 their botanical characters. In one particular sample I 

 counted not less than twenty-nine different kinds of 

 weed-seeds, and among them the following, which 

 are more or less injurious : — The common darnel,, 

 which is frequently present in considerable quantities 

 in the inferior samples of Petersburgh seed ; corn 

 cockle, which often produces very serious effects 

 in the animal system ; wild raddish, which occurs in 

 some samples of Alexandrian seeds, and is veiy pun- 

 gent ; ^\'ild rape, which is not, properly speaking a 

 rape, but rather a mustard ; charlock, or the common 

 wild mustard. All these are seeds which it is posi- 

 tively known are injurious to the health of animals ; but 

 there are others which impart a disagreeable taste to the 

 meat of cattle fed on these inferior cakes. The Gold 

 of Pleasure, or Camelina sativa, is such a seed, giving a 

 disagi-eeable taste and also a deep yellow colour to the 

 fat of animals." A ton of linseed, or about 5^ qrs., 

 ^\•eighing about 52 lb. per bushel, -will yield 5S 



