THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 



shop ? and may not also his cold food assist, perhaps, in 

 stimulating his fondness for drink ? Depend on itj 

 the first move in endeavouring to make the farm- 

 labourer sober and domestic is to give him warmth : 'tis 

 next in importance to food. 



Another simple thing is a goat. They are always 

 tethered or in a pig-sty — out of harm's way ; will ent 

 almost any green or vegetable food, including the apples 

 of potatoes, and give an astonishing lot of milk. I'm 

 told — but it seems incredible — as much as six quarts 

 per day of more nutritious milk than a cow's. 



The third matter is more easily obtained still, and of 

 all parts of clothing 'tis the most important to the man. 

 His shoes — so dear — and here the sabots, wooden shoes 

 80 cheap, from 4J d. to 9d. a pair ! I thought I must 

 have made a mistake, and have just been to a shop to 

 inquire again ; and I weighed a pair of large ones : 

 they were only 1 lb. each shoe. If not broken they last 



a long time ; in winter are warm, and always dry, and 

 in summer cool ; and, as to lightness, they are like a 

 cork. Many gentlemen even have I seen with a pair of 

 out-of-door slippers, just to pop on to look in the nag's 

 stable, see what the gardener is doing, &c. ; and little 

 children of seven years of age I've seen running at their 

 utmost speed over bad pavements in them. Are not 

 these better than the holes at the toes, too often seen at 

 home ? Why on earth they have never been used in 

 England as commonly as here I cannot see. Well, for 

 a few pence any philanthropic man may shoe his poor 

 neighbour ; for a few shillings enable him to have all his 

 meals hot instead of cold ; and for another few set 

 him up with a cow, which will supply all his family 

 with milk, and yet requires not a yard of ground— as 

 all the food may be found in the ditches and the offal of 

 his garden. 



Poste Rest ante, Brussels. 



DEATHS OF CATTLE FROM FEEDING ON IMPURE COTTON AND LINSEED-CAKE. 



Sir, — In this neighbourhood, during the last three months, 

 there has been a great mortality amongst calves and sheep 

 from feeding them on impure cotton and linseed-cake. One 

 gentleman lost six out of forty fatting shearlings, and the 

 rest of the flock became so much affected, that he deemed 

 it prudent to dispose of them at a price much below their 

 value, rather than run the risk of further mortality. When 

 inspectinir this flock in November last, I found the sheep, 

 generally, looking very unhealthy. Those in which the 

 disorder was most manifest congregated at the corners of 

 the fold with their heads down and backs arched, frequently 

 changing the position of their hind legs, and which in some 

 instances were drawn up towards the body — thus plainly 

 indicating abdominal pain ; their breathing was much 

 hurried ; any movement appeared to increase their 

 suiferings; they staggered in walking, and after going a 

 few j-ards fell down apparently exhausted ; the urine was 

 of a dark colour, approaching to black, and the fajces 

 covered with blood and mucous. 



I examined the bodies of several of the dead sheep. The 

 stomach and intestines were intensely inflamed, and pre- 

 sented appearances which could only have been produced by 

 some highly-irritating agent. The same gentleman shortly 

 afterwards lost three calves which exhibited similar symp- 

 toms, and presented the like appearances after death. These 

 animals had been fed on cotton-cake. 



Twenty-two calves belonging to other parties have died 

 apparently from similar causes, liut these had been fed on 

 linseed-cake. I procured portions of each description of 

 cake, and on examining them under a powerful microscope, 

 I found the cotton-cake contained a large per-centage of 

 fragments of cotton-husk and cotton wool, quite sufti- 

 cient to account for the deaths of the animals fed upon ! 

 it ; the linseed-cake also contained a quantity of impure I 

 material, consisting partly of seeds, which I was unable to 

 identify, but not sufficient in quantity to account for the 

 effects following the use of it, unless the impure matter was 

 of a poisonous character. 



The very extensive use to which cotton and linseed-cakes 

 are applied as articles of food for cattle, scorned to me to 



call for a more complete and scientific investigation than I 

 was myself able to make I therefore forwarded samples ot 

 all the cakes to Dr. Viielcker, the chemist of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society, who has, with his usual kindness, for- 

 warded me a very complete and able report of the result of 

 his investigitions, which fully confirms my opinion that the 

 deaths of the cattle resulted from the use of them. 



I subjoin a copy of the report and of the Professor's 

 analysis of the cotton-cake, and I trust you will consider 

 the matter of sufticient importance to insert this letter with 

 the report and analysis in your next publication. 

 1 am, Sir, yours very faithfully, 



Isaac Seaman. 



North Essex Veterinary Infirmary, 

 Priory House, Saffron Walden, Sussex. 



(COPY OF DR. VOELCKER'S REPORT.) 

 " Sir, — I have the pleasure of enclosing a copy of a care- 

 ful and full analysis of cake No. 1 (cotton-cake), and beg to 

 inform you that 1 have also examined the two other cakes 

 which you sent me. As the quantitative determination of 

 the amount of oil and other constituents do not appear to 

 me likely to throw much light on the subject, I have con- 

 fined my attention to the detection of deleterious ingredients 

 in those two cakes, and maj' observe at once, that I have 

 not been able to detect in either of them any organic or 

 mineral poison, although I have carefully searched for most 

 irritating poisonous substances. 



" However, both cakes nevertheless may be prejudicial 

 when eaten in quantity by young stock, for the examination 

 to which I submitted them leads me to the opinion that 

 both are very inferior, old, badly-kept oil-cakes. Both are 

 very hard-pressed, and appear to contain more husk than 

 good cakes ought to contain ; moreover, the seed from which 

 the cakes are made was evidently impure, for, notwith- 

 standing the powdery state of both cakes, especially No. 3, 

 I can find in them a good many foreign seeds. The botanical 

 character of these weed-seeds I could not make out ; all I 

 can say is, there is no mustard in appreciable quantity in 



