422 Composition and Nutritive 'Value of Cotton-cake. 



animals. But there is another reason for the unfavourable opinion 

 entertained by those who tried the practical feeding value of this 

 cake when first imported into England. Tlie albuminous soft 

 kernel of cotton-seed is encased in a hard, dark-coloured shell, 

 composed chiefly of woody fibre, and as the hard shell consti- 

 tutes a large proportion of the whole seed, and woody fibre 

 possesses little or no feeding value, all the cake that reached this 

 country some years ago being made of the whole seed, was of 

 inferior quality, in comparison with linseed or even rape-cake. 



I remember having analysed a sample of cotton-cake of this 

 description four years ago. It contained only 5^ per cent, of 

 oil and more than 30 per cent, of woody fibre. 



Such inferior cake is still prepared in the United States as 

 well as in England. The cake, however, made in this country 

 from the whole cotton-seed is, I find, superior to the similarly 

 prepared cake of foreign make. 



For the last year or two a very much better article has been sent 

 over from the southern parts of the United States. It is prepared 

 from the shelled or decorticated seed, and is sold at present 

 as decorticated cotton-cake at 11. to 8/. per ton, or at about 

 1/. to 30^. more than the ordinary cake made of the whole seed. 

 It occurs in commerce in two forms, namely, as thin and as thick 

 cake. The latter, on account of the inconvenience which it pre- 

 sents to the consumer (as it is not readily crushed by ordinary 

 oil-cake crushers), is reduced to a coarse powder by an American 

 firm, who are large importers of both thin and thick decorticated 

 cake. The coarse powder is sent to England in original bags, 

 which are marked " Patent Kiln-dried Oil-meal," and also bear 

 the name and address of the exporter. 



We have thus, as far as I know, the following four varieties 

 of cotton-cake offered for sale in the English market : — 



1 . Thin decorticated cotton-cake. 



2. Thick decorticated cake. 



3. Ordinary cake made of whole seed. 



4. Oil-meal. 



Having analysed recently samples of each kind, I now beg to 

 lav before the readers of the Journal the results of my examina- 

 tions, and to accompany the analytical data by a few observations 

 that may assist intending purchasers in selecting for themselves 

 the best description of cotton-cake. No other description of 

 cake is subject to so great variations in composition as cotton- 

 cake. In practical feeding experiments it is therefore most 

 desirable that the composition of the cake should be stated, or at 

 any rate the kind of cake be accurately described. 



The following results plainly show that cotton-cake has been 

 sold this year in England which is more than twice as nutritious 



