Composition and Nutritive Value of Cotton-cahe. 429 



supplying animals with bone-materials, it is a very valuable kind 

 of food. 



Conclusion. 



The principal points of interest, in reference to cotton-cake, 

 are collected together in the following short summary : — 



1. The best cotton-cake is richer in oil and albuminous (flesh- 

 forming) compounds than linseed-cake, but contains less mucilage 

 and other respiratory constituents. 



2. The mineral portion of cotton-cake resembles closely in 

 composition that of linseed and other oil-cakes. Like the as!i 

 of all cakes, it is rich in earthy and alkaline phosphates, and well 

 adapted to supply animals with bone-materials. 



3. As far as the indications of chemical analysis can be 

 depended on, the best decorticated cotton-cake possesses about the 

 same nutritive value as linseed-cake, 



4. At the present time four distinct kinds of cotton-cake are 

 offered for sale in the market, namely ; — ■ 



1. Thin decorticated cotton-cake. 



2. Thick decorticated cake. 



3. Common cake made of the whole seed. 



4. Oil-meal (No. 2 reduced to coarse powder). 



5. The thin decorticated cake is a far better and more economic 

 food than the ordinary cake, which is often quite unfit for feeding 

 purposes. 



6. Thick cake scarcely differs in composition from thin cake, 

 but being hard, and 2^ to 3 inches thick, it cannot be crushed 

 by an ordinary oil-cake crusher, and therefore presents incon- 

 venience to the consumer. 



7. Genuine oil-meal is simply thick decorticated cake reduced 

 to a coarse powder, and of course has the same composition as the 

 cake from which it is made. 



8. The composition, and with it the nutritive value, of different 

 samples of cotton-cake is subject to considerable variation. 



9. Decorticated cotton-cake and oil-meal, in comparison with 

 other kinds of artificial food, are decidedly cheap feeding ma- 

 terials, and both, no doubt, ere long, will find that favour with 

 the British farmer which a really valuable and cheap article of 

 consumption is certain to command. 



After the foregoing pages were in type, I received a note from 

 Mr. John Fryer, Manor House, Chatteris, enclosing a sample of 

 cotton-cake, and giving a short account of the death of a bullock 

 that had been fed upon the cake and upon mangolds, barley- 



