200 SCIENTIFIC FEEDING OF ANIMALS 



are used in the first place for feeding dairy cattle, 

 and, like the cocoa-nut cake, they are said to im- 

 prove the fat contents of the milk, but to cause the 

 butter to be hard. The corresponding effect is seen 

 in the bacon of pigs fed on this material. 



Cows are given up to 5 Ibs. palm-nut cake per 

 head per day, but other animals only get it when 

 the price is low. Both the cake and the meal easily 

 become rancid on keeping. 



Linseed cake. The residues from linseed, in the 

 form of cake or meal, have a favourable action on 

 the digestive organs. When treated with hot 

 water they ought to form a mildly acting mucila- 

 ginous food. Before the oil is extracted, the 

 crushed seeds are sometimes heated with steam, 

 which causes the mucilaginous part of the seeds to 

 swell, and then dried again. This gives a material 

 that does not swell up again when heated with 

 warm water. The linseed by-products are used in 

 the same way as linseed itself, particularly as 

 dietetic substances for animals reduced in flesh, and 

 for young stock at the time of weaning. They are 

 further used to counteract the irritating properties 

 which some foods have upon the alimentary canal, 

 and for this purpose they are often given in the 

 form of warm gruel. Pigs fattened largely upon 

 linseed preparations yield an oily bacon and soft, 

 tasteless flesh ; linseed cakes cause this more than 

 do the extracted meals. 



