NATURE AND VALUE OF FOOD. 49 



found, which is equally effective. We can well understand the 

 value of linseed cake for animals eating nothing but hard dry 

 straw ; thousands of beasts are so wintered, and thrive. Linseed 

 cake has special advantages for growing animals, owing to the 

 large proportion of ready-made flesh formers. We may supply 

 fattening food from other sources, at less cost, but we question 

 if any food save decorticated cotton cake can be found so 

 valuable for growing stock. With such qualities, it is not 

 surprising to find a lively demand, and consequently a price 

 which is excessive in comparison with other feeding materials. 

 The late Mr. Hope, of Fenton Barns, as illustrating the change 

 that had taken place in the comparative value of corn and horn, 

 mentioned, at a discussion before the Edinburgh (Chamber of 

 Agriculture, that forty-five years since, when a child, he remem- 

 bered one of his father's men, coming from Leith with two carts 

 of linseed cake, describe how the people of Preston Pans came 

 out of their houses wondering what he had in his carts, and 

 that he had told them it was a kind of " bannocks," but he did 

 not think it would suit those who drank tea. 



When linseed cake is from 91. to 10/. a ton, we question 

 whether it may not be replaced with advantage by cotton-seed 

 cake, green German rape, or palm-nut meal. The first of these 

 is now largely used, and, when free from coarse shell, is a safe 

 food with a considerable amount of feeding property, rich in 

 nitrogenous elements, it is best when mixed with such a material 

 as palm-nut meal, which contains a higher per-centage of fatty 

 matter : the prices of these articles are at least 50 per cent, 

 lower than linseed cake. We would especially caution our 

 readers against the use of any but the best samples of cotton- 

 seed cake, viz., those that are yellow in colour, and finely ground. 

 Several deaths have been clearly traceable to coarsely ground 

 cotton cake, the indigestible fibre of which has accumulated in 

 the intestines, and caused inflammation. Thirty years ago this 

 article had no existence ; then the cotton-seed was thrown on 

 one side as useless. At first the cake was made from the whole 

 seed, afterwards machinery was invented for removing the black 

 outer skin, and as this formed a considerable proportion of the 

 whole, and consisted entirely of indigestible fibre, the superior 

 value of the decorticated cake, as a feeding material, was soon 



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