TJSE OP LIKSEED. 99 



siderable time in cool cellars, and so allowing the foreign 

 matter, in suspension, to be precipitated. But this 

 period of mere repose is often insufficient to complete 

 the object in view ; the oil is still charged with a variety 

 of ingredients which render it unfit for many purposes. 

 The subsequent treatment it is made to experience de- 

 pends upon the object to which it is devoted. 



To obviate the objection which many land-owners 

 have made to the flax-crop, on account of its returning 

 nothing to the land, and also to increase the quantity of 

 fat cattle sent to market, Mr. Warnes conceived the 

 happy idea of applying linseed to the maintenance and 

 finishing-off of the live stock usually kept on a farm. 

 His object had reference more to the fattening than to 

 the rearing of cattle, and to proving that double, or even 

 triple, the usual number may be profitably returned, 

 through the medium of linseed compound, box-feeding, 

 and summer-grazing. The system of feeding cattle in 

 boxes had been long partially practised in various parts 

 of the kingdom ; and the growth of flax from time im- 

 memorial. The fattening of cattle with linseed was in 

 full operation by the Hindoos, 1500 years ago ; and in 

 modern times in England, particularly in Norfolk, 

 repeated attempts were made by the most expert graziers 

 to establish the use of linseed, without success. Sum- 

 mer feeding also, in stalls or houses, has been long 

 much practised on the Continent and in Ireland. To Sir 

 Edward Stracey's experiments in boiling grain, Mr. 

 "Warnes added the linseed infusion, and thus produced 

 his " incomparable cattle compound.' 1 He therefore 

 merely claims for himself the merit of embodying the 

 useful ideas and plans of others. He urges that, by 

 adopting them, instead of being importers of barley and 

 meat in the shape of oil-cake, we might annually export 

 largely of barley in the shape of flax, and obtain, from 

 the cultivation of this prolific plant, infinitely more tons 

 of linseed to fatten our cattle, than were ever received of 

 cake from foreign countries. 



His first step is to prove that linseed is capable of 



H2 



