112 FLAX. 



turnip-tops, have become partially cooked. The com- 

 pound is then usually given to the cattle, but sometimes 

 is allowed to remain till cold. The bullocks, however, 

 prefer it warm ; but whether hot or cold, they devour 

 it with avidity. 



The cost for linseed, according to the above rate of 

 feeding, was 2s. 3d. per week ; which seed, though grown 

 upon the farm, was placed to the account of artificial 

 food ; and it was calculated that in order to obtain the 

 same effect through foreign oil-cake, the expense per week 

 would be at least one moiety more. A bushel of good 

 linseed at 5s. 6d, weighing 48 Ibs., if properly formed 

 into compound with three or four times the weight of 

 bean, pea, or ordinary wheat meal, and a little more than 

 double the weight of the whole in water, will cost about 

 2. 15s. per ton. The superiority of this economical 

 food to foreign oil-cake is explained by reverting to the 

 fact, that one at the best is merely the refuse of linseed, 

 while the other is made of the seed itself. The reason 

 why bullocks will fatten upon cooked more than upon 

 raw food, must be left to the chemical farmer to explain ; 

 but it is certain that linseed meal, given in a crude state, 

 will scarcely produce half the effect ; nor yet if the in- 

 gredients were mixed up with cold water, or put into the 

 copper before the water boiled. 



It will be seen that the real fattening properties of 

 the above compound centre in the linseed ; and that in 

 order to produce a greater or less effect it is only neces- 

 sary to regulate the quantity of that important ingredient. 

 Also that wheat, oat, and barley straw, or bean-stalks, 

 may be used either with or without turnip-tops, according 

 to circumstances; nothing more being required than 

 fibrous matter to act as a vehicle for conveying linseed 

 to the stomach of the animal, and for reconveying it to 

 the mouth for rumination. Experience has long since 

 proved that linseed boiled without being crushed, or given 

 in any way except by intimate incorporation with other 

 ingredients, loses so much of its efficacy as to become an 

 expensive rather than an economical method of feeding 



