Seo. c; 



FEEDING CATTLE AND CARE OF FARM-STOCK. 



67 



of oil-cake in a very great measure depends upon the amount of oil which is 

 left in the cake. And I may further say, that the tendency of the manufac- 

 turer at the present day is to produce an inferior description of cake, inas 

 much as improved machinery enables him to squeeze out more oil than 

 formerlj', and thus to render the refuse less fattening, less'valuable to the 

 feeder of stock. I am very much inclined to believe that the oil is by far 

 the most valuable constituent of all oil-cakes. 1 am aware that it was the 

 foshion, not many years ago, to measure the feeding properties and even the 

 fattening qualities of articles of food by the amount of nitrogenous or flesh- 

 forming matters ; but these views are not supported by any practical 

 experiments, nor, indeed, by the every-day experience that we have respect- 

 ing not only human, but cattle food. We pay more for food rich in starch, 

 mucilage, and matters capable of prodncing fat, than we pay for food which, 

 like bean-meal, is extremely rich in nitrogenous matter, but which docs not 

 ])roduce so much butchers' meat. It is a matter of much importance to the 

 fiirmcr to know how much he gets back for the money he expends in the 

 purchase of food. I have no hesitation in saying that more money is made 

 b}' the purchase of food rich in oil, starch, or sugar, than in the purchase 

 of food which contains an excess of nitrogenous matters. 



91. Flesh in Foodt — " Still, we ought not to leave unnoticed that the 

 flesh-lorm^g matters are very important indeed, and that oil-cakes are 

 peculiarly rich in them. In one sense they are perhaps most essential — per- 

 haps even more essentially necessary than the other constituents of food 

 which produce fat, or are employed in the animal economy to keep up the 

 animal heat. They are more important in this sense ; whereas the animal or- 

 ganization has the power to make fat from gum, sugar, mucilage, and even 

 from young cellulose or young vegetable fiber, it has not the power of making 

 a particle of flesh. Unless, therefore, food is given to animals wiiich contains 

 ready-made flesh, an animal can not grow, and the other constituents of food 

 remain unavailable. It is in this sense that the nitrogenous matters of food 

 are extremely valuable ; but in a ]uircly practical sense they are not so val- 

 uable as the oil, starch, or sugar of food, because by spending a certain amount 

 of money in food, we do not get so great a return in the shape of butchers' 

 meat by purchasing these flesh-forming matters as by purchasing feeding 

 substances rich in oil or starch. However, in speaking of the relative value 

 of the various constituents, especially the oily and the flesh-forming constit- 

 uents, we are not to overlook that the quantity of nitrogenous matter which 

 is not apjilied for the formation of flesh, passes through tlie animal, ami is 

 obtained again in the dung, with the exception of a small quantity that 

 escapes by evaporation through the skin or through the lungs. A certain 

 (juantity of nitrogenous food evaporates through the skin, or with the ]>rr- 

 spiration ; but by far the largest proportion, according to some experiments, 

 nineteen twentieths, of the flesh-forming or nitrogenous matters of food are 

 found again in the dung; according to others the amount is seven eighths. 

 But, speaking in round numbers, I think wo arc not far wrong in saying that 



