70 



DOMESTIC AXIMALS. 



[CnAP. I. 



cessful. People did not like it at all, and I believe the cotton-cake would 

 never have been extensively used if it had not been for the invention of a 

 very useful machine, ))atented in America, by nieans of which the hard 

 husks can be removed from the kernel. The use of this machine gives us a 

 superior oil and a sujjcrior cake. The cotton-seed oil made from the kernel 

 alone is a very useful article, and so is the cake, whereas the oil expressed 

 from the whole seed is dark-brown in color, and can not be used except for 

 the commonest purposes for which oil is enijiloyed. The difference in the 

 value of the two descriptions of cake is so great, that I almost think two 

 tuns of the oil-cake, made of the whole seed, do not go further than one tun 

 of the best decorticated cotton-seed cake. Moreover, there is a certain 

 danger in using the whole-seed cake. Several cases of so-called poisoning 

 have been brought under my notice within the last year or two. Animals 

 that have freely partaken of tiie whole-seed cake have died suddenly, and 

 people have imagined that there was something injurious in the husk; but 

 examination has shown that the effect produced is very much like that which 

 is occasionally produced in the case of boys who die from inflammation of 

 the bowels in countries where cherries are very abundant. Being very 

 greedy, and eating the cherries with the stones, they get a stoppage of the 

 bowels, and so die from inflammation. There is nothing poisonous in the 

 husk of the cotton-seed, and when given judiciously, no injury will result; 

 but if animals are supplied with an imlimited quantity of dry food with the 

 whole seed, there is indeed a danger. The hard husk is indigestible, and 

 may roll together in such large masses that inflammation of the bowels will 

 ensue. There is no such danger, however, in the use of decorticated cotton- 

 cake. The decorticated cake occurs of various degrees of quality. And 

 allow me to observe, with respect to all kinds of cake, that not only Uie 

 composition, but, even in a higher degree, the condition of the cake, deter- 

 mines in a great measure its value. I have here a specimen which you 

 would hardly recognize as of the same description as another specimen also 

 on the table, of a very beautiful character ; it is the same kind of cake, only 

 it is in a bad condition. I say, then, the condition of a cake determines 

 everything. 



95. Condition of Cake. — " Some time ago I was very much gratified in 

 finding what great care Mr. Stratton, of Broad Hinton, a celebrated short- 

 horn breeder, takes in selecting the very best of American barrel cake for 

 his stock. We often forget that animals have appetites as we have, and that 

 they like food in a good condition better than food in a bad one. Tlie com- 

 position of two samples of the same food may not vary much, yet the prac- 

 tical effect produced by them may vary exceedingly. Tliere is nothing 

 remarkable in this, for we know that if we get good, wholesome bread, which 

 is one or two days old, we do well upon it ; but if it remains in a damp 

 cellar and gets moldy, stale, and moist, it loses its fine flavor, and in this 

 condition may do us harm. So it is with stale, moldy cakes. Animals 

 never do well on very old cakes. In examining, therefore, the different 



