Seo. 6.] FEEDING CATTLE AND CARE OF FARM-STOCK. 71 



cakes, we ought to examine particularly their condition. I allude especially 

 to the examination of cotton-cake, because every person has the means of 

 examining its condition with very little trouble. It is not so easy to examine 

 the condition of linseed ; it presupposes an extensive acquaintance with 

 various descriptions of linseed-cake. Yuu must have seen a great many 

 samples of cake before you can give a trustworthy opinion. Not so with 

 decorticated cotton-cake. In this the color affords an excellent criterion as 

 to its freshness. Tiie freshest cotton-cake is as yellow as mustard. I hold a 

 piece of cake in my hand, the exterior of which is bro,wn ; but if I cut away 

 a portion, you will observe that the interior is bright yellow — very different 

 from the part that has been exposed to the air. This was an excellent cake 

 when we first got it for feeding purposes, and we are feeding it extensively 

 on our farm at Cirencester. "When we first had it, it was of a bright yellow 

 color; but you observe how it has since changed. From this we may learn 

 a very useful lesson, that we may take the color as a guide to the condition 

 and age of the cakes. If we are presented with a cake which is as brown 

 as the specimen before me, and if yon find on cutting it that the brown color 

 has penetrated deep into the interior, we may at once conclude that it is a 

 stale old cake. The deeper it has penetrated, the older the cake, and the 

 more it has sufiered by bad keeping. If it is kept in a damp j^lace, its color 

 and condition arc rapidly deteriorated. 



COMPOSITION OF LINSEED AND OF OIL CAKES. 



T J „j \r....t.,^ Cotron-8oed cake Pftppv- 



Llniecd. ^Z^^'^- Rnpc-cake. ^'"'/,"''- made of a'.J 



"'"'• ' "''^- TTboleaced. cake. 



■Water 7.50 12.44 10.08 11.90 11.19 ll.iiS 



Oil 34.00 12.79 11.10 G.G9 9.08... . 6.75 



Flesh-fonning matters 24.44 27.69 29.53 23.48 2o.l() 31. 4G 



Heat-giving constituents 30.73 40.95 40.90 52.14 48.93 38.18 



Inorganic matters (ash) 3.33 G.13 7.79 5.79 5.G4 12.98 



100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 



96. Salt for Stock. — A great deal has been written njion the use of salt 

 for animals, and much reasoning employed to prove various positions ; but 

 very few accurate experiments have been made. Loose and general observ- 

 ations have been the basis for most of the opinions formed. A certain 

 quantity of salt is unquestionably useful ; an excess is as certainly hurtful. 

 The proper amount is what we want to have determined. All ordinary food 

 of animals contains more or less salt — as, for example, a tun of barley or 

 oats straw, and of some kinds of liay, contains si.x pounds of salt ; a tun of 

 carrots contains four pounds. We can not, therefore, speak of animals eating 

 no salt — they all partake of it, but we wish to know the right quantity. 



The Genesee J'anner, from wliieli we have frecjuently extracted useful 

 facts, and to which we are indebted for the next half dozen, says of salt for 

 cattle feeding for the shambles : * 



" "We have had our doubts whether it was good economy to allow animals 

 feeding for the lutcher the free use of salt. Salt is doubtless conducive to 

 health, favoring the formation of bile, and aiding in carrying cfleto matter 



