i8o FOODS [chap. 



recent years from soya beans ; but earth-nut and palm- 

 nut cakes are sometimes obtainable and many other 

 kinds of seeds are crushed, though the residues are 

 usually worked into some of the compound proprietary 

 mixtures which are so widely sold as oilcakes. 

 Farmers are recommended to buy pure cakes made 

 from one kind of seed only. As a rule, such cakes are 

 cheaper intrinsically even though their price is higher, 

 and they are much less subject to adulteration. Their 

 greatest value, however, lies in the fact that the farmer 

 knows exactly what he is using, and can come to definite 

 conclusions for the guidance of his future practice. 



These oilcakes constitute the richest and most con- 

 centrated of all cattle foods, in most cases also their 

 digestibility is very high. At the head stands decorti- 

 cated cotton cake, since cotton-seed meal still containing 

 its oil unextracted is rarely seen in the United Kingdom, 

 though it is commonly employed- for fattening cattle in 

 the United States. The cake is made from cotton seed 

 from which the husks have previously been removed, 

 the undecorticated cake being made from the whole 

 seed after the cotton fibre has been ginned off. 

 Decorticated cotton cake is extremely rich in proteins 

 and oil, and contains but little fibre ; while it is an 

 excellent food for bullocks fattening and for dairy cows, 

 it must not be given to the latter anywhere near the 

 time of calving, nor should it be fed to calves. There is 

 evidence that it contains some substance which is at 

 times disturbing or even poisonous to cattle, so that 

 cotton cake must always be used with discretion. 

 Undecorticated cotton cake is the favourite adjunct to 

 the food of cattle fattening upon grass, especially in the 

 early spring : it has certain astringent properties which 

 correct the action of the young grass. When fed to 

 milch cows cotton cake tends to harden and raise the 



