OIL-CAKE. — WEIGHING COWS. 369 



improvement in its flavor by steaming, and it is prob- 

 ably improved in its convertibility as food. It contains 

 about fourteen per cent, of albumen, and is peculiarly 

 rich in phosphoric acid, nearly three per cent, of its 

 whole substance being of this material. The properties 

 of rape-cake are well known: the published analyses 

 give it a large proportion (nearly thirty per cent.) of 

 albumen ; it is rich in phosphates, and also in oil. This 

 is of the unctuous class of vegetable oils, and it is to 

 this property that I call particular attention. Chemistry 

 will assign to this material, which has hitherto been 

 comparatively neglected for feeding, a first place for 

 the purpose of which I am treating. If objection 

 should occur on account of its flavor, I have no diffi- 

 culty in stating that by the preparation I have described 

 I have quite overcome this. I can easily persuade my 

 cattle (of which sixty to eighty pass through my stalls 

 in a year), without exception, to eat the requisite 

 quantity. Nor is the flavor of the cake in the least 

 perceptible in the milk or butter. 



During May, my cows are turned out on a rich pas- 

 ture near the homestead ; towards evening they are 

 again housed for the night, when they are supplied 

 with a mess of the steamed mixture and a little hay 

 each morning and evening. During June, when the 

 grasses are better grown, mown grass is given to them 

 instead of hay, and thej' are also allowed two feeds of 

 steamed mixture. This treatment is continued till 

 October, when they are again wholly housed. 



The results which I now proceed to relate are de- 

 rived from observations made with the view of enabling 

 me to understand and regulate my own proceedings. 



Gain or Loss of Condition ascertained by weigh- 

 ing Cattle periodically. — For some years back I 

 have regularly weighed my feeding stock, a practice 

 from which I am enabled to ascertain their doings with 

 greater accuracy than I could previously. In January, 

 1854, I commenced weighing my milch cows. It has 

 been shown, by what 1 have premised, that no accurate 

 estimate ran be formed of the effect of the food on the 



24 



