LINSEED CAKE. 



LIQUID MANURE. 



without either cake or linseed, and whose dung 

 is not of equal value. Some winters I have 

 fed with linseed instead of cake, and found it 

 answer very well, although it added to the 

 trouble of feeding. My mode of preparing it 

 has been to break it in a little hand-mill, and 

 steep it in cold water in seven tubs of a size 

 sufficient for one day's feed; in this way it 

 will have been steeped seven days before it is 

 mixed with cut hay and barley, or (which is 

 better) bean meal. If steeped in hot water, 

 two days will do; if steeped longer than three, 

 it is apt to get a little sour, which, in my opi- 

 nion, is not quite so well for the beasts. Boil- 

 ing it is troublesome, but it thus becomes more 

 of a jelly, and mixes better with the cut hay 

 and meal, and it prevents the numerous seeds 

 of weeds, found in foreign linseed, from vege- 

 tating. One stone of linseed, in a mixture of 

 other food, will do as much towards feeding 

 as two stone of cake, which is merely the husk 

 of the seed after the oil has been pressed out. 

 Linseed, without being mixed with meal, is of 

 too relaxing a nature. 



" Finding at Christmas, 1838, that I could 

 not et English oil-cake at home at less than 

 about 12/. 10s. per ton, I determined to feed the 

 35 beasts then in my stalls, in the following 

 way, and I never had beasts that became better 

 meat ; but as the process of preparing the food 

 is v ny troublesome, I should not recommend 

 this way of feeding without the owner of the 

 beasts will daily see that all is done right: 



i. d. 

 Tlin-i- feeds daily, of half a bushel of cut hay, 



which Is 5 Ibs. each, and 4 Ibs. uncut at night ; 



1 cut. and not quite a quarter - - - - 3 6 

 Boilt-d linxeed, 2 Ibs. daily, 56*. per quarter; 



wiML'lit, 50 Ibs. per bushel - - - - -20 

 Buih-il pi'tattirs, '2 Ibs. daily, 1J gallons - - 1 6 



(which is feeding, but may be left out 



when the beasts have taken to the linseed, as 



it is only iriven to make the mixture palatable), 



about a' : ; II). daily 09 



Turnips, or mangel wurzel ----- 2 

 Barley and bean meal, mixed, 3| gallons - - 1 9 



12 



" If this mixed food could be pressed together 

 to form a cake, it would be a feeding one, and 

 the cost lid. per stone. As a proof that this 

 mixture is both palatable and nutritive to 

 beasts, they will not eat, excepting in the night, 

 where they have none of it, any of the sweetest 

 hay that can be put before them." (Prac. 

 Farm, p. 89.) 



Many farmers use ground linseed mixed 

 with bran and 1 chaff for their stock, deeming it 

 a more economical plan than the employment 

 of linseed cake. Others use the linseed un- 

 ground. The saving by this mode, however, 

 is doubtful, for it is by no means certain that 

 the oil possesses any very material fattening 

 proper cies ; and if it does not, then the cake is 

 decidedly the cheapest. For at the present 

 prices 841 )> 51 lbs - of linseed are worth Is. 

 6'/., while 51 Ibs. of cake, at III. per ton, are 

 only worth about 5s.; and admitting that the 

 oil does contain some fattening properties, yel 

 it must be remembered that the value of the oil 

 obtained from a bushel of linseed is worth, for 

 other purposes, about 4s. But, on the other 

 hand, I am aware that a very intelligent farmer 

 near Rurnfurd. Mr 8 Poole, who, in 1840, fed 



his bullocks with a mixture of linseed oil and 

 cut chaff, and also other bullocks with linseed 

 cake and hay, considered the oil to be the 

 cheapest of the two, and in all respects equally 

 fattening, but then it is certain that this mode 

 requires more attention in the mixture of the 

 oil and chaff than the other plan. He com- 

 menced with about a quarter of a pint per day, 

 and gradually increased it to a pint. 



The reported results of experiments in feed 

 ing cattle with linseed do not always agree. In 

 a standard work we find the following passage : 

 Two Scots were fed on English linseed cakes; 

 two Devons on unboiled linseed ; two others on 

 boiled linseed ; and another pair of Devons on 

 foreign ; all of them having as much hay and 

 chaff as they could eat. It was a losing con- 

 cern in every case. The value of the manure 

 was not equal to the difference of the cost and 

 the selling prices ; and, strange as it may ap- 

 pear, the greatest loss was sustained, when the 

 beasts were fed on oil-cake ; the next when 

 foreign cake was used ; the next when boiled 

 linseed was used ; and the least of all when tne 

 simple unboiled linseed was given. 



LINSEED JELLY is easily made by adding 

 to 6 quarts of water 1 quart of linseed, boiling 

 it for 10 minutes. This, mixed with other sub- 

 stances, is sometimes given to live-stock as 

 food, and, mixed with milk, is very nutritive 

 for calves. 



LINSEED OIL is an excellent purgative for 

 sheep, from 2 to 3 ounces; for horses, in doses 

 of from 16 to 24 ounces ; for cattle, from 16 to 20 

 ounces. The quality of linseed oil may be de- 

 termined in the following manner: Fill a phial 

 with it, and hold it up to the light; if bad it will 

 appear opaque, turbid, and thick* its taste is acid 

 and bitter upon the tongue, and ii smells rancid; 

 and strong oil, from fine full-grown ripe seed, 

 when viewed in a phial, will appear limpid, pale, 

 and brilliant; it is mellow,and sweet to the taste, 

 has very little smell, is specifically lighter than 

 impure oil, and when clarified dries quickly and 

 finely. (Quart. Journ. of dgr. vol. v. p. 467.) 



LIP. In botany, the lower petal of any irre- 

 gular flower. 



LIQUID MANURE. Liquid manure is not 

 a mode of fertilizing the land altogether of 

 modern origin, for a fermented mixture of wa- 

 ter and night-soil has, from a very early period, 

 been employed by the Chinese farmers ; those 

 of Italy certainly practised irrigation in the 

 days of Virgil (Georgics, b. i. v. 106109), and 

 Cato adds that they employed a mixture of 

 grape-stones and water to fertilize their olive 

 trees (b. xxxvii.). Columella praises very 

 highly the use of putrid stale urine for vines 

 and apple trees (b. ii. c. 15), commending also 

 the lees of oil for the same purpose. More 

 modern agricultural writers have united in 

 praising various liquid preparations ; thus 

 Evelyn (whose ingredients most of the authors 

 recommend), in his Treatise on Earth, p. 123- 

 160, gives several recipes, some of which havo 

 served as the basis for recent modes of prepar- 

 ing liquid manure, such as the dung of cattle, 

 I urine, salt and lime, and nitre. Of these arti- 

 I ficial mixtures, salt 1 part, and lime 2 parts, 

 mixed together and allowed to remain in a 

 , heap for 2 or 3 months (Mr. Bennett turns 



727 



