LINSEED AND OIL-CAKE. 



213 



Linseed and Linseed cake. The ease with 

 which a few cwt. of Liiiseed cake can be 

 procured when wanted, and the very trifling 

 ti'ouljle attendmg its use, are strong arguments 

 in its favor ; and I will at once admit tliat no 

 equally convenient substitute can be found 

 for those who go on the make-sliift system, 

 and who merely order a few cwt. of cake 

 when theii- turnips come to an end, or to fin- 

 ish off a rather better bullock than ordinary. 

 I am confident, however, that the time is not 

 far distant when the great majority of fai'mers 

 ■will see that the best way of keeping their 

 farms in a productive state is to fatten a cer- 

 tain number of beasts for every hundred acres 

 of arable land ; and to any man who arrives 

 at this conclusion, I have no hesitation m rec- 

 ommending the use of Linseed in preference 

 to cake. In the first place, we know that the 

 inferior samples of Linseed are always select- 

 ed for crushing — so much so that, taking the 

 quotations irora the Mark-Lane Express of 

 last week, I find that the price of English 

 Liuseed for sowing was from 50s. to GOs. per 

 quarter, while that for crushing was from 46s. 

 to 49s. It is hardly necessaiy for me to men- 

 tion that this difference iu price is entii-ely 

 owing to the difference iu quality. A parcel 

 of seed which is so full of seeds of weeds, or 

 which has been so much damaged on its voy- 

 age as to be quite unsalable to those who 

 buy for their own use, has only to be passed 

 Ihi-ough the mill to be ti-ausfonned into what 

 goes by the name of a very useild cake. It 

 may be thought difficult to select a sample of 

 Linseed, but a vei-y little practice will enable 

 any man to ascertaui the only tlu-ee particu- 

 lai-s which are important, viz. the weight, 

 color, and freedom from seeds of weeds. The 

 next pomt of superiority of seed over cake is 

 the value of the oil as an article of food. As 

 Professor Johnston has so fully explained the 

 scientific part of the subject, I wall only state 

 that to keep up the heat of the body, espe- 

 cially in cold weather, the animal lamp re- 

 quires as constant a supply of fuel as the 

 lamps in om- houses, and I l3elieve they can- 

 not be more economically supplied than by 

 the oil which is contained in a moderate daily 

 allowance of prepared Lmseed. In Mr. Mar- 

 shall's Prize Essay, published in our Transac- 

 tions of last year, you will find other advant- 

 ages mentioned as the residt of using Liuseed 

 as food for cattle ; and as I have followed his 

 plan for one whole winter and part of another, 

 with the best results, I can safely recoimneud 

 it to all who have a sufficient number of cat- 

 tle to make it worth their while to put iqi the 

 necessaiy apparatus. As soon as I had ascer- 

 tained that this method of feeding cattle was 

 successful, I thought it desirable to try some 

 experunents, with a view to delennine the 

 degree of fineness to which it is advisable to 

 crush tlie seed, and the length of time required 

 to boil it, so that the whole goodness of the 

 seed might be exti-acted during digestion. — 

 My fii-st point was to ascertaui whether it was 

 absolutely necessary to crush the seed at all ; 



(453) 



the plan I adopted to satisfy myself was that 

 of boiUng a certaui quantity of whole seed, 

 and an equal weight of crushed seed. I then 

 washed each separately on a fine sieve, and 

 when di'ied at a heat of 2 12°, I weighed them 

 again to ascertain what each had lost. I found 

 that Soluble. Insol. 



1000 grains of uncrushed seed, boiled 



one hour, gave 155 845 



1000 ditto, crushed ditto 475 525 



845 grains crushed and boiled again one 

 hour, gave 351 494 



505 gi-ains re-crushed and boiled again 



ditto - 83 442 



Tliis and other experiments of the same kind, 

 from which I obtained similar results, made 

 it quite clear that the unbroken seed was able 

 to resist to some extent the action of boiling 

 water, but it was stiU possible that the nutri- 

 tive matter contained m the seed might be 

 extracted during digestion. I accordingly had 

 a certain Cjuantity of seed boiled two hours, 

 and given whole to one of my beasts. The 

 herdsman was then dii'ected to wash a portion 

 of the dung and examine it closely. A certain 

 poi-tion of the seed was in this way found to 

 have passed tln'ough the animal whole, and, 

 after lieing well washed and di-ied, was com- 

 pai'ed with a portion of the seed which had 

 been boiled, but had not passed tlu'ough the 

 animal : 



500 seeds digested after boiling two hours, 



weighed 27 J grains. 



500 ditto boUed two hours 27 ,3-10 do. 



.500 ditto fresh 38^ do. 



To make it still more certain that the seed 

 which had undergone the process of digestion 

 was StiU of value, he had a certain portion of 

 it crushed and boiled an hour, when 100 

 gi-auis gave 81 soluble and 19 insoluble. In 

 tliis experiment it was foiuid that a consider- 

 able portion of the seed had been crushed by 

 the teeth of the animal, as there were numer- 

 ous skhis of the seed mixed with those that 

 were still whole ; and iu all cases where the 

 skui was broken, the whole of tlie kernel had 

 gone — thus showing that the gas&ic juice had 

 the power of fully dissolving the kernel when 

 tlie seed was crushed, however rouglily. I 

 ti-ied numerous other experiments to ascertain 

 how long it should be boiled. These it would 

 be tedious to relate, but the results I would 

 shortly state as follows : Fust, that if the seed 

 be well crushed, boiling for one hour will ex- 

 tract the goodness of the seed as completely 

 as boiling for three or four horn's if ro^ighly 

 crushed. When, however, the meal is fine, 

 there is gi-eat danger of its burning to the bot- 

 tom of the pan, unless cooked by steam. — 

 There seems, however, to be no necessity for 

 either fine cmshing or long boiling. Either 

 one or the other makes the gruel tliicker and 

 more glutinous ; but the animal has certainly 

 the power of exti-acting all the nourishinent 

 from the seed when rouglily crushed and 

 lightly boiled; and to do more than nialve it 

 iligestiblo would of course bo superfluous la- 

 bor. The last point which I shall mention is 

 tliat those who may wish to use Liuseed on a 



