•204 VETERINARY LECTURES 



husk of the cotton seed can best be removed when the seed is green. 

 The cake is then manufactured from the seed or kernel. For analysis 

 of a good sample of decorticated cotton cake, see par. 393. 



392. Like linseed, cotton seeds are crushed for the oil they 

 contain, and of late greatly improved machinery for this purpose 

 has been devised. Decorticated cotton cakes are generally very 

 hard, so much so that farmers are almost afraid to use them. This 

 causes some dealers to have their decorticated cake made into meal, 

 an expedient which increases the risks to feeders, for the meal when 

 kept too long in closely-packed bags becomes heated and perhaps 

 mouldy, when it is dangerous to stock (par. 324). Great care is, 

 therefore, necessary for the buyer not to purchase too much of the 

 ground article at once. Decorticated cotton cake is also very 

 dangerous when it has been damaged at sea, for the same reasons 

 as those urged against the mouldy meal. Numerous cases are on 

 record where numbers of cattle have died from the effects of eating 

 moulded decorticated cotton cake. This cake should always be 

 used in combination with some farinaceous matter, such as Indian 

 meal, crushed oats, barley or wheat, bran, etc. As a milk, butter, and 

 flesh producer it stands unrivalled, owing to the heavy percentage of 

 flesh-forming (nitrogenous) materials it contains. It should never, 

 for this reason, be given to stock under one year old, except with 

 the greatest caution and judgment, and should not on any account 

 be used for cows on the point of calving, nor for a month after, as 

 the milk with such feeding is too rich, and brings on diarrhoea — 

 white scour (par. 333) — when given to young calves. The manurial 

 residue of decorticated cotton cake is also valuable, and is estimated 

 at £2 1 6s. 5d. per ton of food consumed; in fact, it stands without 

 a rival for the renovation and improvement of old laid grazing 

 pastures. In the course of a couple of years or so, given in anything 

 like liberal quantities, it has a marked effect, both on the quantity 

 and quality of the herbage. Of late a new feeder in the shape of 

 Soya Bean cake and meal has been tried for stock feeding, it is very 

 rich in albuminoids, but low in oils, being 44 per cent, and 6 per cent, 

 respectively. At first it was thought the cake would be equal to the 

 best decorticated cotton cake, but the results have not been as good 

 as was anticipated. 



