Linseed Oil-cakes. 



11 





quantities, a relaxing effect on the bowels. This effect of linseed- 

 oil no doubt is beneficial when the seed is given with much chaff 

 or other not very digestible food ; but it counteracts the rapid 

 fattening of the animal if too much linseed is mixed with the 

 chaff or other dry food. 



As a rule, therefore, linseed ought to be given to fattening 

 beasts more sparingly than cake, which, containing much less oil 

 than the seed from which it is obtained, is not so liable to cause 

 the effects which an overdose of seed produces. 



2. OlL-CAKES (Linseed, rape, poppy, cotton-seed, and mustard- 

 cake). Of all the various oil-cakes which are used for feeding or 

 fattening, linseed-cake is employed most abundantly, and justly 

 prized as the most valuable kind of cake. Rape-cake, lately 

 imported in large quantities from the Continent, where rape is 

 much grown, is now also much employed for feeding cattle and 

 sheep. Poppy-cake likewise is a valuable feeding-material, but 

 occurs only occasionally in trade. 



Of the other varieties of oil-cake which are now and then 

 offered for sale, we will only mention here cotton-seed-cake and 

 mustard-cake. Cotton-seed-cake has lately been introduced into 

 England, and been found a very valuable feeding-substance. 

 Allusion is made here to mustard-cake because it is frequently 

 sold as rape-cake, which it indeed resembles closely. 



Many samples of these different oil-cakes, from various 

 countries, have lately been analysed by Professors Way, Anderson, 

 and myself. These analyses have shown that the composition of 

 even one and the same kind of cake is liable to considerable fluc- 

 tuations, arising principally from the mode in which the cake is 

 manufactured. But as the observed differences in composition 

 do not materially affect the practical deductions to which the 

 analyses of oil-cakes give rise, I shall content myself by present- 

 ing in the subjoined table the average composition of oil-cakes, 

 as calculated from a large number of analyses : 



Average Composition of Oil-cakes. 



