8 Composition and Nutritive Value of Cotton-cake. 



is very hard, and cannot be broken into small bits by ordinary 

 cake-crushers, and for this reason does not command so ready a 

 sale as the thin cake, although it is sold at 10s. to 15s. less 

 money. 



Two samples of thick cake, both imported into Liverpool, 

 yielded on analysis the following results : 



Composition of Decorticated Thick Cotton-cake. 



NQ. 1. No. 2. 



Water ,. lOS 9'08 



Oil .................... 14-05 19-34 



* Albuminous compounds (flesh-forming matters) .. 41'31 43*31 



Gum, mucilage, and digestible fibre (heat-producing \ Q.Q 10-48 

 substances) .J .............. / 



Indigestible fibre .............. 8'40 10'41 



Mineral matters (ash) ... .......... 7'94 7'38 



100-00 100-00 

 * Containing nitrogen ............ 6'61 693 



It will be observed that there is no perceptible difference in 

 the composition of thick and thin cake. In both the thick cakes, 

 being very hard pressed, 1 expected to find a smaller per- 

 centage of oil than they actually contained. I was particularly 

 surprised to find in the second cake quite as high a percentage of 

 oil as that contained in the richest thin cake I have had an 

 opportunity of examining. Fearing a mistake might have 

 occurred in the oil-determination, I had a second determination 

 made, which yielded nearly the same quantity, namely, 19 '05 of 

 oil. The oil, extracted by means of ether from thick cake, I 

 observed, presented a darker colour than the oil from the ma- 

 jority of the thin cakes, which seems to indicate that more heat 

 has been employed in pressing the thick cake. 



3. ORDINARY COTTON-CAKE MADE FROM THE WHOLE SEED. 



Cake made of the whole cotton-seed presents a much less 

 inviting appearance than the thin cake ; it has a dark-brown 

 colour, is full of hard, dark-coloured seed-shells, is not liked so 

 much by cattle as thin cake, and is altogether a cake of inferior 

 quality. 



Some of this cake is prepared in England from imported 

 cotton-seed. The English pressed cake is better than foreign 

 made cake of the same kind. Three samples of this cake fur- 

 nished on analysis the following results : 



