CHAP. xn. FEEDING VALUE OF OIL IN LINSEED CAKES. 209 



uncertainty, and the very large amount of linseed-cake used by the 

 farmers of Great Britain, the present writer has long thought it a 

 matter of the greatest importance to them that the question of the 

 feeding value of oil should he accurately determined by practical 

 experiment." 



The experiment was carried on with two cakes, one of which contained 

 between 6 and 7 per cent, of oil, and the other between 15'36 and 

 16'21 per cent a difference, therefore, of from 9 to 10 per cent, of oil. 

 The investigation took place at Mr. Garrett Taylor's farm, at Whitling- 

 ham, Norwich, two sets of thirty pure bred Southdown ewe lambs 

 being employed. Omitting details, it may be stated that in the end 

 each lot of thirty sheep had consumed rather over one ton of cake. 

 The difference in market value between the two cakes, as nearly and 

 fairly as could be estimated, was 20s. to 80s. per ton. The increased 

 value per sheep of the high oil pen, according to the scales, was 

 2s. 5d. per head, or a gross gain of 3Z. 12s., over the low oil pen, in 

 return for an extra expenditure had it been bought at market rates 

 of 20s. to 80s on the dearer material. In addition, however, to this 

 profit of 100 or more per cent, on excess of outlay upon a richer cake, 

 there is the further problematical gain, beyond that recorded by the 

 weigh- bridge, arising from the displacement of water by fat in the riper 

 sheep, for which there is considerable evidence, if no actual proof. By 

 estimate of experts also, the superior market value of the best pen of 

 sheep was, at the higher figure named by them, 3s. per head or 4L 10s. per 

 pen, which is slightly in excess of the record of the scales. However, in 

 any case an extra increase of 2s. 5d. was clearly obtained by use of the 

 high oil-cake, for an extra expenditure upon it of 8d. to Is. per sheep. 



"It therefore follows," concludes Mr. Cooke, "that a linseed-cake, 

 containing 15 per cent, of oil, and costing on that account some 20s. to 

 80s. more money per ton, may not only be used with great advantage 

 to grazing sheep, but with considerable profit to the farmer. Or, to 

 put it in another way, it is now very decisively proved that, weight for 

 weight, linseed-oil, to the extent of 15 per cent., in a cake, has a much 

 higher feeding value than have the other constituents of a linseed-cake 

 which in the absence of the oil would replace it. So that all the 

 recently expressed opinions, English and Continental, on the equal or 

 even superior value of certain cakes low in oil, as compared with some 

 more oily ones, are altogether false. In grasping this lesson, however, 

 it will be well to bear in mind that all oil is not linseed-oil the kind 

 which was used with such remarkable advantage in these experiments. 

 For it is to be feared that now the value of linseed-oil is so conclusively 

 and publicly demonstrated, oil of another and very inferior kind may 

 find its way into the farmers' cakes, with very inferior results upon the 

 farmers' stock." \ 



The pulping of roots is one of the more recent innovations in 

 cattle-feeding. The following is an account, by Mr. W. Karkeek, of 

 the mode of feeding adopted on the farm of Mr. R. Davy, M. P., where 

 the pulping is part of the system : 



" We found thirty-two North Devon cattle kept in separate boxes in 



