FOOD AND FEEDING. 393 



pcriments are therefore necessary to decide the question as to 

 whether forage eaten green is really more nutritious than the same 

 forage consumed when converted into hay. For my own part, I 

 should not be surprised, from what I have seen, were it found that 

 dry fodder, previously moistened and carefully portioned out, wa? 

 actually more nourishing than the same food would have been had 

 it been eaten green. Green forage, of a very soft or watery nature, 

 is notoriously possessed of purgative properties, which must lessen 

 its value as food ; but my observation leads me to say, on he othei 

 hand, that animals kept upon dry fodder require more care with re- 

 gard to watering than is generally bestowed upon them. The abso- 

 lute necessity of a sufficient degree of moistness in the food, in order 

 to secure its due and easy digestion, greatly countenances the prac- 

 tice which is beginning to be introduced in some places of steeping 

 hay for some time in water before giving it to cattle. This neces- 

 sity further explains the great advantages in associating with dried 

 fodder other very watery articles, such as roots and tubers, turnips 

 and field-beet, potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes. 



The oleaginous seeds contain a considerable proportion of animal- 

 ized matter, similar in composition and qualities to the caseum of 

 milk ; and the cake which comes from the oil-mill retains almost 

 the whole of this substance. The proportion of from 0.05 to 0.06 

 of azote, indicates nearly 42 per cent, of the representative of flesh 

 m oil-cake. Theory, in fact, rates the nutritious power of this sub- 

 stance so high, that 100 of hay may be replaced by from 22 to 27 

 of cake. 



The almost universal use of oil-cake in the feeding and fattening 

 of cattle, is of itself sufficient evidence of its highly nutritive quali- 

 ties. It has even been found possible to keep sheep and oxen upon 

 this food almost exclusively. M. Bouscaren finding considerable 

 difficulty in getting rid of his oil-cake, thought of associating with 

 his oil-mill an establishment for feeding cattle ; and he found that 

 oxen put up to fatten throve perfectly upon a mixture of the refuse 

 of the wine-press and oil-cake. Cows, upon a diet of this kind, give 

 on an average 12^ pints of milk per diem. The allowance per head 

 is about 15 lbs. of oil-cake in three meals, given each time imme- 

 diately after the animals have been watered, and in the interval, 

 each is allowed about 12 lbs. of straw or chaff. The cake broken 

 in pieces is steeped in water, and worked up into a paste of the 

 consistency of dough. If the animals show any disinclination to 

 this food at first, they are brought to like it by having a ball of it, 

 the size of the fist, administered to them two or three times. 



Supposing that the cows fed in this way would be adequately 

 maintained upon 33 lbs. of hay, and that 13 lbs. of straw are equiv- 

 alent to 3 lbs. of hay, it appears that in the allowance given, 15 lbs. 

 of oil-cake will supply the place of 30 lbs. of hay ; the equivalent 

 of the cake, therefore, is 51.5, a number very different from the 22 

 deduced from analysis. The equivalents of those who have sought 

 to appreciate the alimentary value of oil-cake are, however, suffi- 

 ciently at variance with one another. It will be seen in the table, 



