302 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



largely increased the productiveness of British soil. It 

 cannot be a matter of indifference to thoughtful American 

 farmers that the most important elements in the great cot- 

 ton crop, flax crop and hemp crop are exported. The fibre 

 of the cotton contains no important element of fertility, 

 although this is the principal value of the crop, commer- 

 cially; and the oil expressed from the seed contains only 

 carbon and water, which is supplied from the atmosphere ; 

 but the cotton-seed cake is rich in mineral elements 

 derived from the soil, and in nitrogen, regarded as an 

 essential element in our commercial fertilizers. It is the 

 same with the flax crop. The fibre contains little of rnanu- 

 rial value, and the oil still less ; but the linseed-cake is ex- 

 tremely rich in all the elements of fertility; and when this 

 is fed, and the manure returned to the soil, comparatively 

 little is lost to the soil. It is, therefore, one of the reforms 

 needed in our agriculture to use these oil-cakes for home 

 feeding, and thus get a more valuable return in beef for 

 export than if the cakes were exported, besides, saving the 

 great amount of fertilizing matter to replenish our soil. 

 Sir J. B. Lawes estimates the manurial value of cotton- 

 seed and linseed-cakes as greater than the average price for 

 which they are sold in this country for export the former 

 at about $29, and the latter at $23 per ton. This estimate 

 is made by the most accurate experimenter in England. 

 Does it not appeal to the American stock-feeder and 

 farmer to closely study the value of these oil-cakes as 

 eattle foods ? These refuse products are estimated, in the 

 tables given, as worth from 60 to 100 per cent, more than 

 corn-meal for fattening cattle they can usually be pur- 

 chased at the mills at from $20 to $25 per ton being 

 exceedingly rich in albuminoids, and containing from two 

 to three times the digestible oil in corn-meal. These 

 are very concentrated foods, and only a small ration can 

 profitably be fed. We have often expressed the opinion 



