May 1, 1865.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



PALM-NUT KERNEL MEAL AND CAKE, 471 



linseed cake, hay, and other palatable food, it is well known, do not 

 relish a change, if the substituted food happens to be less palatable than 

 that to which they have been accustomed. Palm-nut meal is certainly 

 not so nice to the taste as linseed cake or Swedes and hay ; some 

 difficulty consequently was experienced in inducing animals to eat it ; 

 and neither the cowman nor the person in charge of the pigs possessed the 

 requisite patience to give the meal a fair trial, and both declared it to be 

 little better than sawdust. After repeated attempts to overcome the 

 prejudice of the cow- and pig-man, the meal was consigned to thegranary, 

 where it remained for nearly ten mouths. By that time the store of oil- 

 cake was almost consumed, the supply of roots ran short, and the price 

 of all feeding-materials was very high. Under these circumstances, an 

 application for a fresh supply of oil-cake for the use of the sheep was 

 not very favourably received by Mr. Coleman, who gave the shepherd 

 liberty to use the despised palm-nut meal. Probably somewhat stinted 

 in food, the sheep took to the palm-meal at once, and after a few days 

 ate it up greedily, and, what is more, throve upon it remarkably well. 

 All who had seen the sheep before they had received palm-nut meal, 

 and after they were fed upon it for only a short time, were unanimous in 

 attaching a very high value to this meal. The shepherd, indeed, soon 

 learned to prefer it to the best linseed cake, and had the satisfaction of 

 getting the first prize for fat sheep at the Gloucestershire Agricultural 

 Society's show. 



The success in the sheep-feed paved the way to a more favourable 

 reception of the palm-nut meal than it received at the outset on the part 

 of our cow-man, who now found that 3 to 4 lbs. a day not only increased 

 the quantity of milk, but likewise greatly enriched its quality. I need 

 hardly say that, in consequence of this favourable experience, large 

 quantities of palm-nut meal were subsequently consumed on the College 

 farm. 



By degrees this meal found its way amongst agriculturists, and all 

 who have given it a fair trial speak in the highest terms of its fat- and 

 milk-producing properties. 



During the last year a good many samples were sent to me for exami- 

 nation from various parts of the country. The table in the following 

 page shows the composition of six samples of palm-nut kernel 

 meal. 



It will be seen that all six samples are very rich in fatty matter, 

 which accounts for the marked effect which the meal has upon the pro- 

 duction of a rich milk ; moreover, the fatty matter has about the same 

 consistency as butter, and hardly any smell, which probably explains 

 why a good tasting and sufficiently hard butter is produced from the 

 milk of cows fed upon it. 



The two first-mentioned samples contained no less than 26J per cent 

 and the other four from 20 to 24 per cent, of ready-made fat. 

 vol. v. 3d 



