S48 HAHUAL OF CATTLE-FEEDIKG. 



results obtained on bucIi material would be fully applicable 

 to our cotton-seecl meal ; but those are tlie only experi- 

 ments yet made, and we must accept their results till better 

 are available. 



The digestibility of palm-nut meal has been tested in 

 Mockern, in experiments on cows, and in Ilohenheim, on 

 sheep. The results showed that the digestibility of this 

 feeding-stuff is great, ranging above 90 for all the ingre- 

 dients. It is also distinguished for its palatability and its 

 favorable action on milk-production and fattening. 



Uses. — Unlike most of the feeding-stuffs hitherto con- 

 sidered, the various kinds of oil cake are excessively rich 

 in protein and deiioient in non-nitrogenous nutrients. This 

 is especially the case with those which have been prepared 

 by some process of extraction, the nutritive ratio being 

 sometimes as narrow as 1:1. Tlie nioi-e conunon kinds 

 of oil cake, while containing considerable fat, and hence 

 having a wider nutritive ratio, are still characterized by a 

 large excess of protein. 



Obviously, then, oil cake is particularly valuable as a 

 source of protein and as a means of increasing the amount 

 of this siabstance in a ration. Many of the cheaper forms 

 of coarse fodder, while furnishing large quantities of non- 

 nitrogenous nutrients, are deficient in protein. This defi- 

 ciency may be readily supplied by the addition to them of 

 a comparatively small amoxmt of oil cake, and thus the de- 

 ficiencies and redundancies of the two fodders be made to 

 supplement each other. For example, it would not be 

 difiicult to compound from straw and oil cake a mixture 

 which should contain the same proportions of digestible 

 matters as the best hay, and in most cases at a cost con- 

 siderably less than that of the latter. Moreover, the ad<li- 

 tion of such a nitrogenoub bye-fodder to the straw would 



