FOREIGN OIL-CAKE. 



137 



ing, and from four to six inches square at the bottom. A pin 

 should be passed through the top for the convenience of being 

 worked with both hands. 



Nor let these compounds be despised on account of their 

 simplicity. They are neat and convenient modes of placing 

 artificial food before bullocks, which must be superior to 

 cake made of all sorts of foreign rubbish.* To assert that 

 such ofFal is really superior to the sound and wholesome 

 materials of which the compounds are formed, is like assert- 

 ing that bran is superior to wheat. Sixteen coombs of 

 linseed are required to make one ton of cake. Now, if the 

 number of tons imported into this country alone were mul- 

 tiplied by sixteen, I question whether it would not amount 

 to infinitely more than is grown on the whole continent 

 of Europe. We, however, receive the supply ; but of what 

 does that supply consist ? The seeds of hemp, and of many 

 other plants which are grown solely for the purpose, be- 

 sides the seeds of many wild plants that infest the fields, are 

 crushed to obtain the oil. The stones of fruity, nuts of forest- 

 trees, and ground-nutSjf yield an abundance of oil, which^ in 



* " The crop of linseed was considered very good in 1842, but I must con- 

 fess it was, like the corn-crop, bad at the best, for I walked into many acre 

 and half-acre patches (for that is the usual extent sown together), not more 

 than from eighteen inches to two feet in length, and I found it by no means 

 heavily seeded ; but during my stay of but a few days at Riga, I was equally 

 astonished to see the number of crafts which arrived laden with that article, 

 and as quickly cleared off by English, Scotch, and other vessels, many of which 

 had been waiting several weeks for the arrival, and some after all obliged to 

 return with only half a cargo. 



" Large orders for linseed had arrived from France in consequence of the 

 failure of the hay crop ; there was a difficulty of supply. Upon inquiry I 

 found that linseed was gathered by Polish Jews, about three or four hundred 

 men and women, who had been many months collecting it through the interior 

 of the country. As soon as the boats were unladen the crafts would be broken 

 up and sold for fire-wood, after which the Jews would start off again upon 

 another expedition. At Riga the linseed and other seeds arrive in such a bad 

 state, from the adulteration of the Jew merchants, that the whole is obliged to 

 be re-dressed for the English market. This accounts for the mixed state of 

 the foreign cake. The corn is collected in the same way." — Extract from the 

 published Notes of Mr. Salter taken during a Tour through Russia, ^"c. 



t The ground-nut is becoming also a valuable article of commerce, and this, 

 with other nuts mentioned, yields a rich supply of oil and oil-cake for the use 

 of cattle. (Sir Fowell Buxton's * Slave Trade and Remedy,' page 322.) Large 

 quantities are also made in India. 



