230 Importance of Analysing Oil-Cakes, [july, 



the observation that the experiments taken, as a whole, show 

 that it is unprofitable to use mixtures containing large excess 

 of rye-grass, and that mixtures with a moderate amount of rye- 

 grass gave as large a hay crop, and, at the same time, better 

 clover and better and cleaner pasture. 



Another point, quite clearly brought out by these experiments, 

 is the urgent necessity for a very stinted use of Italian rye-grass. 

 If the red clover is to get a fair chance of surviving and persisting, 

 it must not be shaded out, nor drawn up and weakened by over- 

 shadowing Italian rye-grass. 



A third point is that weeds, such as Yorkshire fog and agrostis, 

 may be kept in check by the proper use of timothy, cock's-foot, 

 meadow fescue, and, what are called in general, " top grasses." 



The Board have recently had their attention drawn to a 

 case in which, in consequence of the loss of several lambs, the 



owner had samples taken of the cakes 

 Importance of with which they were being fed. On these 

 Oil-Cakei^ being analysed by the District Agricultural 



Analyst, they were found to contain an 

 undue proportion of sand. In the case of one, described as 

 a " special milk-cake," the proportion was 2% per cent., and in 

 the other, an "extra oil-cake," 1*9 per cent., and the analyst 

 was of opinion that so much sand as that in the milk cake 

 would be very likely to be injurious to calves, and presumably 

 also to lambs. The milk cake, moreover, was deficient in 

 albuminoids, and the oil-cake in oil. This is an instance of the 

 importance to farmers of having their feeding stuffs regularly 

 analysed, and of purchasing under a definite invoice stating the 

 guaranteed proportion of oil and albuminoids, and preferably 

 also of carbohydrates. Compound cakes, in particular, it must 

 be remembered, furnish an opportunity of getting rid of material 

 (such as musty cake, warehouse sweepings, &c.) that cannot 

 readily be sold in any other way, so that the buyer of compound 

 cakes has a special inducement to deal with a firm of high 

 reputation, and frequently to take the opinion of an experienced 

 chemist. That the cake was the cause of the death, of the lambs 

 in the above instance appears to be proved by the fact that 

 when its use was stopped no more deaths occurred. 



