296 Concentrated Feeding-stuffs. [July, 



regarded as a flagrant adulteration, since the former have no 

 appreciable feeding value. 



Linseed and cotton cakes contain no starch or sugar, the 

 carbohydrates being represented by mucilage and cellulose. 

 The amount of these present in such cakes is of minor 

 importance compared with the albuminoids and oil, because 

 the heat-forming (carbohydrate) substance is supplied in large 

 measure by the straw and other bulky material with which 

 cakes are always fed. Mixed or compound cakes often con- 

 tain starch and also some sugar, their ingredients comprising 

 grain, maize, &c, and a certain amount of spice. 



Cakes, if pure and well made and free from fibrous husk, 

 are extremely digestible, often as much as 80 to 90 per cent, 

 of the nutrient material in them being digested by cattle and 

 sheep. The manurial residues of cakes made from oil seeds 

 are of higher value than those of any other foods, although 

 the residues of malt dust, dried grains, beans, and peas are 

 not greatly inferior. 



Linseed Cake. — This is the residue left after extracting 

 the oil from linseed or flax-seed. The quality and character 

 of the cake varies with the following conditions : — (1) The j 

 kind of linseed used; (2) the manner in which the seed has j 

 been screened and freed from its impurities ; (3) the amount 

 of pressure and the degree of heating that have been employed 

 in the extraction of the oil and the compression of the residue 

 into cake. 



In recent years the introduction of heating processes, and, 

 more especially, the employment of chemical agents for the 

 purpose of extracting the oil, have resulted in placing upon 

 the market cakes which are very hard in consistency, close 

 in texture, and poor in oil. It will usually be found in the 

 case of linseed cakes that as the percentage of oil increases 

 that of albuminoids diminishes. 



No oil-cake is more liable to impurity and adulteration 

 than linseed cake, and hence in purchasing this cake, farmers 

 should insist upon having the consignment invoiced to them 

 as "Pure Linseed Cake," or simply as "Linseed Cake." 

 They should not be content with such phraseology as "95 per 

 cent, pure," "made from 95 per cent, linseed," or "made 

 from seed pure as imported." When a cake is invoiced as 



