i8 



The Purchase of Feeding Stuffs. 



presence of mustard may be detected by the smell. Cakes 

 resulting from the chemical process of oil extraction will not 

 always form such a jelly. They are usually very poor in oil. 



Cotton Cakes. — Raw cotton seed, as it is gathered from the 

 plant, consists of three distinct layers of material. On the out- 

 side is a dense mass of long white fibres. The character of this 

 layer gives to raw, uncleaned cotton-seed the appearance of 

 small pellets of cotton wool. This outer covering ot cotton is 

 removed by the process of " ginning," and when this is 

 thoroughly done the cleaned cotton seed shows the next layer, 

 w T hich consists of a smooth, dark brown hull or husk. Inside 

 this is the kernel, which, in Egyptian and American Sea Island 

 seed, is whitish or yellow 7 . In Indian and ordinary American 

 seed the kernel is velvety. In the process of extracting the 

 oil the kernels may first be removed from the hulls, or the 

 hulls may be ground in along with the kernels. If the hulls 

 are separated from the kernels, we get decorticated cotton 

 cake ; if the hulls have not been removed we get undecorti- 

 cated, rough, or " English" cotton cake. The latter cake is 

 usually made from Egyptian seed, and the former from 

 American seed. 



Decorticated Cotton Cake. — This cake, when well made 

 and in good mechanical condition, may be considered one 

 of the cheapest and most valuable foods at the 

 farmer's disposal. Weight for weight, it contains 

 a larger aggregate amount of valuable material 

 than any other food. Until recent years these cakes 

 contained as a rule 14 to 16 per cent, of oil, but now the 

 quantity of this ingredient has dropped to about 8 or 10 per 

 cent. Some degree of compensation for the comparative 

 poverty in oil is the increased percentage of albuminoids, 

 which range from about 40 per cent, to nearly 50 per cent., 

 but deficiency in oil is often associated with a cake that is 

 hard and " knotty." 



The average composition of decorticated cotton cake at the 

 present time is about 45 per cent, albuminoids, 9 or 10 per 

 cent, oil, and 20 per cent, carbohydrates. At ordinary 

 rates this is one of the cheapest foods in the market, though 

 it is not suitable for calves, lambs, or other young stock, 



