514 = 248 
Practical Agriculture. 
calves are reared, some on skim-milk, and some on new milk, and are enti 
to eat as early as possible. About every three months they get an increas 
1 lb. per day in the artificial food, so that at 12 months old the allowanc 
4 lbs. per head per day : after that it is increased to 6 lbs. a day, and tha 
only exceeded as my experience may point out to be beneficial. 
" In the summer, grass, clover, and vetches are mown and brought into 
yards to them, with long hay ; and in the winter, turnips and mangolds, pul 
and mixed with straw chaff, with long hay. The artificial food is mixed v 
the chop, and consists of decorticated cotton-cake, Indian corn, barley-a 
and other tail corn, palm-nut-meal, and locust-bean-meal, all mixed toget 
and costing between %l. and 9/. a ton. You may notice that linseed-cak 
not in the list of foods 1 use, and I may tell you that the only use I make i 
is for the youngest calves, and more from a matter of prejudice than be« 
I think it at all superior to the mixture of foods I have named ; for I do 
hesitate to say, from my experience in meat-making — mutton as well as bei 
that the continued use of linseed-cake by farmers, instead of a mixtui 
cheaper foods, is as unwise as it is extravagant. I do not say that linseed-( 
is not a n:^ost valuable food in itself, but I say it is too dear ; and I go fur 
and say that an equally good result is to be obtained by a judicious mixtui 
foods, of which decorticated cotton-cake and palm-nut-meal are the foundal 
and which shall not cost more than 9Z. a ton. Now I do not give you thi 
my opinion only, but I point to the results I have obtained from the two y( 
experience of early-maturity beef-making under covered yards. In the 
year the calves averaged to the butcher, 20/. 6s. Sd., at 18 months and 1 t 
old, and last year 14 of them averaged 20Z. 17s. 6d, at 20 months and 1 v 
old. Now if, instead of using the mixture I have named, I had used lins 
cake, the increased price of food would have been from 25 to 30 jier cent., 
is to say, the difference between %l. and 121. per ton, and these beasts r 
have made from 26?. to 2QI. to have paid for the difference in the price of 
food. The question is, could I have made them so much better ? My dec 
opinion is that I could not have done so. Well, perhaps you will say thai 
manure would have been so much better from linseed-cake than from wh 
used. That is a question that I think has not been yet decided ; but, if 
believe in Mr. Lawes' Table of the manurial value of the different kinds of 1 
the decorticated cotton-cake is infinitely superior to linseed-cake. That t 
is a difference in the quality of manure left from different foods, our^rao 
experience certainly points out ; but whether that difference can be accun 
measured is not j'et certain ; but no doubt the experiments that are now t 
can-ied out by the Royal Agricultural Society of England on the subject, 
be very valuable and exhaustive, and the future generation of farmers will 
a debt of gratitude to that Society for undertaking them. I know that s 
who have tried the decorticated cotton-cake have not found it to answer, 
the reason is not far to seek, for it requires to be used with care and judgir 
and never by itself. The stockman must not be allowed to run to the 1 
and take what he may consider a sufficient quantity ; if he does, the « 
will be indigestion and derangement of the stomach in the beasts ; that is 
experience in the use of it for the last seven years. It must be mixed 
twice the quantity of either Indian corn or barley-meal ; and in scndii 
sample of decorticated cotton-cake to be analysed by Dr. Voelcker, my e: 
rience was confirmed by his report, and the valuable advice he gave n 
reference to using it; and it is interesting in showing how sound and prac 
is the opinion of Dr. Voelcker, formed simply from the analysis. . He wri 
' Decorticated cotton-cake, in fact, is too rich in nitrogenous conijiounds to 
by itself, herbivorous animals; it should be broken up much finer ' 
ordinary oilcake, and then used with twice its weight of Indian corn-racf 
feeding-barley, or any farinaceous meal which is comparatively poor in a 
minous matters. A mixture of 1 lb. of decorticatal cotton-cake and 2 lb 
