Quarterly  Reports  of  the  Chemical  Committee , 1882;  251 
would  in  all  probability  have  been  identical  ; but  in  cases 
where  an  admixture  of  sand,  weed-seeds,  or  siftings  have  been 
allowed,  there  may  be  great  variations  in  the  quality  of  par- 
ticular cakes  taken  from  the  same  bulk  ; as  the  sand,  weed- 
siftings,  &c.,  are  seldom  equally  distributed  throughout  the 
whole  of  the  make. 
Attention  was  called  to  the  impurity  of  Black  Sea  rape-cakes 
in  my  Annual  Report,  1878,  vol.  xv.,  p.  350  of  the  ‘ Journal.’ 
3.  Rape-cakes  and  some  kinds  of  feeding-cakes  occasionally 
contain  so  much  wild  mustard-seed  as  to  become  positively 
poisonous  when  eaten  by  stock  in  considerable  quantities.  A 
case  in  point  has  lately  been  brought  under  my  notice  by 
Mr.  George  Laing,  Wark,  Coldstream,  who,  on  the  13th  of  April, 
wrote  as  follows  : — 
“ Wark,  Coldstream,  N.B.,  April  13tli,  1882. 
“ Sir, — To-day  I send  you  by  post  a sample  of  feeding-cake  for  analysis, 
It  is  called  by  the  maker  ‘ Sweet  Rape-cake,’  and  is  said  to  be  made  of  rape, 
locust-beans,  and  meal.  About  ten  days  ago  I began  to  give  some  two-year- 
old  store  cattle  one  small  feed  of  it  per  day,  they  getting  a small  feed  of 
turnips  in  the  morning,  and  as  much  oat-straw  as  they  would  eat.  After  they 
had  had  three  feeds  of  the  cake,  one  of  them  was  found  dead  in  the  yard  close  to 
the  water-trough,  and  other  two  were  very  ill,  one  of  which  died  after  a day’s 
illness,  and  the  other  got  better.  None  of  the  others  (there  were  50  of  them) 
seemed  to  be  affected  in  any  way.  Each  one  of  the  three  cattle  that  were 
taken  ill  were  in  different  yards,  and  the  weight  of  cake  laid  down  for  each 
beast  was  under  14  lbs.  I expect  that  the  three  cattle  must  have  eaten  more 
than  their  share  of  the  cake,  but  even  if  they  had  eaten,  say  5 lbs.,  I don’t 
think  they  should  have  died  from  the  effects  if  the  cake  is  good  and  digestible. 
I shall  be  much  obliged  if  you  will  give  me  a full  analysis  of  the  cake,  and 
your  opinion  as  to  its  suitability  as  a feeding-stuff  for  store  cattle.  I may 
say  that  since  stopping  giving  the  ‘ Sweet-Rape-cake  ’ the  cattle  have  all 
been  perfectly  healthy. — Yours  faithfully,; 
“ Geo.  Laing. 
“ Dr.  Augustus  Yoelcker,  London.” 
On  analysis,  this  sweet  rape-cake  had  the  following  com- 
position : — 
Moisture 13 '43 
Oil 5-26 
* Albuminous  compounds  (flesh-forming  matters)  13 '31 
Mucilage,  sugar,  and  digestible  fibre  ..  ..  48 '43 
Woody  fibre  (cellulose) 14  ‘23 
Mineral  matter  (ash)  5 • 34 
100-00 
* Containing  nitrogen 2*13 
This  cake,  I found,  contained  a good  deal  of  wild  mustard, 
and  I have  no  doubt  cattle  eating  rather  much  of  the  cake  will 
be  injuriously  affected  by  the  pungent  essential  oil  of  mustard, 
which  is  gradually  developed  in  the  intestinal  canal.  Judging 
from  similar  cases,  I consider  it  highly  probable  that  the 
