b92^ Abstract Report of Agricultural Discussions. 
jelly, and the jelly is examined through a pocket lens, you can single 
out mechanically other descriptions of seed ; for their husks are left. 
I have here a sample of cake branded " pui-e ; " but it contains 
cotton husks. I have placed on the table a sample of cotton-seed 
and a sample of cotton-cake ; and these husks of the cotton seed have 
such a distinctive character that any one who examines the cake will 
recognise by the peculiar character of the husk the adulteration of the 
cake. Among the common materials used in adulteration is bran, a 
material which possesses some feeding properties, and may with 
advantage be given with linseed-cake ; but it is much more desirable 
to buy bran and pm-e oilcake separately ; for it is impossible to ascer- 
tain in what proportions they are mixed. The mere analysis of the 
cake cannot determine this point. Bran is often contained in cakes 
to such an extent that you can separate it mechanically ; but even then 
their composition cannot be estimated exactly. We have certain seeds 
which are particularly rich in albuminous, that is, nitrogenous sub- 
stances. Other seeds and meals, mill-refuse, and matter like bran, are 
rather deficient in this respect. By mixing linseed with bran, and 
adding at the same time rapeseed, you make up for the deficiency of 
nitrogenous matter by the rapeseed. Thus a clever oilcake-mixer may 
readily produce such a mixed cake as will exhibit upon analysis the 
same amounts of oil, flesh-forming, and albuminous matters and the 
other constituents as are usually found in genuine pure linseed-cakes. 
The mere analysis, therefore, does not give any idea of the pui-ity of 
the cake. 
Allow me now to direct your attention to cotton-cake. Cotton- 
cake of the best character is now hardly ever met with in the market ; 
the horrible American war has cut off our supply. Cotton-seed has a 
hard shell, which, in some varieties, amounts to one-half the weight. 
The best cake is made from the kernel only ; but it is not made in this 
country, because we have not the proper machinery fur shelling seed. 
This sample is a very good common cotton-cake, made of the whole 
seed ; this other, made from the kernel alone, is of a very superior 
quality. Here is a third and very inferior sample ; and yet another, 
which, in a particular instance, has done very serious damage to the 
stock to which it was given. 
In the whole seed cotton-cake there is sometimes such an excess of 
husk or indigestible cotton-fibre present, that the animal which i^fed 
upon it has not the power to deject it : a mechanical stoppage takes 
place in the lower intestines, inflammation of the whole intestinal 
canal ensues, and the animal dies. In these cases the death is fre- 
quently mistaken for a case of real poisoning ; but there is nothing 
either poisonous or deleterious in cotton-seed ; nevertheless, it acts 
injuriously, by causing a mechanical obstruction, and the result is the 
same as that sometimes produced by a strong irritant or a metallic 
poison. There is, indeed, great danger in giving the whole cake 
made of the seed indiscriminately, that is to say, in too largo a pro- 
portion ; it ought always to be given in the form of meal, together 
with roots or other succulent food which have a tendency to keep the 
bowels open, Dui-ing the last year or two I must have had a dozen 
