Annual Report on Adulterations, §*c. 
235 
of superior quality. Still, however, inferior and more or less 
impure cakes find their way into the hands of the agriculturist ; 
and continued vigilance on the part of the purchaser is still 
desirable, in order to put the trade in oilcakes into a liealthy con- 
dition. A step in the right direction has lately been taken by 
the seed-crushers themselves, who, to check seed-importers in 
the practice of mixing linseed with worthless and often injurious 
weed-seeds before it reaches the shores of England, have 
organized a plan which will secure the importation of linseed, 
containing not more than 5 or 6 per cent, of foreign impurities. 
Little or no difficulty may therefore be expected in procuring 
pure linseed-cakes, provided a fair remunerative price is paid for 
them. 
The best cakes examined by me this season were of English 
make, stamped " Pure." Almost equal to them I found several 
samples of Marseilles cake. The latter, however, though pure 
and superior to the generality of English cake, are, as a rule, 
not quite so good as the best English or American, inasmuch 
as they are too hard pressed, and, consequently, rather deficient 
in oil. For store stock, on the other hand, they will be found an 
economical food on account of their moderate price. In buying 
this cake, care should be taken to select good samples, inasmuch 
as it is frequently mixed with nut-cake. 
Decorticated cotton-cake, which is only made in America, 
is now seldom seen in the market, and its place is now taken 
almost entirely by whole-seed cake of English make. In former 
years, cases of so-called poisoning with cotton-cake were fre- 
quently brought under my notice ; in the past season only three 
or four instances of the injurious effects from its use were re- 
ferred to me : from this it may be inferred that English cotton- 
cake is now generally sold in a better condition than formerly. 
This, indeed, is the case. Having failed to detect an essentially 
poisonous matter in any of the cotton-cakes, which, nevertheless, 
unquestionably had an injurious, and, in many cases, fatal effect 
upon the animals to which they were given, I looked closely into 
this matter, and learned that the injurv to cattle was produced by 
the hard, indigestible, and badly comminated husk. My sug- 
gestion to remove a portion of the coarser husk by screening, and 
to reduce the remainder into a tolerably fine powder, has been 
adopted by several makers, who have thus removed the chief 
defects that characterize all cakes in which the husk may be seen 
in large fragments. Inferior cake has always a brownish colour, 
instead of a more greenish-yellow appearance. 
2. The lecture on Manure Experiments on Grass-land delivered 
by me last May has led to an extended correspondence, and 
elicited many inquiries from members of the Society, affording an 
