The Value of Earth-nut Cake as a Feeding Material. 649 
to secure an oil suited to certain special native requirements, the 
residue, or cake, not being considered worth notice. However, cake 
made only of earth-nuts 1 was procurable, and I used it largely in 
feeding all kinds of farm stock for a period of nearly twenty years. 
Horses not being employed for agricultural purposes in South 
India, those I fed on the cake were only the horses used for riding 
and driving. Such horses did their work fairly satisfactorily, and 
kept in good condition, when fed on the cake with forage ; but I 
think they throve better when a mixture of equal weights of cake 
and corn was substituted for the full allowance of cake. For 
ordinary farm-horses in England the cake alone would, I feel sure, 
form an excellent food along with the usual fodder. In India the 
oil-mill generally employed is a sort of pestle-and-mortar arrange- 
ment, but the pestle, instead of being lifted and allowed to fall on 
the seed to be crushed, rotates around the inside of the mortar over 
the seed, and is worked by a bullock. The machine is inexpensive 
to construct, but it does its work in a very imperfect manner, leav- 
ing a large proportion of the oil in the residue. Indeed, the presence 
of so much oil is the reason that, in some instances, the cake has not 
found favour when a trial of it has been made in feeding horses, the 
diarrhoea which resulted being but the natural consequence of the 
excessive quantity of oil present in the cake. It is not likely, how- 
ever, that the earth-nut cake obtainable in England will contain 
too large a proportion of oil, inasmuch as there is reason to suspect 
that the importers or dealers, through Avhose hands the cake must 
pass, re-press it, and remove much of the oil. An allowance of about 
’ The earth-nut, ground-nut, or pea-nut (Arachis hypogoea, L.), is an 
annual herb with procumbent branches. It belongs to the Leguminoscc (sub- 
order Papilionacece), and to the same tribe (Hedysarece) as includes sainfoin 
( Onobrychis sativa ), serradella ( Ornithopus sativus ), and Japanese clover 
( Lespedeza striata), to which. plants it is closely allied. It presents somewhat 
the appearance of a large kind of clover, and has small, bright yellow, pea- 
like flowers, borne on long stalks ; these, after flowering, curl downwards and 
force the immature pod into the soil, where it ripens, and whence it must be dug 
up when harvested. The pod is about 11,- inches long, is somewhat cylindrical, 
is constricted in the middle, and contains from two to three seeds, seventy- 
five of which weigh one ounce. This plant is probably of American origin, 
although it has been long cultivated in India, on the West Coast of Africa, and 
in many other tropical countries. Professor Church, in his Food Grains of 
India, states the following to be the composition of pea-nuts : — 
In 100 parts In 1 lb. 
Water . 
. 7-5 
1 oz. 87 grs 
Albuminoids 
. 24-5 
3 „ 403 „ 
Starch . 
. 11-7 
1 „ 382 „ 
Oil 
. 500 
8 „ 0 „ 
Fibre 
. 4-5 
0 ,, 315 ,, 
Ash . 
• 
. 1-8 
0 „ 126 „ 
“As half the weight of pea-nuts is oil, they require a considerable admixture 
of starchy food in order to become a wholesome and economical article of 
diet. The green and unripe pods are less oily and more easily digested ; they 
have an agreeable taste when roasted. Pea-nuts, after the greater part of the 
oil has been extracted by pressure, yield a cake well adapted for feeding 
cattle.” — E d. 
