G50 The Value of Earth-nut Cake as a Feeding Material. 
6 lb. of the cake per day was sufficient to keep a horse in good 
working condition. 
For horses the cake was broken into small pieces, and steeped 
for 24 hours in cold water, just sufficient of which was used to 
make a stiffish paste. This paste is white, and has a rather agree- 
able nut-like smell and taste ; it is readily eaten by most horses. 
Owing to the condition in which the cake leaves the mill, it is met 
with in large, hard blocks, which cannot, without being first broken 
by a hammer, be powdered in an ordinary cake-breaker. Dr. 
Yoelcker refers, in the report already mentioned, to the acid 
character of the cake which was used at Woburn, but acidity is not 
a characteristic of the cake as ordinarily met with in India. I know 
no oil-cake which, when properly stored, will for so long a time 
preserve its good properties. 
I have used the cake very extensively in feeding working cattle ; 
an allowance of 4 lb. per head per day, with forage, kept the animals 
in perfect health and condition. A pair of such oxen, weighing 
each about 800 lb. live-weight, would plough § of an acre of light 
land daily for several months of the year. For fattening cattle I do 
not know of any better food, in regard alike to its feeding value 
and to the superior quality of the beef produced. As a food for 
dairy cows it is admirable, both in increasing the yield of milk 
and in improving its quality. The butter of cows so fed is firmer 
and keeps much better than that of cows fed on any of the ordinary 
oil-cakes. A daily allowance of 4 to 6 lb. of the cake, given in the 
form of paste, and mixed with 2 or 3 lb. of wheat bran, constitutes a 
perfect food for milch cows. I have had cows so fed, for several 
years, yielding well and breeding regularly. One cow which, to my 
knowledge, was fed thus for nearly ten years, enjoyed perfect health, 
produced a calf every year, and milked exceedingly well. 
For sheep there is no better food than earth-nut cake ; but for 
these animals I found it best to give the cake dry and broken into 
small pieces. I had a large flock fed on the cake for several years, 
and never knew any bad results attending its use. The ewes so fed 
bred regularly, milked well, and reared excellent lambs, while the 
mutton of these cake-fed sheep was of superior quality, though 
perhaps hardly equal to the gram-fed mutton so highly appreciated 
in India. 
Many experiments have proved the value of the cake as a food 
for pigs ; for these animals it was generally made into a thin gruel 
and given mixed with bran. The same preparation, but in not quite 
so thin a condition, constitutes a superior food for fattening poultry, 
though it is not so useful for laying-fowls. The flesh of poultry 
fattened on the cake is white, fine, and of a superior flavour. 
It is remarkable that earth-nut cake has not made more progress 
in coming into regular demand in England. It has long been known 
and esteemed in the United States. Though the cake is imported 
into England somewhat extensively from India, it is not ordinarily 
procurable in our markets, being, it is believed, bought up by the 
