Castor-Oil Seed in Cattle Foods. 
599 
of interest to know the results of some investigations made by this 
process. 
The experiments were made with some good undecorticated 
cotton cake, which had been proved to be quite free from any 
admixture of castor-seed. 
To each of three separate pounds of this cake, crushed finely, 
one castor-seed was added, also in a broken condition. Since it is 
the testa (or outer coat) of the seed, and not the whole seed, which 
is separated by the process, the testa of each of the three seeds was 
weighed and then intimately mixed with the pound of cotton-seed 
cake. 
In experiment I. the seed-testa weighed 3‘4o grains, and of this 3 10 
grains were recovered. 
In experiment II. the seed-testa weighed 1’80 grains, and of this 1'35 
grains were recovered. 
In experiment III. the seed-testa weighed I’OO grain, and of this 0 65 
grain was recovered. 
From these experiments it will be seen that not only can this 
poisonous seed be detected when present in a cattle food to the 
extent of only one seed per pound, but that a very fair idea of the 
actual quantity may be obtained also. 
The question naturally arises : How comes it that small quanti- 
ties of castor-seed are present in cattle foods at all ? As cases of 
damage to stock have been “ brought home ” to the presence of this 
seed in the foods, inquiry on this point has naturally been made. 
Both Dr. Bernard Dyer and Mr. Smetham have pointed out ' that 
the castor-oil plant grows as a iveed amongst the cotton crop. 
This readily accounts for its presence in small amount amongst the 
cotton-seed on the arrival of the latter in England. Unfortunately, 
too, the seed is about the same size as the cotton-seed, so that a 
process of sieving would not readily remove it. Were it the case 
that castor-seed is exclusively found in cotton-cakes, and never in 
linseed- cakes or in other foods, one might conclude that this was the 
only reason for its occurrence. Unhappily this is not so. The late 
Dr. Voelcker, in his paper on “ Linseed- cakes ” (Journal, R.A.S.E., 
Second Series, ix. 27) says that he has I’epeatedly found itinlinseed- 
cake. Again, in the Journal R.A.S.E., Third Series, Vol. iii., Part 
II., p. 347, Dr. J. A. Voelcker mentions the case of a linseed-cake 
which contained castor-seed. In another place. Dr. Dyer states that 
he has found castor-seed in niger seed-cake and in linseed-cake, and 
Mr. Smetham refers to two cargoes of decorticated cotton-seed meal 
which he had to condemn, because they contained castor-seed. 
Lastly, the writer has found this same seed in maize meal. 
Where the castor-oil plant is cultivated for the sake of the oil 
which the seed contains, the latter is crushed and pressed, and 
there remains a “cake,” known by the name “castor poonac.” 
This ought only to be used as a manure, but it is to be feared that, 
either through carelessness or else by deliberate admixture, it some- 
' The Arialyst, vol. xvii. No. 195, p. 125. 
VOL. III. T. S. — 11 
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