Annual Report for 1892 of the Consulting Chemist. 787 
freed from it. It is very difficult to separate and to estimate the 
quantity of wool, owing to its close attachment to the husk, but, by 
passing the cake through a mill and carefully rubbing the husk upon 
a sieve, a comparative idea may be formed of the relative amounts 
of wool in different samples. I would illustrate this by the follow- 
ing instances : — 
(a) A sample of TJndecorticated Cotton-cake which appeared to 
be very “ woolly,” after being passed through a mill and rubbed on 
a sieve, was found to have 28'7 per cent, of wool and coarse wool- 
covered husk, whilst a good cake which had been used in the Wo- 
burn Feeding Experiments gave, after similar treatment, only 8'5 
per cent, of wool and woolly husk. 
(b) A Decorticated Cotton-cake which had a woolly appearance 
was found to contain 2’20per cent, of wool and woolly husk. 
A sample of another cake used in the Woburn Feeding Experi- 
ments contained only ‘75 per cent, of wool and husk. 
In the last named case (Decorticated Cotton-cake) the wool of 
the bad cake occupied 3^ times the bulk of the wool in the good 
cake, and it hung together in flocks, whereas that in the good cake 
consisted almost entirely of fine fibres. 
Maize Meal. 
Occurrence of Castor Bean . — An important case was brought 
under my notice, in which a sample of maize meal was found to 
contain some husk of castor-oil bean. 
A number of cows had been taken ill after having had only one 
feed of the meal. They became severely purged, and went off 
their milk for about a week. Horses and pigs which had also eaten 
the meal became ill, but four heifers which had had none remained 
quite well. 
The presence of castor-oil bean was readily detected by the help 
of the method alluded to earlier in this Report. 
Maize Oil cake . — A new feeding material has been introduced 
under this name, and samples of it gave 
the following analyses : — 
No. X 
No. 2 
Jloisture 
. 811 
10-50 
Oil 
. 9-11 
12-50 
' ,\lbuminous compoucd.s 
. 24-31 
25-02 
Starch, digestible fibre, &c. 
. 52-i)0 
40-65 
Woody fibre (cellulose) 
. 4-27 
8-63 
Jlineral matter (ash) 
. 1-30 
2-10 
100-00 
100-00 
' containing nitrogen 
. 3-89 4 10 
The price of the meal marked No. 
London. 
1 was bl. 5s. 
per ton 
The figures of analysis read well, and are not at all unlike those 
of linseed-cake. The meal is, however, wanting in taste, and has 
the objectionable feature of being distinctly acid. 
