Annual Report for 1894 of the Consulting Chemist. 767 
A was a very hard-pressed American cake, extremely low in oil. 
Despite this, it cost, in April 1894, 81. 12s. (hi. per ton delivered, 
near Worcester. 
B cost, in October 1894, V. 5s. per ton delivered, the carriage 
alone costing 11s. 8d. per ton. 
C cost, in October 1894, 51. 15s. per ton, ex ship, or 6 1. 2s. 6 d. 
per ton delivered. 
All three cakes, it may be added, were pure ones. 
Castor-oil Bean in Linseed Cakes. 
The occurrence of castor-oil bean in linseed cake is, in my ex- 
perience, almost confined to the case of foreign-made cakes, and 
especially those that come from Marseilles. At the latter port a 
good deal of castor bean is crushed, and care is not always taken to 
thoroughly clean the mills of it before putting them on to linseed or 
other seed crushing. This constitutes one of the chief risks run by 
farmers who purchase cheap foreign-made cakes. In one instance 
that came under my notice a delivery of cake, sold as “ Round 
Italian Linseed Cake,” was found to contain castor- oil bean, and 
over thirty lambs died from eating it. In another case a farmer 
had been unwise enough to purchase the sweepings of wharves, 
floors, &c., and into these some castor-oil bean had found its way. 
On giving it to a flock of 96 sheep 25 of them died, and all the 
others were more or less affected. It need hardly be said how great is 
the risk run in using as food for stock such materials as the sweep- 
ings of mills, floors, &c. 
In reference to the occurrence of castor-oil bean in linseed and 
other cakes, it is well to point out that a difficulty may exist in sub- 
sequently tracing the actual presence of the poisonous seed, for, inas- 
much as it is seldom or never put in purposely, but finds its way in 
by some means such as that described in the crushing of linseed 
immediately after castor seed has been used in the same mill, it is 
quite possible that only the first lot of cakes of a delivery may con- 
tain the castor seed, while others may be free from it. An examina- 
tion of a single cake may thus, presumably, lead to the conclusion 
that no castor is present. In all such cases several cakes from 
different parts of the delivery should be separately examined for the 
presence of the poisonous seed. 
Cotton Cakes. 
Perhaps in no recent year has cotton seed come over to this 
country more “ woolly ” and dirty than during the past season. Nor 
has there often been less trouble taken generally in cleaning it. 
Sand, as noticed in my last Annual Report, has again been prominent 
by its quantity, and, taking it all round, the common or undecorti- 
cated cotton cake has been singularly poor in quality this year. 
In one case in which I had reported that a sample of cotton 
cake was “ very woolly in character, the seed not having been pro- 
perly cleaned from wool,” it was ascertained that three bullocks that 
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