COMPOSITION AND NUTRITIVE VALUE OE COTTON-CAKE. 203 
We have thus, as far as I know, the following four varieties 
of cotton-cake offered for sale in the English market: 
1. Thin decorticated cotton-cake. 
2. Thick decorticated cake . 
3. Ordinary cake made of whole seed. 
4. Oil-meal. 
Having analysed recently samples of each kind, I now 
beg to lay before the public the results of my examina¬ 
tions, and to accompany the analytical data by a few 
observations that may assist intending purchasers in selecting 
for themselves the best description of cotton-cake. No other 
description of cake is subject to so great variations in com¬ 
position as cotton-cake. In practical feeding experiments it 
is therefore most desirable that the composition of the cake 
should be stated, or, at any rate, the kind of cake be accu¬ 
rately described. 
The following results plainly show that cotton-cake has 
been sold this year in England which is more than twice as 
nutritious and fattening as other samples. Those who have 
been fortunate enough to secure the best decorticated cake 
I doubt not will be led by their experience to consider it a 
most valuable feeding substance, whilst the experience of 
buyers of inferior cake, made from the whole seed, must 
lead to a much less favorable practical opinion. 
1. Thin Decorticated Cotton-cake. 
This cake, as mentioned already, is made from the shelled 
seed. It has about the same thickness and shape as American 
linseed-cake, but differs from the latter in outward appear¬ 
ance and in composition. The best decorticated cotton-cake 
has a light yellow colour, and is free from any strong smell; 
neither has it any well-defined taste. It shows here and 
there a few threads of cotton-fibre, and contains very little of 
the dark-brown coloured seed-shells. Mixed with water, in 
a roughly powdered state, it does not become gelatinous like 
linseed-cake, nor does it develope any pungent smell under 
this treatment like rape-cake. 
Cotton-cake does not contain any large amount of muci¬ 
lage, nor anything that produces on mixing with water a 
volatile, pungent, and injurious essential oil. 
Cattle often take at once to it, and even when fed upon 
linseed-cake they soon get accustomed to the taste of cotton- 
cake, and apparently eat it as readily as linseed-cake. 
