COMPOSITION AND NUTRITIVE VALUE OF COTTON-CAKE. 325 
with the addition of a little good cake, are pressed into 
an inferior cake. No. 2 and No. 3 were cakes made in 
England ; they are better cakes than No. 1. 
4. Oil-meal. 
It has been already mentioned that, on account of the 
difficulty which the consumer experiences in crushing the 
thick cake, the manufacturers of this article break up the 
cake into a coarse powder. This is afterwards kiln-dried, 
and brought into commerce under the name of patent kiln- 
dried oil-meal. Two specimens of such oil-meal gave on 
analysis the following results : 
Composition of Patent Kiln-dried Oil-meal. 
No. 1. 
No. 2. 
Moisture ...... 
9-40 
10-21 
Oil ....... 
17-39 
19-71 
* Albuminous compounds (flesh-forming matters) 
Gum, mucilage, sugar, and digestible fibre (heat-pro- 
43-81 
40-25 
ducing substances) ..... 
11-21 
16-38 
Indigestible woody fibre .... 
10-44 
5-84 
Inorganic matters (ash) .... 
7-75 
7-61 
100-00 
100-00 
* Containing nitrogen .... 
7-01 
6*44 
Oil-meal, if genuine, it thus appears, is identical in com¬ 
position with the best decorticated cotton-cake. 
No. 2, it will be seen, contained nearly 20 per cent, of oil, 
■which is more than I ever found before in any kind of oil¬ 
cake. 
The process of kiln-drying is resorted to for the purpose 
of preserving the meal in good condition. It imparts to the 
cake a peculiar and by no means unpleasant flavour, which is 
said to be much liked bv cattle. 
•/ 
On the whole, oil-meal, when genuine, and of as good a 
quality as the two specimens analysed by me, presents a 
handy form of supplying cattle with decorticated cotton- 
cake; and as it is, moreover, cheaper than the thin cake, its 
use for feeding purposes is not only more convenient, but 
likewise more economic, than that of thin cotton-cake. 
There is, however, a certain degree of danger in buying a 
powder, for rubbish of various sorts may be mixed with the 
meal by unprincipled dealers. But, on the other hand, the 
respectability of the dealer and chemical analysis afford the 
means of preventing this species of fraud. 
