COTTON-CAKE. 
75 
The asli is that small portion of the cake which remains 
after the other constituents have been dissipated by burning, 
and consists of the mineral components. The ash of food is 
the source of the mineral portion of the skeleton of an 
animal, as well as of the other saline matter found in the 
other parts of its body. It is, therefore, a highly essential 
ingredient of all kinds of feeding materials. The chief pecu¬ 
liarities of the ash of cotton-cake, according to Dr. Yoelcker, 
are, that it contains a considerable quantity of phosphate of 
magnesia, and, in addition, the phosphates of potash and lime. 
Having then very briefly glanced at the qualities of the 
components of cotton-cake, and at the applications which 
nature makes of these bodies in maintaining the health and 
life of animals, we will now compare the quantities of theifi 
found in the better descriptions of the various conditions of 
cotton-cake with the quantities of the same food-components 
found in the linseed-cake of good quality. 
Products from whole seed. —These are two in number, viz., 
the cake obtained by crushing the entire seed, and the meal 
produced by grinding the cake. By inspecting the table, we 
find, as, indeed, we might expect, they both have a very 
similar composition. On comparing the relative quantities 
of each constituent contained in the whole-seed cake and 
meal with those existing in the linseed-cake, w r e perceive 
that (omitting the water, as being of little importance) the 
former contains between 8 and 9 per cent, less flesh-formers, 
about 50 per cent, less oil, about 3 per cent, more mucilage 
and similar respiratory matters, between two and three tunes 
as much indigestible fibre, and about the same quantity of ash 
as the latter. If we were to be guided by the results of 
chemical analysis alone, we should conclude that whole-seed 
cotton-cake and meal, although containing a large proportion 
of indigestible fibre, and not equal in value to good linseed- 
cake, are nevertheless valuable feeding-materials; but if w T e 
also examine the physical characters, especially of the cake, 
we find that the large amount of indigestible matters which 
it contains is so extremely hard, sharp, and angular, that its 
consumption as food is likely to be attended with dangerous, 
if not fatal, results to the animals partaking of it. The ex¬ 
perience of practical men corroborates these opinions, parti¬ 
cularly in the case of inferior cotton-cakes, some of which 
contain as much or more than half their weight of husks; 
and there are cases on record wherein there is little doubt 
but the death of stock has been occasioned by the use of 
cotton T cake of this description. 
Tor example, Dr. Voelcker, in the paper already referred 
