Chapter XXIV: Section VII: Oil-Cakes, and Other Artificial Foods

Oil-seeds, on being subjected to considerable pressure, part with a large proportion of their oil, the remaining part of that fluid, together with the various other ingredients of the seeds, constitute the substances so well known to agriculturists under the name of oil-cakes. These cakes contain a larger proportion of ready-formed fatty matter than is found in any other feeding stuff, and an amount of flesh-forming principles far greater than that yielded by corn, or even by beans; the manure, too, which is produced by the cattle fed upon some of them, is often good value for nearly half the sum expended on the food.

The principal kinds of oil-cake employed for feeding purposes are the following:--Linseed-cake, Rape-cake, and cotton-seed cake. Poppy cake is not much in use. Their average composition, deduced from the results of numerous analyses made by Voelcker, Anderson, and myself, are shown in the following table:--

AVERAGE COMPOSITION OF OIL-CAKES.

---------------------------+---------+------+------------+-------
| Linseed | |Decorticated|
| Cake, | Rape | Cottonseed | Poppy
| English.| Cake.| Cake. | Cake.
+---------+------+------------+-------
Water | 12 | 11 | 9 | 12
Flesh-forming principles | 28 | 30 | 38 | 32
Oil | 10 | 11 | 13 | 6
Gum, mucilage, &c. | 34 | 30 | 23 | 30
Woody fibre | 10 | 10 | 9 | 9
Mineral matter (ash) | 6 | 8 | 8 | 1
+---------+------+------------+-------
| 100 | 100 | 100 | 100
---------------------------+---------+------+------------+-------

_Linseed Cake._--Within the last quarter of a century great attention has been given to the feeding of stock, and the effects are observable in the improved quality and greatly increased weight of the animals. In the year 1839 the average weight of the horned beasts from Ireland sold in the London market was only 650 lbs., whereas at the present time their average weight is about 740 lbs. This remarkable advance in the production of meat is in great part due to the cattle being more liberally supplied with food, and that, too, of a more concentrated nature. The practice of feeding animals destined for the shambles exclusively on roots containing 90 and even 95 per cent. of water, which once prevailed so generally in this country, is now limited to the farmsteads of a few old-fashioned feeders; and the necessity for the admixture of highly-nutritious aliment with the bulky substances which form the staple food of stock is almost universally recognised.

Of concentrated foods used for fattening stock, none stands higher in the estimation of the farmer than linseed-cake, although it appears to me that the price of the article is somewhat too high in relation to its amount of nutriment, and that corn, if its price be moderate, is a more economical food. Straw, turnips, and mangels form the bone and sinew of the animals, and enable them to carry on the vital operations which are essential to their existence. Oil-cake and similar foods are supplemental, and contribute directly to the animal's increase, so that their nutritive value appears to be greater than it really is. If an animal were fed exclusively upon oil-cake, the greater part of it would be appropriated to the reparation of the waste of the body, and the rest would be converted into permanent flesh--the animal's "increase." The addition of straw would produce a still further increase in the animal's weight--an increase which would be directly proportionate to the amount of straw consumed. Thus it will be seen that, whatever the staple food may be, it will have to sustain the life of the animal, and will be principally expended for that purpose, whereas the supplemental food will be chiefly, if not entirely, made use of in increasing the weight of flesh. To me it appears manifestly incorrect to consider, as feeders practically do, the value of linseed-cake to be seven or eight times greater than that of oat-straw, and twenty times greater than that of roots. Let us assume the case of an animal fed upon roots, straw, and oil-cake. Seventy-five per cent. of its food, say, is expended in repairing the waste of its body, and 25 per cent. is stored up in its increase. Now, if the three kinds of food contributed proportionately to the reparation of the body and to its increase, the roots and straw would be found to possess a far higher nutritive value, in relation to the oil-cake, than is usually ascribed to them.

But it may be asked why straw, if it be relatively a much more economical feeding stuff than oil-cake, is not employed to the complete exclusion of the latter. I have already given an answer to such a question, namely, that animals thrive better on a diet composed partly of bulky, partly of concentrated aliments. This much, however, is certain, that animals can be profitably fed upon roots and straw, whilst it is equally certain that to feed them upon oil-cake alone (assuming them to thrive upon such a diet) would entail a very heavy loss upon the feeder. At the same time it must be admitted that the oil of the linseed-cake exercises in all probability a beneficial influence on the digestion of the animal, so that the nutritive value of the article may be somewhat higher than its mere composition would indicate.

The quantity of oil-cake given to fattening stock varies from 2 lbs. to 14 lbs. per diem. I believe there is no greater mistake made by feeders than that of giving excessive quantities of this substance to stock. If their object in so doing be to enrich their manure-heap, they would find it far more economical to add the cake directly to the manure--or rather of adding rape-cake to it, for this variety of cake is fully as valuable for manurial purposes as the linseed-cake, and is nearly 50 per cent. cheaper. A larger quantity of oil-cake than 7 lbs. daily should not be given to even the largest-sized milch cows or fattening bullocks. If a larger amount be employed, it will pass unchanged through the animal's body. Young cattle may with advantage be supplied with from 1 to 3 lbs., according to their size, and from 1/2 to 1 lb. will be a sufficient quantity for sheep. Intelligent feeders have remarked, that cattle which had been always supplied with a moderate allowance of this food fattened more readily upon it, during their finishing stage, than did stock which had not been accustomed to its use.

_Adulteration of Linseed Cake._--The great drawback to the use of linseed-cake is the liability of the article to be adulterated. The sophistication is sometimes of a harmless nature, if we except its injurious effect on the farmer's pocket; but not unfrequently the substances added to the cakes possess properties which completely unfit them to be used as food. Amongst the injurious substances found in linseed and linseed-cake I may mention the seeds of the purging-flax, darnel, spurry, corn-cockle, curcus-beans, and castor-oil beans. Several of these seeds are highly drastic purgatives, and they have been known to cause intense inflammation of the bowels of animals fed upon oil-cake, of which they composed but a small proportion. Amongst the adulterations of linseed-cake, which lower its nutritive value without imparting to it any injurious properties, are the seeds of the cereals and the grasses, bran, and flax-straw. Little black seeds belonging to various species of _Polygonum_, are very often present in even good cakes; they are very indigestible, but otherwise are not injurious. Rape-cake is stated to be occasionally used as adulterant of the more costly linseed, but I have never met with an admixture of the two articles.

The only way in which a correct estimate of the value of linseed-cake can be arrived at is by a combined microscopical and chemical analysis; but as the feeder is not always disposed to incur the cost of this process, he should make himself acquainted with the characteristic of the genuine cake, in order to be able to discriminate, as far as possible, between it and the sophisticated article. I will indicate a few of the more prominent features of cake of excellent quality, and point out a few simple and easily-performed tests, which may serve to detect the existence of gross adulteration. Good cake is hard, of a reddish-brown color, uniform in appearance, and possesses a rather pleasant flavor and odour. The adulterated cake is commonly of a greyish hue, and has a disagreeable odour. A weighed quantity of the cake--say 100 grains--in the state of powder should be formed into a paste with an ounce of water; if it be good, the paste will be light colored, moderately stiff, and endowed with a pleasant odour and flavor. If the paste be thin, the presence of bran, or of grass seeds, is probable. The latter are easily seen through a magnifying-glass; indeed, most of them are readily recognisable by the unassisted eye: they may, therefore, be picked out, and their weight determined. Sand--a frequent adulterant--may be detected by mixing a small weighed quantity of the powdered cake with about twelve times its weight of water, allowing the mixture to stand for half an hour, and collecting and weighing the sand which will be found at the bottom of the vessel employed. If there be bran present it will be found lying on the sand, and its structure is sufficiently distinct to admit of its detection by a mere glance. There are a great variety of linseed-cakes in the market, of which the home-made article is the best. On the Continent the oil-seeds are subjected to the action of heat in order to obtain from them a greater yield of oil. Their cakes, therefore, contain less oil, and their flesh-forming principles are less soluble, in comparison with British linseed-cake. Next to our home-made oil-cakes, the American is the best. Indeed, I have met with some American cakes which were equal to the best English.

_Rape Cake._--The use of rape-cake was limited almost completely to the fertilising of the soil until the late Mr. Pusey, in a paper published in the tenth volume of the _Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England_, advocated its employment as a substitute for the more costly linseed-cake. The recommendation of this distinguished agriculturist has not been disregarded; and since his time the use of this cake as a feeding stuff has been steadily on the increase, and at the present time its annual consumption is not far short of 50,000 tons.

In relation to the nutritive value of rape-cake there exists considerable diversity of opinion. Certain feeders assert that animals fed upon it go out of condition; others, whilst admitting that stock thrive upon it, maintain the economic superiority of linseed-cake; whilst a third set believe rape-cake to be the most economical of feeding-stuffs. How are we to account for these great differences of opinion--not amongst _theorists_, be it observed, but amongst practical men? It is not difficult to explain them away satisfactorily. Rape-cake and linseed-cake are about equally rich in muscle and fat-forming principles; and, supposing both to be equally well-flavored, there can be no doubt but that one is just as nourishing as the other. But it so happens that a large proportion of the rape-cake which comes into the British market possesses a flavor which renders it very disagreeable to animals. One variety--namely, the East Indian--is almost poisonous, whilst the very best kind is slightly inferior to linseed-cake. Now, if an experiment with a very inferior kind of rape-cake and a good variety of linseed-cake were tried, who can doubt but that the results would be very unfavorable to the former article? Mr. Callan,[36] of Rathfarnham, county Dublin; Mr. Bird,[37] of Renton Barns, and some other feeders, who found rape-cake to be worse than useless, experimented, in all probability, with an adulterated article, for they do not appear to have had the cake analysed. On the other hand, those whose experience with rape-cake has proved favorable, must have employed the article in a genuine state, fresh, and moderately well-flavored. It is noteworthy that amongst the advocates for the use of rape-cake as a substitute--partly or entirely--for the more costly linseed-cake, are to be found the most successful feeders in England and Scotland. Horsfall, Mechi, Lawrence, Bond, Hope, and many other feeders of equal celebrity, have assigned to rape-cake the highest place, in an economic point of view, amongst the concentrated feeding stuffs. Mr. Mechi says:--"I invariably give to all my animals as much rape-cake as they choose to eat, however abundant their roots or green food may be. It pays in many ways, and not to do this is a great pecuniary mistake. Even when fed on green rape, they will eat rape-cake abundantly. My cattle are now under cover, eating the steamed chaff, rape-cake, malt-combs, and bran, all mixed together in strict accordance with the proportions named by Mr. Horsfall in the _Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society_, vol. xviii., p. 150,[38] which I find by far the most profitable mode of feeding bullocks and cows." Mr. Hope, of Edinburgh, states that rape-cake is the best substitute for turnips, and that, excepting cases where spurious kinds had been used, he never knew bullocks or milch cows to refuse it. This gentleman states that it is best given in combination with locust-beans, or a mixture of locust-beans and Indian corn; and suggests the proportions set down in the tables as the best adapted for lean cattle; but I think about two-thirds of the quantities would be quite sufficient.

Feed per week. Per week.

lbs. s. d.

Rape-cake at L5 15s. per ton 8 2 10-1/2
Do. do. 10 3 7
Mixture of two-thirds rape-cake and
one-third locust-beans L6 8 3 0
Do. do. 10 3 9
Rape-cake, locust-beans, and Indian
Corn in equal proportions 8 3 2-1/2
Do. do. 10 3 11-1/4

An intelligent Scotch dairy farmer bears the following testimony in favor of this cake:--

I have tried pease-meal, bean-meal, oat-meal, and linseed-cake,
and after carefully noting the results, I consider rape-cake,
weight for weight, at least equal to any of them for milch cows;
and if I give the same money value for each, I get at least
one-third more produce, and the butter is always of a very
superior quality. Two years ago, I took some of my best oats
(41 lbs. per bushel), and ground them for the cows, and although
I was at about one-third more expense, I lost fully one-third of
the produce that I had by using rape-cake. I always dissolve it
by pouring boiling water on it, and give each cow 6 lbs. daily.
I have tried a larger quantity, and found I was fully repaid for
the extra expense. I generally use it the most of the summer,
but always during the spring months. A number of my neighbours
who have tried it all agree that it is the best and cheapest
feed for milch cows they have used.--_North British Agriculturist_,
Edinburgh, February 29, 1860.

The best kinds of rape-cake come from Germany and Denmark. When neither too old nor too fresh, and of a pale-green color, these foreign cakes are tolerably well-flavored, and are but slightly inferior to good linseed-cake. Most varieties of this cake, however, contain a small proportion of acrid matter, which often renders them more or less distasteful to stock, more particularly to cattle. This substance may be rendered quite innocuous by steaming or boiling the cake; either of these processes will also, according to Mr. Lawrence, destroy the disagreeable flavor which mustard-seed--a frequent adulterant of rape-cake--confers upon that article. Molasses or treacle is an excellent adjunct to the cake, as it serves in a great measure to correct its somewhat unpleasant flavor. Carob, or locust-beans, answer, perhaps better, the same purpose. It is better, as a general rule, to give less rape-cake than linseed-cake, unless the pale-green kind to which I have referred is obtainable; that variety may be largely employed. The animals should be gradually accustomed to its use. At first, in the case of bullocks, they should get only 1 lb. per diem, and the quantity should be gradually increased to about 4 lbs.; but I would not advise, under any circumstances, a larger daily allowance than 5 lbs. Given in moderate amounts, it will, supposing it to be of fair quality, be found to give a better return in meat than almost any other kind of concentrated food; and, what is of great importance, it will not injuriously affect the animal's health. "Our experience of the use of rape-cake," says Mr. Lawrence, "thus used (cooked), extends over a period of ten years of feeding from 20 to 24 bullocks annually. We have not had a single death during that period, and the animals have been remarkably free from any kind of ailment."

Rape-cake of good quality possesses a dark-green color (the greener the better), and when broken exhibits a mottled aspect--yellowish and dark-brown spots. Sometimes a tolerably good specimen has a brownish color; but the German and Danish cakes are always of a greenish hue. The odor is stronger than that of linseed-cake, and differs but little from that of rape-oil. The only serious adulteration of rape-cake is the addition to it of mustard-seed--sometimes accidentally--less frequently, as I believe, intentionally. This sophistication admits of easy detection. Scrape into small particles about half an ounce of the cake, add six times its weight of water, form the solid and liquid into a paste, and allow the mixture to stand for a few hours. If the cake contain mustard the characteristic odor of that substance will be evolved, and its intensity will afford a rough indication of the amount of the adulterant. As some specimens of genuine rape-cake possess a somewhat pungent odor, care must be taken not to confound it with that of mustard; but, indeed, it is not difficult to discriminate the latter. The paste of rape-cake which contains an injurious proportion of mustard, has a very pungent flavor. Rape-cake improves somewhat if kept for say six months; but old cake is worse than the fresh article.

_Cottonseed Cake_ is one of the most valuable feeding stuffs that have come into use of late years. Its chemical composition shows it to be about equal to that of the best linseed-cake, and as its price is much lower than that of the latter, it may be fairly considered a more economical food. These remarks apply only to the shelled, or decorticated seed-cake, for the article prepared from the whole seed is of very inferior composition, and should never be employed. The use of the cake made from the whole seed has proved fatal in many instances, not from its possessing any poisonous quality, but in consequence of its hard, indigestible husk, accumulating in, and inflaming, the animal's bowels.

The composition of this cake varies somewhat. The following analysis of a sample from one of the Western States of North America, imported by Messrs. G. Seagrave and Co., of Liverpool, was made by me:--

COMPOSITION OF DECORTICATED COTTON-SEED CAKE.

Water 8.20
Oil 10.16
Albuminous, or flesh-forming principles 40.25
Gum, sugar, &c. 21.10
Fibre 9.23
Ash (mineral matter) 11.06
------
100.00

In some specimens so much as 16 per cent. of oil has been found. The purchaser of cotton-seed cake should be certain that it is not old and mouldy, which is frequently the case. The recently prepared cake has a very yellow color, which becomes fainter as the cake becomes older. Freshness is a very desirable quality in nearly every kind of cake. I have known animals to have a greater relish for, and thrive better upon, home-made linseed-cake than upon cake of foreign manufacture of superior composition, but of greater age.

_Palm-nut Meal, or Cake_ is a very valuable fattening food. It is extremely rich in ready-formed fatty matters, but at the same time it is not very deficient in albuminous substances. Its strong flavor is rather a drawback to its use in the case of all the farm animals, except pigs. This difficulty may, however, be got over by using the cake in moderate quantities, and by combining it with other food possessed of a good flavor. Reports of practical trials made with this food appear to have almost uniformly given very favorable results. This food is only three or four years in use. The first samples that came into my hand were richer in fatty matters than those which I have recently examined. The average results of eight analyses made from 1864 to 1866 were as follows:--

100 PARTS CONTAINED--

Water 7.48
Albuminous matters 17.26
Fatty substances 21.59
Gum, sugar, &c. 32.14
Fibre 17.18
Mineral matter 4.35
------
100.00

This year I have not found more than 17 per cent. of fat in any sample of palm-nut cake. One specimen which I analysed for Mr. J. G. Alexander, seed merchant, of Dublin, had the following composition:--

Water 9.24
Albuminous matters 19.28
Fatty matters 9.36
Gum, starch, fibre, &c. 53.22
Mineral matters 8.90
------
100.00

But although inferior samples are occasionally met with, I may say of palm-nut cake that on the whole it is a food which deserves to be largely used, and which at its present price is the most economical source of fat. To milch-cows and fattening cattle about 3 lbs. per diem may be given; 1/4 lb. will be sufficient for young sheep, whilst pigs may be very liberally supplied with this food.

The _Locust, or Carob Bean_, is now largely used by the stock-feeder. It is extremely rich in sugar, and is therefore an excellent fattening and milk-producing food. It is used largely in the preparation of the sweet kinds of artificial food for cattle. It is not well adapted for young animals, owing to its deficiency of albuminous matters. The following analysis shows the average composition of this food:--

Water 14
Sugar 50
Albuminous matters 8
Oil 1
Gum, &c. 20
Woody fibre 5
Ash 2
---
100

_Dates_ have been used, but only in very small quantities, as cattle food. Their composition is not constant, some samples being greatly inferior in nutritive power to others; they are rich in sugar, and if they were obtained in sufficient quantities they might, like carob-beans, come into general use with the stock-feeder. They contain about 2 per cent. of flesh-formers, 10 per cent. of fat-formers (chiefly sugar), and 2 per cent. of mineral matter.

Distillery and brewery dregs (or wash) are chiefly used by dairymen. According to Dr. Anderson, an imperial gallon (700,000 grains) of distillery wash (from a distillery near Edinburgh) contained 4,130 grains of organic matter, and 276 grains of mineral substances. He considers that 15 gallons of this stuff were equal in nutritive materials to 100 pounds of turnips. The following is the centesimal composition of brewery wash:--

Water 75.85
Albuminous matters 0.62
Gummy matters 1.06
Other organic matter (husks, &c.) 21.28
Mineral matters 1.19
------
100.00

_Molasses_ constitute a very fattening food, sometimes, but not often, given to stock. Treacle and molasses are composed of non-crystallisable sugar, cane-sugar, water, and saline and other impurities. The composition of average specimens of molasses, as imported, is as follows:--

Cane-sugar 50
Non-crystallisable sugar and grape-sugar 25
Water, saline matter, and organic impurities 25
---
100

If admitted duty free, molasses would be a much more economical food than it now is, but at its present price it must be regarded as a mere flavoring food.

Mr. T. Cooke Burroughs, a West Suffolk feeder, who used treacle in 1864, gives the following mode of mixing it with other food:--

My plan has been (and is still carried on) to give to each
bullock per day (divided into three meals) one pint of treacle
dissolved in two gallons of water, and sprinkled, by means of
a garden water-pot, over four bushels of cut chaff (two-thirds
straw and one-third hay) amongst which a quarter of a peck of
meal (barley and wheat) is mixed, the animals also having free
access to water. The cost of the treacle and meal together
is about 3s. per bullock per week. My bullocks (two-year old
Shorthorns) have grown and thrived upon the above diet to my
utmost satisfaction; and even during the present dry and warm
weather they evince no lingering after roots or grass. I am well
aware that the use of treacle for neat stock is no new discovery
of my own, as I learnt the system while on a visit to a friend
in Norfolk, where some graziers have used it in combination with
roots during many years past. Perhaps flax-seed (linseed) boiled
into a jelly and used in a similar way, may be a more profitable
"substitute for roots" than treacle; but the preparation of it is
attended with more expense and trouble.