The Stock-Feeder's Manual Part 21

_Leguminous Seeds._--The seeds of the bean, of the pea, and of several other leguminous plants, are largely made use of as food for both man and the domesticated animals. They all closely resemble each other in composition, but in that respect differ considerably from the grains of the _Cerealiae_, for whilst the latter contain on an average 12 per cent.

of flesh-formers, beans and peas contain 24 per cent. The flesh-forming const.i.tuent of the leguminous seeds is not gluten, as in the grain of the cereals, but a substance termed _legumin_, which so closely resembles the cheesy matter of milk that it has also received the name of _vegetable casein_. Indeed, the Chinese make a fact.i.tious cheese out of peas, which it is difficult to discriminate from the article of animal origin.

_Beans_ are used as fattening food for cattle, for which purpose they should be ground into meal, as otherwise a large proportion of their substance would pa.s.s through the animal's body unchanged. It is not good economy to give a fattening bullock more than 3 or 4 lbs. weight per diem; a larger proportion is apt to induce constipation. The very small proportion of ready-formed fat, the moderate amount of starch, and the exceedingly high per-centage of flesh-formers which beans contain, prove that they are better adapted as food for beasts of burthen than for the fattening of stock. Oats, Indian corn, or oil-cake, will be found to produce a greater increase of meat than equal money's worth of beans or peas, and I would therefore recommend the restriction of leguminous seeds, under ordinary circ.u.mstances, to horses and bulls. It has been stated, on good authority, that when oats are given whole to horses, a large proportion pa.s.ses unchanged through the animal's body, but that on the addition of beans, the oats are thoroughly digested.

COMPOSITION OF LEGUMINOUS SEEDS.

--------------------+-------+-------+-------+--------+---------- Common Foreign Peas. Lentils. Winter Beans. Beans. Tares (foreign).

--------------------+-------+-------+-------+--------+---------- Water 130 145 140 130 155 Flesh-formers 255 230 235 240 265 Fat-formers 485 487 500 505 475 Woody fibre 100 100 100 100 90 Mineral matter 30 38 25 25 15 --------------------+-------+-------+-------+--------+---------- 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 --------------------+-------+-------+-------+--------+----------

_Oil Seeds._--The seeds of a great variety of plants, such as the flax, hemp, rape, mustard, cotton, and sunflower, are exceedingly rich in oil, some of them containing nearly half their weight of that substance. Of these oil-seeds there are many which might with advantage be employed as fattening, food, although one only--linseed--has come into general use for that purpose.

_Rape-seeds_ closely resemble linseeds in composition, but they are considerably cheaper. They contain an acrid substance, but the large proportion of oil with which it is a.s.sociated almost completely disguises its unpleasant flavor.

_Linseed_ is one of the most valuable kinds of food which could be given to fattening animals. Its exceedingly high proportion of ready-formed fatty matter, the great comparative solubility of its const.i.tuents, and its mild and agreeable flavor, const.i.tute it an article superior to linseed cake. The laxative properties of linseed are very decided; it should therefore be given only in moderate quant.i.ties. As peas and beans exercise, as I have already stated, a relaxing influence upon the bowels, a mixture of linseed and peas or beans would be an excellent compound, the laxative influence of the one being corrected by the binding tendency of the other. Linseed being one of the most concentrated feeding stuffs in use, it will be found an excellent addition to bulky food, such as chaff and turnips. Linseed oil has been used as a fattening food, but there is nothing to be gained by expressing seeds for the purpose of using their oil as a feeding material. When hay is scarce, and straw abundant, the latter may be made almost as nutritious as the former by mixing it with linseed, and steaming the compound. A stone of linseed and two cwt. of oat-straw chaff, when properly cooked, const.i.tute a most economical and nutritious food.

Mr. Horne, who experimented with linseed two or three years ago, obtained results highly favorable to the nutritive value of that article. Six bullocks were selected, and each animal placed in a separate box. They were fed with cut roots--at first Swedes, then mangels and Swedes, and lastly, mangels alone: in addition, there were supplied to each 6 lbs. rough meadow-hay reduced to chaff, and 5 lbs.

oil-cake, or value to that amount. They were divided into three lots, two in each. Lot 1 had 5 lbs. oil-cake for each animal; lot 2, barley and wheat-meal, equal in value to the 5 lbs. oil-cake; and lot 3, an equal money's worth of bruised linseed. The oil-cake cost 10 16s. per ton, the mixture of barley and wheat 8 15s. per ton, and the bruised linseed 13 per ton. The experiment lasted 112 days, and at its close the results, which proved very favorable to the bruised linseed, were as follows:--

Increase in live weight.

Lot 1. Oil-cake 637 lbs.

Lot 2. Wheat and barley-meal 667 lbs.

Lot 3. Bruised linseed 718 lbs.

During the 112 days each bullock consumed 5 cwt. oil-cake (or an equivalent amount of linseed or wheat and barley), 6 cwt. hay, and 90 cwt. of roots. The average increase in each animal's weight was 337 lbs. = 224 lbs. _dead_ weight. The economic features of this experiment are best shown in the following figures:--

FOOD CONSUMED.

s. d.

5 cwt. oil-cake, at 10s. 6d. per cwt. 2 12 6 6 cwt. hay, at 3s. per cwt. 0 18 0 16 weeks' attendance, at 6d. per week 0 8 0 --------- 3 18 6 --------- Gained 16 stones per week, at 8s. per stone 6 8 0 --------- Balance to pay for 90 cwt. of roots 2 9 6

The manure obtained afforded a good profit.

The seed-pods, or, as they are termed, the _bolls_ of the flax, have been recommended as an excellent feeding stuff. They are not so nutritious as linseed, but they are cheaper, and when produced on the farm must be an economical food. Mr. Charley, an intelligent stock-feeder in the county of Antrim, and an eminent authority in every subject in relation to flax, strongly recommends the use of flax-bolls.

He says:--

The cost of rippling is considerable; but I believe, for every 1 expended, on an average a return is realised of 2, particularly on a farmstead where many horses and cattle are regularly kept. The flax-bolls contain much more nourishment than the linseed-cake from which the oil has, of course, been expressed, and they form a most valuable addition to the warm food prepared during winter for the animals just named. I believe they have also a highly beneficial effect in warding off internal disease, owing, no doubt, to the soothing and slightly purgative properties of the oil contained in the seed. The change made in the appearance of the animals receiving some of the bolls in their steamed food is very apparent after a few weeks' trial; and the smoothness and sleekness of their s.h.i.+ning coats plainly show the benefit derived. Is it not surprising, with this fact before our eyes, that many agriculturists--indeed, I fear the majority--persist in the old-fas.h.i.+oned system of taking the flax to a watering-place with its valuable freight of seed unremoved, and plunge the sheaves under water, losing thereby, _in the most wanton manner_, rich feeding materials, worth from 1 to 3 per statute acre?

In the following table, the composition of all the more important oil-seeds is given:--

COMPOSITION OF OIL-SEEDS, ACCORDING TO DR. ANDERSON.

--------------------------+---------+----------+----------+--------------- Cotton-seed Linseed. Rape-seed. Hemp-seed. (decorticated).

+---------+----------+----------+--------------- Water 750 713 647 657 Oil 3400 3681 3184 3124 Alb.u.minous compounds (Flesh-formers) 2444 2150 2260 3186 Gum, mucilage, sugar, &c. 1873 1412 }3073 }3272 Woody-fibre / 686 / 730 Mineral matter (ash) 333 897 637 891 +---------+----------+----------+--------------- 10000 10000 10000 10000 --------------------------+---------+----------+----------+---------------

_Fenugreek-seed_ is used very extensively in the preparation of "Condimental food." It is often given to horses out of condition.

Sheep have been liberally supplied with this food, which, however, it is stated, communicates a disagreeable flavor to the mutton.

It contains, according to Voelcker, the following:--

Water 11994 Flesh-formers 26665 Starch, gum, and pectin 37111 Sugar 2220 Fatty and oily matters 8320 Woody fibre 10820 Inorganic matter 2870 ------- 100000

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, const.i.tute 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 princ.i.p.al 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 a.n.a.lyses 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-fas.h.i.+oned 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 princ.i.p.ally 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 a.s.sume 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 (a.s.suming 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 quant.i.ty 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 quant.i.ties 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 quant.i.ty 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 pa.s.s 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 quant.i.ty 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 finis.h.i.+ng 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-c.o.c.kle, 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 gra.s.ses, 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 a.n.a.lysis; 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 quant.i.ty 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 gra.s.s seeds, is probable.

The latter are easily seen through a magnifying-gla.s.s; indeed, most of them are readily recognisable by the una.s.sisted eye: they may, therefore, be picked out, and their weight determined. Sand--a frequent adulterant--may be detected by mixing a small weighed quant.i.ty 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 subst.i.tute 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 a.s.sert 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 nouris.h.i.+ng 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 a.n.a.lysed. 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 subst.i.tute--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 a.s.signed 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 subst.i.tute 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 quant.i.ties would be quite sufficient.

Feed per week. Per week.

lbs. s. d.

Rape-cake at 5 15s. per ton 8 2 10-1/2 Do. do. 10 3 7 Mixture of two-thirds rape-cake and one-third locust-beans 6 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