As several of these materials--rape-cake, shorts, bean-straw, etc.--are not commonly used as food, I may be allowed some observations on their properties. Bean-straw uncooked is dry and unpalatable. By the process of steaming, it becomes soft and pulpy, emits an agreeable odor, and imparts flavor and relish to the mess. For my information and guidance I obtained an analysis of bean-straw of my own growth, on strong and high-conditioned land; it was cut on the short side of ripeness, but yielding a plump bean. The analysis by Professor Way shows a percentage of Moisture, 14.47 Albuminous mater, 16.38 Oil or fatty matter, 2.23 Woody fibre, 25.84 Starch, gum, etc., 31.63 Mineral matters, 9.45 ------ Total 100.00 In albuminous matter, which is especially valuable for milch cows, it has nearly double the proportion contained in meadow hay. Bran also undergoes a great improvement in its flavor by steaming, and it is probably improved in its convertibility as food. It contains about fourteen per cent. of albumen, and is peculiarly rich in phosphoric acid, nearly three per cent. of its whole substance being of this material. The properties of rape-cake are well known: the published analyses give it a large proportion (nearly thirty per cent.) of albumen; it is rich in phosphates, and also in oil. This is of the unctuous class of vegetable oils, and it is to this property that I call particular attention. Chemistry will assign to this material, which has hitherto been comparatively neglected for feeding, a first place for the purpose of which I am treating. If objection should occur on account of its flavor, I have no difficulty in stating that by the preparation I have described I have quite overcome this. I can easily persuade my cattle (of which sixty to eighty pass through my stalls in a year), without exception, to eat the requisite quantity. Nor is the flavor of the cake in the least perceptible in the milk or butter. During May, my cows are turned out on a rich pasture near the homestead; towards evening they are again housed for the night, when they are supplied with a mess of the steamed mixture and a little hay each morning and evening. During June, when the grasses are better grown, mown grass is given to them instead of hay, and they are also allowed two feeds of steamed mixture. This treatment is continued till October, when they are again wholly housed. The results which I now proceed to relate are derived from observations made with the view of enabling me to understand and regulate my own proceedings.