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.