376 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



completely separated from the bran here than in Europe. 

 Second, Western shorts often lose weight in storage and 

 transportation. In standing in heaps they not unfrequently 

 " heat," and " shrink " to the extent of twenty per cent, of 

 the original weight. In the process of fermentation, to which 

 this is largely due, the albuminoids would be found to sufier 

 decomposition and loss. 



FURNACE FOR BURNING HAY, STRAW, ETC. 



The necessity for some practical device whereby vegetable 

 refuse of various kinds, such as straw, hay, dry leaves, sea- 

 weed, etc., may be conveniently utilized as fuel in those re- 

 gions where coal is expensive and timber scarce, has long been 

 recognized, and several attempts to solve the problem have 

 been made. The following is a description of one of the 

 most promising inventions for this purpose. It consists of a 

 box of stove sheet-iron, in which is a heavy press follower, 

 which by a simple mechanism can be moved up and down, 

 and thus arranged to maintain a steady pressure upon the 

 hay, or similar material, placed in the fire-chamber. The sup- 

 ply of fuel is regulated by a feeder, and a suitable attachment 

 adjusts the grate relatively to the follower, according to the 

 quantit}'' of material placed between them. The inventor 

 claims that by this arrangement, the fuel being under press- 

 ure, combustion can go on only around the sides to which 

 the heat and air have access ; the consumption of fuel is there- 

 fore very slow, and can readily be graduated by the draft 

 supplied. One hundred pounds of hay or straw, it is claimed, 

 w^ill be sufficient to supply the stove during the coldest weath- 

 er, and six or seven tons will suffice for an entire winter. 6 

 J:>,XXXIII.,119. 



nutritive value of shorts, middlings, and shipstuff. 



Analyses by Professor Storer show that these American 

 wheat products are very valuable as food for domestic ani- 

 mals. In the latest tables of Wolff, of the Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station, at Hohenheim, in Germany, European bran 

 is reckoned as worth twelve per cent, less than rye, and thirty- 

 five per cent, more than average hay. The estimates are 

 based upon the amounts of actually digestible food ingre- 

 dients contained in them, certain values per pound being as- 



