130 



Curing Hay. 



Vol. XI. 



number by Mr. V. Sanchez ; and by Mr. J. 

 Drisdale, and the lady of the late Dr. An- 

 derson, fifteen hundred each. Notwith- 

 standing the injuries which the trees have 

 suffered by the depredations of insects, for 

 a few years, as well as by the discourage- 

 ment caused by frost, it may be observed 

 that there are more standard trees planted 

 in Florida at the present time, than there 

 ever were at any former period. Previous 

 to 1835, St. Augustine produced annually 

 from two millions to two millions five hundred 

 thousand oranges, which were equal in bulk 

 to about fifteen thousand barrels. They 

 were shipped to Charleston, Baltimore, New 

 York, Boston, &c., and usually brought from 

 one dollar to three dollars per hundred, or 

 about three dollars per barrel, producing in 

 the aggregate, a little short of fifty thou- 

 sand dollars per annum. During the orange 

 season, the port of St. Augustine formerly 

 presented quite a commercial aspect, there 

 being frequently from fifteen to twenty ves- 

 sels in it at a time, loading with fruit. A 

 person who was the owner of one hundred 

 standard trees, could safely rely on a yearly 

 income arising therefrom, of two thousand 

 dollars, sometimes three thousand, and even 

 four thousand dollars ! In 1829, Mr. A. Al- 

 varez gathered from a single tree, six thou 

 sand five hundred oranges: and it is said 

 that there was a tree on the St. John's, 

 which bore ten thousand fruits in one year 

 But ordinarily each tree produces about two 

 thousand fruits. 



The orange has also been an object of 

 culture for a long time in Carolina and 

 Georgia; and in 1762, it will be seen by 

 the London "Annual Register" for that year, 

 that there were four barrels of this fruit 

 ehipped from Charleston to England. 

 Browne's Trees of America. 



For the Fanners' Cabinet. 

 Curing Hay. 



On the 87th page of the last number of 

 the Cabinet is a statement of expedition in 

 collecting and storing hay, and an opinion 

 given in respect to the condition of that hay, 

 which, should it be the means of inducing 

 the general adoption of such a practice, 

 would be productive of great loss. 



The relative value of labour and hay, and 

 the risk of sustaining damage from rain, and 

 incurring additional expense, has led to the 

 general practice of hurrying it in, in such 

 a condition that much of its value leaves it 

 in the mow. In a practice of more than 

 thirty years, I have seen but two instances 

 in which such was not the case — they were 



under circumstances of unusually continued 

 drought. 



The quantity of salt said to be used, 

 though much too small to produce the effect 

 ascribed to it, was too great for the benefit 

 of the cattle. 



The statement that it contained, when 

 put in the mow, "all the nutritious qualities 

 required to form flesh, bone, muscle, and to 

 promote the growth of the animal to be fed 

 on it," is admitted: but that it will remain 

 so, the laws governing organized matter, 

 will not allow me to admit; and had the 

 operator taken quantities of the grass cut 

 on second day — put one parcel in the centre 

 of his mow, and exposed the other in a pro- 

 per manner to the influence of sun and air, 

 even till seventh day, and weighed the two 

 next winter, he would have found that the 

 grass put by to be dried by the heat pro- 

 duced by the decomposition of its own sub- 

 stance, had lost the most in weight: — had 

 he then fed the two parcels under circum- 

 stances that would have enabled him to 

 test their relative value for supporting the 

 strength and maintaining or increasing the 

 weight or produce of the animal, he would 

 have found that it had lost even much more 

 in value than it had in weight. 



Why this must be the result I will endea- 

 vour to explain. All substances capable of 

 sustaining animal life, are combinations of 

 three or four simple elements, united, not in 

 the manner or order of their natural or in- 

 organic affinities, but as they have been in- 

 duced to unite by the vital force, and can 

 only be maintained by preserving them from 

 the influence of disturbing causes. Such a 

 cause are moisture and heat — where they 

 are present new arrangements less complex 

 will be formed, and unless moisture or tem- 

 perature fail, the organic arrangement will 

 be utterly destroyed, and the most nutritious 

 compound will be converted into water, car- 

 bonic acid, and ammonia. 



So far as the support of respiration and 

 the maintenance of animal heat are con- 

 cerned, the value of any substance adapted 

 to animal subsistence, is represented by its 

 capacity to unite with oxygen : in a mow of 

 hay, the capacity to unite with oxygen is 

 reduced in proportion to the amount of heat 

 generated, including that which is sensible 

 and that which is rendered insensible, by 

 uniting with the water to convert it to va- 

 por. Nor is this the worst effect produced. 

 As nitrogen is weak in all its affinities, the 

 substances containing nitrogen — and such 

 only are capable of forming flesh or repair- 

 ing the waste occasioned by exertion — are 

 more easily disturbed than those that do not. 

 Decomposition commences on them — they 



