42 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



[inrt without other compensation than that afforded by the 

 mutual exchange of results. 



'I'o render this mass of valuable matter promptly availa- 

 ble in current deduction and comparison, and applicable in 

 tiie measure of its full value to all the interests embraced 

 b\ it, a force sufficient to prepare all of it for this prompt 

 discussion is indispensable. With this adequate organiza- 

 tion the whole research may be vitalized in a manner wholly 

 impossible in other nations on a scale so commanding, and 

 at an expense too small to deserve consideration ; the 

 greatest and most expensive service being already gratui- 

 tously performed by the unequaled energy of the scientitic 

 mind" of the country. 



AVe have reason to kuow that the distinguished 

 Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution would gladly 

 do far more for the advancement of rural arts and 

 sciences than he now does, if there were funds at his 

 disposal which could be applied to that purpose. 

 Prof. Henry is a worldng man, and not less practical 

 and utihtarian than scientific in his views ; but he, 

 like the rest of mankind, is governed by circumstances 

 which are often any thing than agreeable. Congress 

 should give to the Institution the funds required to 

 develop the true relations that subsist between the 

 temperature of the atmosphere and that of different 

 soils at several depths, and the growth of all agricul- 

 tural plants. The annual fall of rain and snow, their 

 distribution through the several months of the year, 

 then" bearing on the general fruitfulness of seasons, 

 the humidity of the atmosphere connected with the 

 absorptive power of common clay, of vegetable mold, 

 of loam, sand, and a fair mixture of these, are facts 

 in meteorological researches yet to be verified in this 

 countiy. 



In our " Study of Soils," this sulyect is discussed 

 at considerable length; and the data furnished in the 

 "Summer Climate of 1853," by the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution, will enable us to extend our deductions 

 over large sections of the Union from which we have 

 heretofore received only the most meager meteoro- 

 logical statistics. By studying these statistics we 

 shall reaUze a profit of thirty per cent, on our corn 

 crop grown the past season, after it was ripe. A 

 personal friend, who usually plants about 800 acres 

 to this grain, exhibited to us a few days since on his 

 farm well-matured ears of corn, the seed of which was 

 put into the ground on the 16th of July — two montlis 

 after wheat was harvested in his neighborhood. Ifis 

 com, planted after the short crop in England was 

 known to wise meteorologists, now sells at eighty 

 cents a bushel. 



We shall have more to say on the critical study 

 of climate hereafter. 



WHAT IS THE VALUE OF DISTILLERY 

 SLOPS ? 



In the December number of the Farmer, an esteemed 

 correspondent, " S. W.," of Waterloo, in this State, 

 made the following remarks : 



It is susceptible of proof that the cooked slop of the dis- 

 tillery will fatten as many animals as the raw corn would 

 have done before it was ground and passed through the 

 still -, and if the manure is saved and applied to the soil, 

 nothing is lost — and I trust it will be admitted that the alco- 

 hol conveiled into a burning fluid, and for medicinal pur- 

 poses, is something gained. 



For many chemical and manufacturing purposes, aa 

 well as for medical uses and burning, alcohol is a 



valuable article of commerce. All our water-proof 

 hats (which are M'ater-proof) are made so by first 

 dissolving gum shellac in alcohol, and then working 

 the gum (which is uisoluble in water) into the sub- 

 .stance of hat bodies. When we wish to determine 

 the quantity of sugar in any given amount of milk, it 

 is first evaporated, then treated with hot sulphuric 

 ether to dissolve and take up the butter, when alco- 

 hol \i'ill dissolve and remove the sugar of milk, leaving 

 the curd or cheese pure. But om- object is not to 

 enumerate the economical u#3 of alcohol, whether 

 in the arts or sciences, or to discuss the chem- 

 istry of whisky-making, although it is mainly an 

 agricultural question, but simply to inquire into the 

 value of distiileiy slops for the production of pork 

 and beef. 



If " cooked slop will fatten as many animals as the 

 raw corn would have done before it was ground and 

 2)assod through the still," as many distillers as well aj 

 our friend " S. W." think it will, how does it happer 

 that where corn is worth fifty cents a bushel to feet 

 to hogs, no one will pay over ten cents a bushel for tht 

 corn used to fonn " the cooked slop " of a distilleiy ' 

 We have seen not a little of this kind of feed foi 

 stock bought and sold; and the writer Avas, he believes 

 the first in Western New York to point out a proces! 

 by which the essential oil that imparts to whisky it; 

 peculiar odor and flavor may be wholly removed, s( 

 that the pure spirit might be added to brandy, run 

 or gin, without impairing sensibly the peculiar flavo: 

 or strength of either, and at a time when these im ' 

 ported liquors v.'cre very expensive so far from sea 

 ports. We have seen good whisky sold in Westen 

 New York at twelve cents a gallon. AVhen fourteei 

 quarts of good whisky are extracted from fifty-sb 

 pounds of meal, what does onr friend " S. W." sup 

 pose the grain has lost in the operation ? Not : 

 particle of alcohol existed, as such, in the meal. Fer 

 mentation is decomposition quite as much as combug 

 tion. In the common process of making raised bread 

 five per cent, of the flour is entirely consumed ir 

 forming the gas called carbonic acid, and alcohol. Ii 

 making beer for distillation, fermentation is carriec 

 much further than in the manufacture of bread 

 Nearly all of the starch and sugar (glucose) in thf 

 grain is decomposed to generate so much spirit anc 

 gas; and were it not for the oil in corn, which maj 

 be seen floating on beer in still-tubs, and remains ir 

 the slop, as well as most of the protien compounds ir 

 the seed, no refuse from the still would be worth 07ie- 

 fifth the value of the grain for the production of 

 meat. When com is worth thirty cents for making 

 beef and pork, the slop from such corn is worth about 

 six cents to the bushel for a similar purpose. 



AVhy does com meal, whether cooked or raw, pro- 

 duce comparatively solid lard and pork, while the still- 

 slop from the same meal yields very oily lard and 

 pork ? The fact alluded to is of some importance in 

 the chemistry of nutrition — in animal and vegetable 

 physiology. Seeds and plants that contain much 

 starch and sugar, and comparatively little oil, produce 

 solid fat, so called ; while seeds (including all forest 

 nuts eaten by swme, and called " mast ") and plants 

 rich in oil, yield soft and oily fat, tallow and butter. 

 Add to still-slops as much starch as fermentation and 

 distillation remove from the grain from which the slop 



