266 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



the best way of obtaining a satisfactory answer 

 to his inquiries. The old worn-out lands of Vir- 

 ginia need only a few such managing, trustful 

 farmers, as we take Mr. Hite to be, to cause 

 them " to blossom as the rose." We shall be 

 to hear the result of his encounter with 



the broomsedge. 



From the Farmers' 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 labor and hay, and the 

 risk of sustaining damage from rain, and incur- 

 ring 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 unu- 

 sually 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 the second day — put one parcel in 

 the centre of his mow, and exposed the other in 

 a proper manner to the influence of sun and air, 

 even till the seventh day, and weighed the two 

 next winter, he would have found that the grass 

 put by to be dried by the heat produced by the 

 decomposition of its own substance, had lost the 

 most in weight : had he then fed the two par- 

 cels under circumstances that would have en- 

 abled him to test their relative value for support- 

 ing 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 endeavor 

 to explain. All substances capable of sustain- 

 ing animal life, are combinations of three or 

 four simple elements united, not in the manner 

 or order of their natural or inorganic affinities, 

 but as they have been induced to unite by the 

 vital force, and can only be maintained by pre- 

 serving 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 

 temperature fail, the organic arrangement will 

 be utterly destroyed, and the most nutritious 

 compound will be converted into water, carbonic 

 acid, and ammonia. 



So far as the support of respiration and the 

 maintenance of animal heat are concerned, the 

 value of any substance adapted to animal sub- 

 sistence, 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 in- 

 sensible, by uniting with the water to convert it 

 to vapor. Nor is this the worst effect produced. 

 As nitrogen is weak in all its affinities, the sub- 

 stances containing nitrogen — and such only are 

 capable of forming flesh or repairing the waste 

 occasioned by exertion — are more easily dis- 

 turbed than those that do not. Decomposition 

 commences on them — they are, therefore, more 

 reduced in quantity than those that support res- 

 piration and maintain animal heat. 



As the heat given out by the union of oxygen 

 with organic substances when reduced to their 

 natural affinities, is a fixed quantity, whether 

 that result be effected by fermentation or com- 

 bustion, we shall not be far astray when we 

 adopt it as a conclusion governing our proceed- 

 ings, that it will be requisite to feed with hay 

 that has been heated in the mow, as much grain, 

 as being burned, would have produced the same 

 amount of heat, to produce the same result that 

 the hay alone would have done, had it been 

 made so dry that it would not have heated. 



There are probably few agriculturists who 

 have not noticed the difference in the result from 

 feeding hay and the grass of which the hay was 

 made ; yet there are many who would contend 

 that hay is not injured, but rather benefited, by 

 a considerable degree of heat in the mow. To 

 me it would appear as rational to contend that 

 water, carbonic acid, and ammonia passing into 

 the air, can sustain an animal as well as caseine, 

 fibrine, albumen, gum, sugar, starch, passing 

 into the stomach. 



E. G. Passmore. 



For the Southern Planter. 

 PEACHES. 



Mr. Editor, — You have so handsome a way 

 of making acknowledgments for an inch given, 

 that one feels obligated, under bond and seal, to 

 furnish the ell. At any rate, if contributions to 

 the Planter will be accepted by measure, I feel 

 less unwilling to try my hand. If you were so 

 pleased with the last runnings of my crop of 

 pears — for I had no opportunity of sending any 

 until the best were gone — the wonder is, what 



