1904] Heating or Fermentaiion of Hay. 



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process, and is quite independent of the work of living 

 organisms. They ascertained the temperature of haystacks in 

 which heating was manifestly taking place, and found that it 

 might considerably exceed 200 degrees F. As compared with 

 ordinary hay which had not undergone much fermentation, 

 heated hay was found to contain a larger percentage of albume- 

 noids, woody fibre, and fat, but a smaller quantity of sugar and 

 starch. Furthermore, the heated hay was markedly sour, owing 

 to the presence of considerable quantities of formic acid. 



The investigators then proceeded to construct an apparatus 

 which enabled them, through the agency of steam and air, to 

 reproduce very closely in the laboratory the changes that take 

 place in the haystack. The hay was kept under treatment 

 for twenty days, at the end of which time the material smelt 

 exactly like hay that had fermented in a stack, and when 

 subjected to chemical analyses it showed precisely the same 

 changes as were found to have taken place in hay which had 

 heated naturally. The temperature of the receptacle in which the 

 artificially heated hay was kept was never less than 203 degrees F., 

 so that the conditions were such as to preclude the activity of 

 living organisms. In order, however, to verify the result, hay 

 was sterilised at a temperature of 248 degrees F., and this 

 material also, when put through laboratory treatment, attained 

 the same condition and composition as heated hay from a stack. 



The investigators are therefore perfectly confident that they 

 have proved satisfactorily that the fermentation of a hay stack 

 is in no way associated with the activity of living organisms, 

 though they do not yet feel justified in attempting to offer 

 an explanation of the causes that induce the high tempera- 

 tures which are met with in the interior of a mass of fermenting 

 hay. As they consider that they have shown that this form, 

 of so-called fermentation is purely chemical, they are disposed 

 to cast doubts on the necessity of any bacterial action in the 

 case of many other similar processes, as, for example, in the 

 maturing or fermentation of tobacco. 



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