50 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
schools, good markets, a good currency, and 7w 
repudiation— thin to plunge ourselves and fami- 
lies into those sickly countries, to breathe the 
poisonous vapors with which the atmosphere is 
loaded, to drag out a miserable and wretched 
existence, exposed continually to disease, pain 
and death. 1 ^o. not here give assertion for 
Jacts. Ifniortunately, the truth of this is attest- 
ed by too many melancholy prools. And here, 
by way of illustrating the truth of what I assert, 
I will give a few statements which will serve to 
show the fatal elfeets of the climate of those 
countries upon the inhabitants. 
Between the years 1800 and 1825, there mov- 
ed Irom th s county, some twenty or twenty-five 
hardy, industrious, enterprising planters, vt^ho 
settled upon tlie rich river bottoms and table 
lands, of Montgomery and Autauga counties, 
Alabama. Most ot them were in their freshest 
prime — robust, hearty, hale men — choice speci- 
mens of the race of Georgia planters of the old 
school. Out of all this number, 1 know ot but 
one who now remains. All, save one, are gone 
— gone to swell the li.st ot that mortality which 
annually sweeps off hundreds and thousands in- 
to untimely graves ; whilst many ol their neigh- 
bc/s, who remained behind in this county, and 
who ose-upy the very plantations which they 
left, are still Mviag. 
Within the last eight years, between forty 
and fifty farmers have moved from this county, 
and settled in Southwestern Georgia, and New 
Alabama. More than half ot these have died. 
None, it is believed, have greatly improved their 
estates. Indeed, most of them that have died, 
either left their estates insolvent, or greatly im- 
paired. 
Now, the late ol these men — sgtd and melan- 
choly, as it is— has had, and will have, a good 
effect upon the planters of Middle Georgia. 
Their example will serve to teach us to appre- 
ciate, as we should, the blessings of health — to 
render us better content with our situation, and 
to cure us of that restless desire for change ani! 
pernicious novelties, which is so common to 
our race. 
These are some of the reasons which have 
influencedme, (and I doubt not hundreds of oth- 
ers,) to cotue to the decision to spend the rem- 
nant of my days in this old worn out county 
and to direct all my energies and efforts, as a 
farmer, to the preservation and improvement of 
my land. Having made up my mind to do this, 
and being a planter from choice, as well as 
from necessity, I am desirous of availing my- 
self of all the helps within my reach. 
A Middle Georgian. 
Sparta, Ga. 
Fjom the Dollai Farmer. 
VALUABLE IMPROVEMENT IN AGRICULTURAL 
MACHINERY. 
Dean Swift once said, that “the man who 
makes two blades ot grass grow where but one 
grew before is a distinguished public benefac- 
tor,” and we think the commendation is equally 
applicable to the man who makes one ear of 
corn as beneficial as two were formerly. After 
all the great improvements of the last few years 
in. breeding animals of the stock kind, there is 
one improvement worth them al' — we allude to 
the great improvement lately made in feeding 
stock. Many valuable methods have been 
placed before the public lor fattening stock in 
an economical manner, and the investigations 
on this subject have led to fruitful and valuable 
discoveries. We have no intention to review 
these things at present i our object now is to call 
attention lo a branch of this department of ag- 
riculture about the value of which there is no 
contrariety of opinion — the crushing of stock 
food, by which provender undergoes the material 
process of mastication before if reaches the ani- 
inal, tfie l^bor of digestion being thus lightened. 
In a report, made by Mr. Coleman, to the 
Massachusetts Leaislaturo, after a labored in- 
vestigation ol the subject, we find a decided 
preference for Indian corn, as the basis of the 
food of stock, and the author of the report thinks, 
that where seventy busliels ol corn are the pro- 
duct of an acre of land, this is the cheapest food 
for animals. In order to make this valuable 
article still more important and useful, many 
machines have been invented, for crushing the 
corn and cobs, and the most of them are but 
sorry cont ivances. 
Of the value of corn thus prepared, no one 
can doubt, who has a proper knowledge of the 
subject. The intelligent and observing farmer, 
who should try the experiment of feeding a 
number of healthy animals on ears of corn, and 
the same number on the same quantity of corn 
crushed, would not be long without a machine 
for crushing it. An extensive feeder, for the 
Philadelphia market, says, “that a bushel of 
meal made of corn and cobs is fully equal to a 
bushel of meal made of corn and oats, and that 
animals never cloy on the first named meal.” 
A member of the City Council of New- York, 
in speaking ol the public yard, says, that “ by 
cutting the hay, and grinding the oats, eight 
bushels of oats, and fifteen cwt. of hay fed the 
same number of horses, doing the same work, 
the same length of time, and kept them in as 
good condition, as twenty-four bushels of oats 
and thirty-five cwt. ol hay did when fed whole.” 
In corroboration of these statements we have 
the following from the second volume of the 
Cultivator: 
“ The cobs of corn undoubtedly contain much 
nutriment. P. Minor, ot Virginia, (see Ame- 
rican Farmer, v. 1, p. 324,] has given us the 
results of a nicely conducted experiment to as- 
certain the amount ol this nutriment. He took 
ten bushels of corn and cob, weighing three 
hundred and sixty-seven pounds, and ten bush- 
els of shelled corn, and subjected them to the 
process of distillation. The pioduct of the 
com and cob was thirteen gallons of spirits, and 
of the pure corn eighteen gallons. Estimating 
that the ten bushels of corn and cob would have 
given five bushels of shelled corn, which is the 
general proportion, there will be left, as the pro- 
duct of the five bushels of cobs, four gallons ol 
spirits, or nearly half as much as was afforded 
by five bushels of corn. Mr. Minor remarks 
that tl e cob affords other nutritive matter tfian 
the saccharine, which is converted into alcohol, 
as mucilage and oils. We have besides abun- 
dant testimony, in the practice of eminent far- 
mers, of the utility of feeding cob meal to ani- 
mals, always mixed, we believe, with meal of 
the corn or oats. Cob and corn meal is im- 
proved by scalding, still more, for hogs, by 
boiling, with potatoes, apples and pumpkins, 
and yet more by partial fermentation. All 
these preparations facilitate digestion. An an- 
imal high fed with raw grain, whether horse, 
hog or ox, voids much of its food in an undi- 
gested state, which is, of course, lost for all 
beneficial purposes. Grinding grain for animal 
food, therefore, is universally admitted to be 
economical, and cooking and partially ferment- 
ing it, it is no less true, further enhances its 
value for swine. Even the water in which it is 
cooked augments. its nutritious properties, in 
consequence, probably, of some chemical 
change effected by the boiling operation. Fish 
subsist in pure water, as is strikingly illustrated 
in the management of the gold fish. The ex- 
periments of the Rev. H. Coleman, in fattening 
swine, further warrant this operation. ‘At 
first,’ says this nice observer, ‘ we employed 
half a bushel of Indian meal to make a kettle 
full of hasty- pudding; but we soon found that 
a peck of meal, by taking up all the water it 
could be made to absorb, in a thorough boiling, 
would make the same kettle full (holding five 
pails) of sufficient consistency.’ In giving cob 
meal to horses and peat cattle, that are fed with 
cut hay or straw, there is a double advantage, 
at least so it is stated by those who are well ex- 
perienced in feeding the grain and hay together. 
The grain, especially corn, is sometimes too 
heating to horses, and this tendency is counter- 
acted by the stimulus of distensions, afforded by 
the hay and straw. Mixed feed of this sort 
: may be fed thripe in tyventy-four hours, It is 
eaten in so short a time as to afford much bene- 
ficial rest lo the animal.” 
The observation, in this series of useful 
knowledge, on the rest given to the animal’s di- 
gestive labors, by this mode of feeding, is of 
much importance. Cuthbert W. Johnson, one 
of the highest authorities in all agiicultural 
subjects, says : ‘ Food should be so prepared, 
that its nutritive properties may be all made 
available to the use of the animal; and, not 
only so, but appropriated with the least possible 
expenditure of muscular energy. * * * All 
food should be given in such a state to fattening 
animals, that as little time as possible, on the 
part of the animal, shall be required in eating/' 
and he should have added, and in digesting. 
The facts above cited show conclusively the 
great value of crushed food for stock. We 
know farmers in Jefferson county, who are so 
well satisfied of the value of ground food for 
cows, that they send twenty and sometimes forty 
miles to get corn ground into meal for them, 
and, although they lose the value of the cob, 
they think themselves remunerated for their la- 
bor and loss of time. 
Among the various machines brought before 
the agricul'ural public for the purposes we have 
named, we have seen but one of remarkable 
utility. It is a crushing mill invented by Jas. 
Rowe, of Tenn., and there is one now in ope- 
ration on the farm of Jas. W. Graham, of Jef- 
ferson county. For simplicity, durability and 
genera’ excellence, we have met with no com- 
petitor for it. We saw it grind into fine mealk 
six bushels of unshucked corn in fifteen min- 
utes, and we have no doubt that it will easily 
grind fifteen bushels an hour, and give the horses 
several breathing spells in that time. Sheaf 
oats, with corn, are rapidly converted into a fine 
meal by it, and the oil cake, so valuable to all 
fattening animals, is ground by it into a fine 
meal and intimately mixed with the other food. 
This alone is a convenience of great moment, 
but to be estimated properly only by those who 
have used the oil cake in the common way, and 
who consequently know the difficulties attend- 
ant on its use. No man should undertake the 
fattening of cattle without the oil meal, if he 
can orocure it. 
There is another convenience in this crusher 
scarcely less imporiant, if any, than those we 
have named. It makes not only what Mr. Rowe 
calls, in his circular, a fair article of meal, but, 
Mr. Graham assures us, a superior meal to any 
he has been able to get at the good mills in his 
neighborhood. The great inconvenience under 
which many wealthy farmers labor in getting 
corn ground into meal, makes this property of 
Rowe’s crusher very valuable. We know ot 
farmers who sometimes travel for their meal 
sixty miles, and we know of one in the county 
who travelled, from mill to mill, to get his corn 
ground, until he went one hundred and ten 
miles. 
In commending this machine to the favorable 
notice of our agricultural friends, we do not rely 
alone on our ovm knowledge of its performan- 
ces, though w'e know it does all we have said 
of its work The two brothers of the Hon. E. 
H. Foster, United States Senator from Tennes- 
see, have used these crushers several years. G. 
W. Foster says he considers “ the machine a 
great acquisition, as regards convenience and 
economy in preparing food for man and beast. 
Its great recommendations are strength, dura- 
bility and simplicity. The simplest negro above 
idiocy can attend to it. The mill being of chill 
ceCst iron, will last an age;, it will not cost five 
dollars a year to keep it in order.” 
Benj. F. Foster says : “ He has never sent for 
meal to any mill since he has had this crusher. 
It makes not only good meal, but also large and 
fine hominy. No mill could supply a family 
with better bread stuffs. The crushed shuck, 
cob and corn is the best food for cattle, sheep, 
&c., without any preparation, but the meal 
should be moistened with water tor working 
horses. Thinks the shucked corn, crushed, besf 
for hogs.’' 
