JAN 5 
THE BUBAL ?3EW-Y0BKER. 9 
iiu'in Ccoitcniu}. 
DISTRIBUTION OF FAT IN THE BODIES 
OF ANIMALS.—II. 
PROFESSOR F. H. STOREH. 
One of the most experienced persons with 
whom I have conversed, was perfectly sure, 
at least as regards beef and muttou, that the 
internal "gut-fat” la first deposited, then the 
fat under the skin, and last of all the "pep¬ 
per and salt,” or intermuscular fat. He was 
equally positive that whenever it happensthat 
fat is wasted from the body through fatigue 
or sickness, the loose fat disappears first, and 
the marbling fat last of all. Physicians tell 
a somewhat similar story. Observation 
teaches them that in the human subject, the 
outside fat wastes sooner tbanthe inter-muscu¬ 
lar fat, nnditis known that when the fatof the 
body gradually disappears in old age, it passes 
from the external parts, leavjng them loan 
and flaccid, while, the last which remains is 
the very substance of the internal organs; 
whence it might bo urguod that the marbling 
fat, made from albuminoids in the cells, tends 
to stay in the places where It was formed, and 
that it seems to be less mobile than the fat 
that has come from tho blood, and which 
readily returns to the blood on occasion, as 
was just, uow said. In illustration of this 
point, the experience of those farmers who 
formerly latteued animals upon pulse, is im¬ 
portant, According to Leuehs, it was at one 
time customary in Germany bo feed vetches 
(the seeds) by preference to such cattle as 
wore intended to bo sold in distant, markets, 
for the reason that animals thus fattened 
were less liable than any others to shrink from 
travel. It was found that while the fat of 
oxen that had been fed upon more delicate 
foods was, so to say, fugitive, in that it wasted 
away well-nigh completely when the animals 
were driven long distances, the firm fat pro¬ 
duced by vetches, peas, and other legumes, 
remained upon the bodies of the animals, 
even after long journeys. It seems hardly 
probable, however, that this permanence of 
the fat from legumes can have depended solely 
upon the place of its deposition. Doubtless the 
character of the suet, accordingly as it is 
"hard” or "soft.” will have considerable In¬ 
fluence on the rapidity of its disappearance, 
and it is a fact of familiar observation that 
the consistency of the fat. in animals is largely 
dependent upon the quality of their food. 
There is a story that an old Philadelphiauurse 
once remarked, upon this point, "Some fats 
is fust and some is tickle, but the fat from 
cod-oil is easy squandered.” 
There can be, of course, uo question that the 
effect of marbling is often conspicuous at the 
close of long-continued periods of fattening, 
and especially when the animals are "forced” 
from early youth. A good idea of this so- 
called condition of "ripeness” may be got 
from the results of some experiments of Hen- 
neberg. ou feeding wethers two and three- 
quarter-year-olds. After the animals bad 
beeu slaughtered, pains wurc taken to collect, 
by means of appropriate solvents, and to 
weigh all the fat thut had accumulated in the 
merchantable flesh a* the animals passed from 
tho “ store ” condition to that of "fat” and 
"hog-fut.” The weights of actual lean flesh 
(free from fat) obtained from the several lotsof 
animals were in the proportion of 1(H), 00, and 
102, and tho similarity of these results is not 
to be wondered at in view of the well-known 
fact thut the " fattening ” of adult unimalsde- 
pends in no wise upon the production of flesh. 
The iuereased weight of the fattened animal is 
duo to fat actually stored up in or upon him, 
and in tho ease uow in question Heuncberg 
found that the proportion of fat in the flesh of 
the animals amounted to 100, 287, and 889 in 
the three conditions, respectively, no account 
being taken of the kidney and caul fat which 
was naturally much larger in the fattened ani¬ 
mals than in the stores. As hearing upon this 
subject, au old estimate of Mr. Horsefftll is 
worth citlug, t hough it probably has no special 
claim to be accounted accurate. When fat¬ 
tening cattle iu stalls ho computed the gain of 
fat per week to cousist on the average of three 
pounds loose fat or tallow, one pound suet or 
fat. in the loin, and seven pounds fat mixed 
with meat and sold as beef, He adds, "Nor 
do I think this an over cst'mate, as it w ill he 
admitted that the gain of carcass fat. indepen¬ 
dent of tho loose fat. or tallow, is greater than 
that of flesh. Tho whole of the exterior of 
the carcass immediately under the skin is oov. 
ered with a layer of fat. which, when the 
beast, is lean scarcely exceeds one-eighth to one- 
quarter inch in thickness, whilst in fattening 
it increases frequently to ony-uud-a-half 
inch, six fold or upwards. The fatty por 
tious throughout increase also, and the flesh 
becomes intermixed with fat, and assumes 
what is termed the mottled appeal ance which 
is the characteristic of beef of prime quality.” 
It should here be said that in spite of the 
common imoression to the contrarv, I have 
found some practical men, especially among 
those who have had a varied experience tn 
fattening hogs upon different kinds of foods, 
who dispute the notion that marbled raeateau 
be obtained only at the close of the fattening 
process. They hold that with appropriate 
feediug. it is possible to deposit muscular fat 
without pushing the fattening process to ex¬ 
tremities, Their idea has manifestly some¬ 
thing in common with the modern practice of 
fattening very young animals, as was said 
long ago in Morton’s Cyclopaedia of Agricul¬ 
ture, the flesh of very young beef and mutton 
may be marbled, the result appearing to de¬ 
pend on constitutional tendency, or on long- 
continued feeding upon food that con talus 
abundantly the elements for for min g fat, 
rather than on any influence of maturity of 
age. It is notorious, for that, matter, that 
there is some risk in feeding young animals 
too freely, especially pigs, lest an actual "fatty 
degeneration” of thoir flesh be induced. 
It seems not improbable that intelligent ob¬ 
servation of the carcasses of many animals 
that have been fed on different kinds of food, 
each of tolerably well known chemical com¬ 
position, would show that the conflict of opin¬ 
ion previously recorded, may depend prima¬ 
rily on differences of food which were not no¬ 
ticed or even suspected by tho older observers. 
It is not unreasonable to suppose, for instance, 
that statements such as the one credited the 
other day to Jennings may be true of animals 
that have been fed chiefly ou fatty food, or on 
carbohydrates, while on the other baud the 
statement of Morton may be true in its turn 
of foods rich iu albuminoid matters. Numer¬ 
ous new observations need to be made by per¬ 
sons favorably situated, to test how much of 
truth there may be in this hypothesis. If there 
is any truth iu the idea, we nhed to be in¬ 
formed practically both as to its scope and its 
limitations. It would be an undoubted gain 
for agriculture, and for the community at 
large, if means could be discovered of obtain¬ 
ing marbled flesh without expending so much 
time and fodder as are uow required in the 
costly ripening process which has come to us 
from the English feeders. To quote from the 
English physiologist, Foster, "the fats taken 
as food (mss. with comparatively little change, 
from the alimentary canal Into the blood, 
either directly, or through the intermediate 
passage of the chyle. We might infer from 
this that, an excess of fat thus entering the 
blood would naturally be stored up in the 
available adipose tissue, without any further 
chauge.” 
The common observation that oily foods, 
such as oil cake, when fed to hogs, yield soft 
fat, naturally suggests the thought that the 
oil of the food has been carried by the blood 
and deposited in the fat cells, with compara¬ 
tively little change of composition. According 
to Morton’s Cyclopaedia, oil-cake is often fed 
out in England to animals fattcuing in pas¬ 
tures, for the double purpose of giving to the 
animal that peculiar condition of quality 
which is felt on handling and is deemed to be 
so desirable, and of enabling the land to carry 
more stock. It is anyway a matter of famil¬ 
iar observation thut a cushion of fat does form 
on the bodies of animals which are fed upon 
fodders rich in fat, and it is a not unnat ural 
inference that a good part of the fat of the 
food has passed from the intestines to the 
places where it is deposited. In this view of 
the matter, the chief deposits of fat would be 
likely to occur iu regions near the intestines, 
out of which the fat of the food has 
passed into the blood; and, in gene¬ 
ral, in those (tarts of the body to 
which the current of blood lias readiest access, 
after the fat of digestion bus been received hy 
it; as is well known, branches of the arteries 
and veins do run through the masses of fat 
that are contained in the so-called adipose 
membrane. Ho, too, in the new-born infant, 
fat. is found beneath the skin whither it has 
beeu brought by the blood flowing from the 
parent, while in young animals, in general, 
there is but. little fat in the muscular tissue 
because so much of this material is needed for 
the purposes of life and growth that it is 
commonly used upas fast as it is formed. 
THE " ASH-HOPPER.” 
Of course, you all know what the ash-hop¬ 
per is. It used to occupy au honored position 
behind the smoke-house. That w as m the days 
when the farmer's wife made her own soap. 
A good many of them make it yet, and all 
ought to. There is uo soap so good as that 
made at home. This is not a pretty thing to 
write about, but it is a useful thing. There 
is no little science and art about soap-making, 
and the "setting of the ash-hopper” plays its 
full part in the important, intricate pro¬ 
gramme^ soap-making. 
The best foundation for an ash-hopper is a 
white-oak log, about four feet long and a foot 
in diameter, hollowed out into a trough and 
resting upon two large stones. The open end 
of the trough should be at least two inches the 
lowest that the lye may readily run out. At 
the four corners of a square thesides of which 
are six feet, and in the center of which is the 
trough, pound firmly into the ground forked 
stakes On each side lay a pole lu the forks 
of the two stakes on that side, and then on 
these lay the ends of two other poles to form a 
square The forks should project high enough 
to hold the last poles in their place, and the 
poles lie about four feet from the ground. 
Take boa rds (hard wood is best) about five feet 
long and. placing one end in the trough, lean 
them agaiust the poles. Some of the boards 
— those at the corners—must, be tapered. 
Cracks may be covered with clapboards, Iu 
tho bottom of the hopper lay some fine brush 
lengthwise of the trough. Ou the brush lay a 
small bunch of wheat straw. Now the hopper 
is ready for the ashes. 
Home ashes make stronger lye than others. 
In general, the hard wood makes the better 
ashes. I always fancied that hickory wood 
made the best ashes. The ashes should be kept 
in some dry place. If kept in a box raised 
from the ground and well covered, they will 
not leach. When ready to “ set” the hopper— 
and this should be done in January or Feb¬ 
ruary—put a couple of shovelfuls of ashes in 
the hopper and then sprinkle them with water 
till they are damp enough to pack well. As 
soon as enough ashes have been put iu to form 
a layer four Or five Inches thick, they should 
be paeked solid by stamping with a maul. 
Dampen the ashes enough to pack well, but do 
not make them damper than is necessary for 
this. They must be packed very solid. Upon 
the solidity with which they are packed de¬ 
pends the strength of the lye. If any cracks 
in the sides of the hopper are likely to leak, 
they may be covered with a wisp of straw. 
The ashes should be leached in until they come 
above the poles. Make the top dished so that 
it will hold at least two buckets of water. 
Cover the hopper with boards until you are 
ready to make soap in the Spring, as the rain 
must be excluded. If it can stand a month or 
six weeks before the lye is wanted it is better. 
If rcry well set the hopper will furnish lye 
strong enough for two soap makiugs; but it is 
the better plan to set it each Spring. 
JOHN M. STAHL. 
EXPERIENCE WITH ENSILAGE. 
Here is our experience the preseut year with 
ensilage:—We put up about eighty tons, and 
finished about Oct 1. The fodder-corn was 
all put in in good shape, except about ten 
loads, which were frost-bitten very badly. 
Those we put ou top. We did not use any 
stone or sand for weights, but plaeed 
about two feet of oat-straw ou top. and 
the stalks of the field-corn as we husked it 
were plaeed on top of that. It was at least 
two or three weeks before we got auy weight 
upon the ensilage to amount to anything. 
There were about ten tons of stalks piled 
on top of the ensilage. The silo is 20x24 and 
20 feet deep. We did not have enough to fill 
it more than half full. 
We have just opened it and find, to our de¬ 
light, the fodder preserved as nicely as any 
fodder could be in a stone silo, with 800 pouuds 
of stone per square foot piled upon it. 
Our silo is made of tarred paper and matched 
plauk, all on top of the ground. *The frosted 
fodder ou top was spoiled, as we expected it 
would be. 
Now a word as to the way the cattle eat it. 
We give them a bushel each of the ensilage 
night and morning, and they eat every par¬ 
ticle of it and lick their chops for more Let 
those put their fodder in the field to dry who 
choose, hut for us we shall use a silo as loug 
as we keep a cow. hardin bro's. 
Schenectady Co., N. Y. 
HOUSING CORN-STALKS. 
Until I went down the New Jersev coast 1 
entertained the idea that corn fodder was of 
hardly any value if once soaked by the storms. 
I sneered at the slack management of the 
farmers who set their stalks, two or three 
bundles deep, along the fences instead of 
placing them, well cured, In narrow, well- 
topped stacks or under protecting sheds. A 
few years’ experience has removed my 
conceited opinions, as I know a like experi¬ 
ence has changed the opinions of other New 
Englauders living on this coast. I find 
that the cattle seek the wet and softened 
fodder, even when its dark color seems to 
make it unfit for food, rather than eat the 
tough and dry fodder thrown out from the 
barn. Perhaps the cows are wrong in this 
matter, but they have great success in con¬ 
vincing many owners that housing the corn¬ 
stalks is needless labor. It may be in order 
just here to suggest the advisability of wet¬ 
ting the dry stalks, and especially the cut 
fodder, several hours before feediug, and so 
soften the fodder for the semi-toothless cattle 
that strive so hard to tear tough husks into 
shreds. C, E. L. 
Ocean County, N. J. 
NEAT ROAD FENCES. 
No improvement adds more to the attrac¬ 
tiveness of a farm than tidy fences along the 
highway. A fence that looks as if it were 
about to tumble over, or a hedge of elders, or 
tall weeds, is offensive to every passer-by. 
"Tidy” does not necessarily mean expensive. 
Except about dwellings a neatly-huild, cheap 
fence is, I think, in better taste, in the coun- 
tiy, than a costly, painted one. The fence 
shown in Figure 18 is both neat and cheap. 
It combines all the advantages of the barb¬ 
wire fence, without its objectionable features. 
Stock are uot likely to be injured by it, and 
no special bracing is required to keep the 
wires taut. It obstructs the view very little 
and does not cause snow-drifts. The posts are 
set eight feet apart. The tops are sawed off 
in a straight line, and a two-by-four scantling 
is nailed to them, flat-wise, as shown in the 
cut. Two strands of heavy galvanized wire 
and one of barb-wire, form the remainder of 
the fence. It is a little neater to pass the 
wires through the posts, as shown in the en¬ 
graving, but the majority of farmers would 
probably prefer to staple them on in the 
usual manner. "elm.” 
UTILIZING NUISANCES. 
On page 740 the Rural New-Yorker 
seems uot to know what to suggest to the far¬ 
mers who are annoyed bv woodchucks. Why 
not eat the woodchucks/ I kuow of no objec¬ 
tion to their use as food, which will not apply 
nearly, or quite, as well to any other kind of 
flesh meat. I have eaten them and found 
i them excellent. They are easily caught by 
steel traps rightly set and covered. F. e. a. 
} Londonville, N. Y. 
licit) Crops. 
EXPERIENCE WITH IRISH POTATOES 
IN THE SOUTH 
Haring read with much interest the exne 
rience with potatoes at the Rural Grounds, 
it has occurred to mo that the experience of 
one from the South might prove of some 
value, to persons in "Dixie” at least. My ex¬ 
perience extends over a period of some sevau 
years, and in varieties of soil from the light¬ 
est white sands of the Sea Islands of Georgia 
to the stiff, red clay soils of the same State, 
as well as to the loams of Middle Alabama. 
I have tried the varieties I shall name in natu¬ 
ral soil, with Baker's potato fertilizer, stable 
and cow-pen manure. 1 have found that the 
variety that did best for me as to quantity of 
yield, as well as in beauty and size of pota¬ 
toes, and was the best of all tried, was one 
seldom mentioned, namely. Dunmore’s Seed¬ 
ling. Next came the Beauty of Hebron and 
White Elephant, the latter being more af¬ 
fected by rot at the stem-end prior to dig¬ 
ging than either of the other two. I tried 
Watson’s and Burbank’s Seedlings, but dis¬ 
carded I ioth, as they produced by far too many 
small tubers, aud they were too irregular 
and too much distorted with numerous pro 
tuberauces to be grown for profit. Early 
Rose does well, but Early Vermont, while 
yielding a large manlier of tubers, does not 
produce a sufficient number of large ones suit¬ 
able for shipping. Mammoth Pearl and 
