190 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
May, 
ANSWERS TO INQUIRIES. 
Tight and Open Barns. 
L. C. B., of Middlebury, Vt., wishes to know u wheth¬ 
er barns made as tight as possible, by double-boarding 
or battening, are preferable for keeping hay, to those 
built in the usual way.” 
There is no valuable portion in hay that is volatile, 
without decomposition or fermentation. Hence the com¬ 
mon opinion, that in pitching over a load of hay in the 
open air, a large part of it is dissipated, is entirely er¬ 
roneous. It may become dryer and lighter by the evapo¬ 
ration of moisture, but simple moisture is not nutriment. 
An acre of dry hay contains as much nutriment as an 
acre of green hay, although it may not possibly afford 
quite so much benefit in feeding, in consequence of not 
being so well assimilated, and it would be singular indeed 
if a ton. by a few minutes exposure to the wind, should 
lose a quarter of its substance, when a ton of stable 
manure requires weeks or even months, attended with 
constant, heavy, and foetid exhalations, to lose a like 
amount. No doubt the notion originated from its light 
and loose condition causing more show than substance. 
We cannot therefore perceive any disadvantage in an 
open barn, provided it shelters hay from the weather— 
neither does there appear to be any bad result from a 
tight barn* for the hay in the center of a large stack per¬ 
fectly excluded from air, is not essentially unlike the ex¬ 
terior. 
Value of Cobs as Food. 
C. D. Bent inquires if there is “ a certain flinty indi-® 
gestible substance contained in cob-meal, or meal made 
from the ears of corn, that is very injurious to horses and 
cattle as a constant food.” 
We have heard intelligent farmers say that they would 
as willingly give horses fragments of pour.ded glass mixed 
with their food, as to feed them with cob-meal, on account 
of the small “ flinty” pieces it contains. This is no doubt, 
too strong a view of the case, for we have known such 
food given regularly to working horses, for successive 
months, not only without producing sensibly any bad re¬ 
sults, but they continued in as good order as on other 
food. Those flinty portions, however, are an evident 
annoyance to them, and if mills which grind corn in the 
cob, had a coarse sieve attached, for removing the coarser 
portions, the meal would doubtless be more valuable 
than that of the grain merely, from an equal weight of 
ears. Cattle, possessing more powerful digestive organs, 
do not appear to regard those objectionable portions. 
According to Dr. Salisbury’s analysis, the weight of cob 
is about one-quarter of that of the grain, and they con¬ 
tain about one half as much sugar for a given weight, as 
the latter. Their ashes contain a much larger proportion 
of potash, than that of the grain. But the chief consti¬ 
tuent of the cob is woody fibre, forming about three- 
fourths of the whole, and it is the harder parts of this 
fibre that constitute these “flinty” lumps, so called, 
which are deemed most objectionable. But this fibre is 
not wholly without its use in going to support respiration 
and sustain animal heat, according to the well known 
principles of animal economy. Hence, though not rich 
in nutritive matter, the cob may be regarded as possess¬ 
ing some value, the only object required being the remo¬ 
val of the harder portions, as already suggested. 
-- 
Ashes as Manure. 
Wm. P. Bedell of Coxsackie inquires the best way to 
apply wood ashes to soils, “ and on what kinds of vege¬ 
tation it is most beneficial—the quantity necessary—when 
to be used, and the value per bushel to the purchaser.” 
We have much theory , and very little accurate experi¬ 
ment, on the application of ashes as manure. Theory is 
of great value, or rather it becomes so, when submitted 
to the test of varied, repeated, and rigidly accurate trial, 
in connexion with weighing and measuring. Guess work 
and vague estimate may satisfy the experimenter, but 
not the public. For these reasons, w r e are unable to give 
our correspondent much definite information on the sub¬ 
ject. 
Ashes are generally most useful on soils which have 
been long cultivated; because, as they are the mineral 
portion of plants, they supply the deficiency which has 
been caused by long cropping. Sometimes, however, 
new land is much benefitted, where the soil is naturally 
deficient in some of the constituents of ashes. Analysis 
may assist in pointing out such deficiency ; experiment 
is an excellent mode of determining. Ashes will be bene¬ 
ficial to all crops on soils which lack its ingredients; the 
inquiry should therefore be, on what soils , rather than 
for what crops , is it most useful? 
The quantity to apply, it is obvious, must also depend 
on the condition of the soil—it is not usual, however, to 
give a dressing of more than a few hundred bushels per 
acre. An analysis of the soil might exhibit the degree 
of deficiency, from which a calculation could be made 
of the amount needed by a growing crop; but such a 
calculation could only be regarded as a guide or illumi¬ 
nation to experiment—the latter, carefully conducted, 
being the final test. 
A good time for the application is in autumn, the mois¬ 
ture dissolving the soluble parts, which become well dif¬ 
fused. through the soil before vegetation commences in 
spring. The time of year is not a matter of great mo¬ 
ment, unless very large quantities are used. 
As for the mode of applying—the object, plainly, is to 
incorporate it with such portion of the soil as the roots 
feed in; hence if worked in by a strong harrow, two 
horse cultivator, gang-plow, or even with a common rath¬ 
er shallow running plow, it will answer a good purpose, 
but when the two latter implements are used, the ground 
should be well harrowed first, after the ashes have been 
spread over, in order to mix them well with the earth. 
-- 
Orchard Insect—Canker Worm? 
A correspondent at Bristol Centre, Ontario co., N. Y., 
who has omitted to give us his name, states that about 
four years since, four trees in the center of an orchard 
were attacked by an insect that destroyed all the leaves, 
and have now spread all over the orchard. The past 
year every tree was stripped—the mischief was done early 
in summer, and not only leaves but young apples eaten. 
When stripped, the trees appear as if scorched by fire. 
This insect is either the Canker-worm, so destructive 
