The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-07-17 00:00:00

IMPORTANT TO AGRICULTURALISTS.

Mr. Meehi, of Tiptree Hall, near Kelvedon, Essex,
has sent the following to The Times :
A discovery has recently been made, and, I may say,
perfected, so simple and yet so Important as regards the
food of the people that its inventor has received the rarely.
conferred honour of the gold medal of the Society ot Arts,
with a prize of fifty guinea., after due investigation by a com-
petent committee.
The object sought by the society and obtained is the drying
and securing our hay and corn crops, especially in wet
seasons, without the ordinary and precarious delay of long
exposure ; in fact, simply the extracting. without the delay,
of the superfluous moisture contained in the crops.
The study and completion of this invention have occupied
the inventor nine years. As I have witnessed Its operation
and effects both last year and the present, perhaps, you
will permit me to describe the process. which is very simple.
A rapidly revolving fan, striven by hone or by steam power,
is attached to the smoke-box of a coke f unlace. and ;a gauze
screen intervening) withdraws all the heat which would be
carried up the chimney or shaft and be wasted, and diffuses
it among the grass or corn sheaves exposed to its blast.
Grass out and at once brought to the month of the hot blast
is converted in eight or ten minutes into fine green hay of the
very best qualify, fit for immediate sale or consumption.
Grass contains 75 per cent of water: 60 per cent, of this
passes if as steam, leaving the dry hay with its usual 15 per
cent. of water. I asked Dr. Voelcker, who was present,
whether the hay or corn suffered any detel 'oration by this
quick drying and he said that it did not: hut, on the con-
trary, that it was the better for it, and also contained less
water than field-dried hay.
Corn is dried by the same means by impaling the sheaf on
a verilcil hollow spike or tube, pierced with holes, through
which the hot blast issues. The whole working mechanism
anti arrangements are simple, uncostly, and admirably con-
trived. We discarded the shilling flail for the £.300 steam-
engine as a means of economy: so I think it will be with the
hay and corn dryer.
The temperature of the blast was 320, and it may be regn-
hated at will. At the mouth of a locomotive funnel, it is, I
believe, over 500.
_ . . .

Haymaking and harvesting will not only be thus materially
hastened and secured, but at a greatly diminished cost, while
the produce is considerably increased in value This was
readily admitted by the practical farmers present. The fan
may be driven by horse or steam power. As the heat
employed costs nothir.g, for it would be wasted up the
chimney, the only expense In that respect is the power re-
quired to work the fan. This may be taken at one and
a half steam horse, or two real horses. I have seen it worked
both ways.
An ordinary farm threshing-engine might dry the corn and
thresh it immediately after cutting,tor it could dry the grass
and cut it at once into hay chaff, to be stored ready for use.
We should then 1111 longer expose our grass and corn for a
week or fortnight to the tender mercies of a variable climat,,,
especially in slate season, for the mere purpose of extracting
their moisture. Roots and vegetables may be dried by tile
same process, and thus rendered portable, storable, and more
acceptable to stock
I send you the inventor's prospectus in case you deem it
desirable to give his name to the public. I make this Corn-
munication'eutirely on public grounds.