Osage Valley banner. (Tuscumbia, Miller County, Mo.) 1879-1881, 1881-09-15
Tho science Of Condensation.

President A. S. Welch, OF tho Iowa
Agricultural College, starting, in a
public address, with the statement that
nearly all the processes of productive
industry are only successive steps in
the progress of condensation, developed
his interesting and useful houghtin this
lucid way:
1--WE turn soil into grass, grass into
milk, milk into cream, and cream into
butter, which IS the final product in
the series. Corn, which is q torn Of
condensed soil, may itself be condensed
into whisky, starch or glucose. The
amount of twenty-eight pounds of glu-
cose extracted from one bushel OF corn
is sold at twice tho price and freighted
at less than half the cost. Oats are
condensed into oatmeal; sorghum into
sugar; apples into cider; barley into
beer; and so on without stint. Every
step advances tho price, diminishes the
weight, ana saves cost in carrying to
market But the ordinary form OF
condensation on the farm begins with
the coarser crops and ends in the vari-
Gus animal products. Sheep, cattle,
hogs and horses are condensed from
the grasses and grains, and every step
of the series all the way up from the
soil TO the thoroughbred, if rightly
managed, brings its legitimate profit,
the final gain being the comparatively
inexpensive conveyance to market
which M from large values packed
into reduced m~agnitudes. But this
constant crowding OF value into smaller
Dimensions is shown not only in the
transformation of the coarser into the
finer commodities, but it is seen like
wise in the improvement of II domes-
tic animals. A Texas steer and a high
grade Shorthorn are freighted to mar
ket at the same rates, while the one
brings double the price of the other
when they get there.
THE waste that comes from the eX-
cessive making of what is called offal is
the grand cause OF failure ON the farm.
IL absorbs food and time, it costs every
thing and brings nothing. 1t is fully as
expensive to raise horns and white
leather as to raise marketable muscle.
The price is different, but the freight
the same. Some farmers display great
talent in the production of olial. They
raise hay that is all woody fiber, apples
tlltlt Nlt I'LL Cblbs Cuiu tlil ID I'LL CODs
and cattle that are all head and horns
and gristle and tail. They stigmatize
the skill and care that diminishes the
core, the cob and the overweighted
bone to increase the salable parts as
fancy farming. Now the whole scope
and purpose of Improvement, both in
the animal and vegetable kingdom, is
simply to reduce to the smallest COM
pass consistent with strength the I'M
salable portions, and TO enhance the
quality and size Of the salable ones.
The crab apple and the Northern Spy,
the choke pear and the Flemish Beauty,
the Mustang pony and the Arabian
mare, the Florida COW with her shrunk-
en- udder and the Jersey that fills the
pail, are examples of the opposite ex.
tremes in the different series. The one
result sought in breeding, practiced as
an art, is 10 raise from the lower end OF
each series up toward the higher.
1.-The model Shorthorp COW is a sam
pie OF closely compacted values-a
treasure of the most nutritive food SO
packed as to secure the highest prices
and cheapest transportation. She is
developed to fnllness of quality Just
where the epicure finds and paws for
the most delicate roast or sirloin steak.
And those portions of her body which
the butcher considers superfluous are
condensed TO just within the limits of
size and strength which are ~indispensa-
bic TO the economy of animal life. In
the gradual progress of condensation TO
which she has been subjected through
many generations, her horns have been
made r~udimentary and her head shaped
after the best model and her bones
brought to the ineness and strength of
steel. And the policy that has effected
this striking result rests on the follow
ing reasons; l.. The offal absorbs for
its growth and support q portion of the
food which the animal consumes, con
'1uently the greater the volume Of
a We greater the amount of food
ste a feeding, 2. Large and coarse
~ j almost invariably accompanied
! 0arse muscle. Capacious ofal
Aries inferior beef. 3. Large and
coarse offal usually goes along with a
scanty development of valuable parts.
Hence it indicates "a lack, not only in
quality, but also in quantity Of market
able beef. 4. Heavy offal Is rarely &C.
eompanied by the fattening quality.
The cow or OK whose carcass Is over
weighted with ofTal will not as a general
thingtake on fat easily. IN Y. Tribune.