The Red Cloud chief., 1884-08-15

~ sly bptUiU- VI tbs bE8stN VI
damp hay. where. under favorable con-
sitions. the evolution Of heat may Even
-ome 70 the point of Inflammation. is
Is well known that lev has will
"sweat" somewhat in the NOW or stack
after il has been stored. no matter how
dry il seemed 10 be n; the moment OF
storing; and IL is q tenet Of faith
among hor.e-keepcrs tina: hay j. not Ut
food for horses until after this sweating
fermcntat on has thoroughly run its
course. Many farmer. believe. indeed.
that this fermentation il advantageous.
and not a few Of them hold that IL Is
not well TO dry hay too thoroughly be-
fore s:oring IL. lest the necessary rfpeu-
Ing in the NOW should b. hinderei. A
couple OF English chemists. Percy
FARMLAND aud Jordan. have recently
experimental upon this matter with the
View Of ascertaining what kinds OF gases
are evolved during the fermentation
They lind, IS VA To have been eS-
pected, that wen al the ordinary tenn
perature Of the air Ii good deal ii car
bonic acid Il given of. and that this gas
is accompanied by mere traces Of by
drogcn and hydrocarbons. In the te-
! ginning. when the comparatively dry
grass was in contact with air. and was,
so To SAT, saturated " tn air. the oNy-
gen Of the air wa rapidly absorbed and
changed 20 carbonic acid But even
after the oxygen had been completely
removed in this way from the confined
volume Of air employed in the expert
meBt, there wa. still evolution Of ear
bonic acid from the hay. the
oxygen for which must have coma from
some constituent OF the grass. On
account o. the presence Of nitrogen ! n
air, il was difficult To conclude from the
experiments made in the air a. to what
happened with regard to the nitrogen in
the grass during the fermentation. Hence
experiments were made upon other
portions OF the incompletely dried grass
confined, in some cases, IN an atmos-
phere o. carbonic acid, and in other i'll
stances i'll atmosphcres of oxygen and
hydrogen. IL appeared. however. that
the atmosphere with which the grass
was surrounded had but little influence
either upon the volume or the compost
ton of the gases produced. The cvo-
luton Of ~caryonic acid took place about
is rapidly in the artificial atmosphere
As il did in air. but il was noticed that
in the atmosherr OF oxygen there was a
considerable evolution of nitrogen, as
Well as of carbonic acid; hence the in
ference that nitrogen is really evolved
when hay fcrmcntS in the air. The OK
vgen wa, so rapidly absorbed by the
grass that, even in the perimentS
with pure oxygen, it was completely
used up in the course of 4 week. after
which time the evolution Of nitrogen
from the grass practically ceased. On
adding new quantities of oxygen, how
ever. nitrogen was again Liberated from
the HAY, though somewhat less than at
first; the amount given off was still
vers considerable. however, even after
the lapse of several months. The funda-
mental fact that even in the absence 81
any oxygen in the free state, considera-
bic quantities OF carbonic acid were
produced al the expense of combined
oxygen originally contained in the grass
was conspIcuOuslv enforced by these
experiments in artificial atmOsp:eres.
Naturally enough the evolution of car
bonic acid was more rapid at Il tempera.
ture Of % degrees than at 90 degrees.
w n'l1 EBdSS "as dllp"tu W t't'Iti'
pose under water much larger quaint
ties of gas were evolved than were OBJ
tanned in the foregoing experiments.
and the gas. though mainly caTooniC
acid. rs before, was characterized by
the pr .Sence of a notable percentage OF
hydrogen. But in other expert
ments, where the water was made
poisonous by adding to it small quanti-
ties of carbolic acid or corrosive sub.
Innate, no gases at all were evolved,
and Il similar negative result was OBJ
tanned when a tube containing graSs
and water was exposed TO steam heat
for several hours and then left to itself;
whence the conclusion that the fermenta-
ton and the evolution of gas must be
dependent upon the presence in the
hay or grass of low forms of organic
life. In confirmation of this view, the
microscope always revealed numerous
bacteria in the water taken from tubes
i'm which the grass had fcrmcnted.
This water was found to contain acetic,
Tactic. and, probably. prOpionic acids.
The fact enforced by these experiments
that the fermentation OF hay in mows
will 90 forward in the absence Of air,
and that the practical result mot to say
the cause) of the fermentation is the
destruction of certain chemical con
stituents of the hay. is calculated to
throw considerable light, not only on
the significance of the sweating of hay
in mows, AS aforesaid. but upon the
question of baling hay also. 1t is com
monty held to be quite improper to bale
new-made hay. no mater how dry
the hay may be, and that, indeed, the
operation OF baling can not be per.
formed with safety to the hay unit
after it has been allowed to lie some
time i'm the barn. Undoubtedly. beside
the gases that are evolved. various new
chemical compounds are formed during
the fermentation by the breaking up OF
matters originally contained in the hay,
and some Of these new products may
be more useful. or less hurtful, thar
those in the unfermented fodder. In
view of the fact that 4 re tain degree
of fermentation of green hay can hardly
be avoided anyway, even If it were de
sirable To avoid il, il may well be true
that the doctrine taught by some skill
full farmers that it is always best in cur
ing hay to let it sweat somewhat in
lunches, windows or cocks before car
rying it to the barn is a correct doctrine
IL consists curiouslv with objection:
which have been made, at one time and
another, in England. to processes Of
drying grass ar~titicially in currents o
air. as introduced there by several in,
yentors- The waste of nitrogen from
hay by long-continued keeping has re-
peatedly been noticed before by agri
cultural chemists. Ii follows that al
though the popular belief that the new
hay is bad for animals may be true
enough. old hay is not ne ceSsarily gooc
hay.-RnnG keN- Eorser