The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1884-08-08
Fermentation Of NeN-Made Hay.

Fermentation Of NeY-Made Hay.
To say nothing OF the cheating" of
damp hay, where, under favorable con-
ditions, the evolution of heat may even
come to the point OF Inflammation, it
is well known that new hay will
sweat somewhat in the NOW or stack
! after 1t has been stored, no matter how
dry 1t seemed to be at the moment of
storing; and it is tenet of faith
among horse-keepers that hay is not fit
food for horses until after this sweating
fermentation has thoroughly run its
course. Many farmers believe. indeed.
that this fermentation is advantageous.
and not few of them hold that it is
not well to dry hay too thoroughly be-
fore storing it, lest the necessary ripen-
ing in the NOW should be hindered. A
couple OF English chemists, Percy
FARMLAND and Jordan, have recently
experimental upon this matter with the
view of ascertaining what kinds of gases
are evolved during the fermentation.
They find, as was to have been ex-
pected, that even at the ordinary tenn
perature of the air good deal of car
bonic acid is given off, and that this gas
is accompanied by mere traces of hy-
| drogen and hydrocarbons. In the be-
| ginning, when the comparatively dry
grass was in contact with air, and was,
SO to say, saturated with air, the oxy-
gen of the air was rapidly absorbed and
changed to carbonic acid. But even
after the oxygen had been completely
removed in this way from the confined
volume of air employed in the expert
ment, there was still evolution of car
bonic acid from the hay, the
oxygen for which must have come from
|! some constituent of the grass. On
| account of the presence of nitrogen in
| air, it was difficult to conclude from the
experiments made in the air as 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 OF carbonic acid, and in other in
| stances in atmospheres of oxygen and
hydrogen. II 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 evo-
| luton of carDonic acid took place about
as rapidly in the artificial atmosphere
| as it did in air, but it was noticed that
in the atmoshere of oxygen there was
considerable evolution of nitrogen, as
well as of carbonic acid; hence the in
ference that nitrogen is really evolved
when hay ferments in the air. The OK
ygen was so rapidly absorbed by the
grass that, even in the experiments
with pure oxygen, it was completely
used up in the course of 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
very considerable, however, even after
the lapse of several months. The funda-
mental fact that even in the absence of
any oxygen in the free state, considera-
bic quantities of carbonic acid were
produced at the expense of combined
oxygen originally contained in the grass
was conspicuously enforced by these
experiments in artificial atmospheres.
Naturally enough the evolution of car
bonic acid was more rapid at a tempera-
ture of 81 degrees than at 80 degrees.
When grass was allowed to decom-
pose under water much larger quanti-
ties of gas were evolved than were OBJ
tanned in the foregoing experiments,
and the gas, though mainly carbonic
acid, as before, was characterized by
the presence of 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 a similar negative result was OBJ
tanned when 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
| in which the grass had fermented.
| 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 matter how dry
the hay may be, and that, indeed, the
operation OF baling can not be per-
formed with safety to the hay until
| after it has been allowed to lie some
time in 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, than
those in the unfermented fodder In
view of the fact that certain degree
of fermentation of green hay can hardly
| be avoided anyway, even if it were de-
sirable to avoid it, it may well be true
that the doctrine taught by some skill
full farmers that it is always best in cur
ing 'aay to let it sweat somewhat in
punches, syMdrows OF cocks before car
rying it to the barn is a correct doctrine.
It consists curiously with objections
which have been made, at one time and
another, in England, to processes Of
drying grass artifcially in currents o:
air, as Introduced there by several in
ventors. The waste of nitrogen from
hay by lone-continued keeping has re-
peatedly been noticed before by agri.
cultural chemists. 1t 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 good
hay.-RurGL Nea0 Yorker.