The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1891-06-10
FARMER AND PLANTER.
STORING COTTON SEED.

little attention, and great waste is
caused by carelessness and Indifference
in providing suitable shelters to protect
it from the weather or to keep animals
away from it that would trample under
foot, or otherwise destroy much more
than they would eat. This waste in the
aggregate is enormous. 1t represents a
large per cent. of the crop There is
no product of the farm that is treated
with so much Indifference, or is cared
for or used in such wasteful man
ner. Much of this is due to the fact
that it is only in recent years that the
farmer has been impressed with any
idea as to it's actual value. For genera
tons it had been cast aside as waste
product of which they were glad to get
rid at almost any price. But the oil
mills changed all that, and gave it a
money value unheard of before, and
the mare recent process of roasting it
developed a feeding value that few sus-
pected or never believed until they tried
| it, and now that it's value is SO much bet
ter understood and appreciated, greater
care should be taken to provide suitable
places in which to store it until it goes
to market, on, better still, until it is fed
to stock on the farm on which it was
grown.
A good deal of the objections to feed
ing cotton seed to stock is found in the
condition in which it is usually fed to
them. 1t heats very readily when
stored in bulk, and this almost renders
it useless for feeding purposes If this
heating proceeds far enough to destroy
it's vitality, it becomes positively dan
gerous as food, and thousands of cattle
have lost their lives by being compelled
to eat seed that by being heated had
fermented and entered upon species
of decay that entirely destroyed their
value as food.
No large quantity of seed. unless ex-
tremely dry, when stored in bulk can
be kept from heating for any consider
able length of time without some
means to ventilate and carry off
the moisture which the sweating
process is sure to produce, and
as between this sweating, which
occurs With all new Seed and the heat
ing, which will follow if this moisture
is not allowed to escape, much care
should be taken to see that while one is
permitted the other is surely prevented.
This, perhaps, is best secured by TAX
ing some precaution to ventilate the
pile or bin in which they are stored.
With much observation in the storage of
thousands of tons, / am quite sure that
entire safety only lies in furnishing
some sort of ventilation for each hun
dred square feet of seed so stored.
Without this the seed must be very drv
if it does not heat
| have found that in storing large
quantities, when the pile was ten feet or
more in height that standing up 2x4
joist about five feet each way, afforded
cheap and ettectual remedy against
this tendency to heat They acted as a
sort of flue that carried off the moisture
and the seed became dry without heat
ing. When it is found that pile is dis
posed to heat, nothing can be done to
save it but to move it. If there is room
to make another pile of it, it should be
shoveled over so that all the warm seed
comes to the fresh air. A long, smooth
stick or rod of iron can be showed in the
pile to indicate its condition, and if it
still continues to heat it should be
shoveled over until the danger is past.
Many farmers build pen of rails,
six or eight feet in height, in which to
store seed. If well covered nothing
could be better, and as the spaces be-
tween the rails afford abundant ventila
ton, nearly or quite to the center of
the pile, and it would be poor seed that
would heat in such place, but suit
able precaution would be to stand three
or four dry saplings up through the
center, tie them together at the top and
spread the bottom ends foot apart.
Some people throw in dry BRUSH which
answers a good purpose, but this ten.
dency to heat should never be lost sight
of, and proper precautions should al
ways be taken to prevent it. The de-
terioration of the seed is rapid and GER
tain if this is not done.-G. j. Green. in
Southern Farm.