Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1900-01-18
PANCAKES Of HAY.
New Process for Comprising Food
for the Use or Animals
An the Army.

The Georgia and Argentina mules.
which are doing war duty in South AT
RIGA, with the British army, will be sur
prised when they see the new style of
baled hay which will be served up to
them as soon as the steamship Susque-
hanna gets to Cape Town. Three hum
1red tons were sent on the Susquehan-
ma recently, and it is the first shipment
Of about $500 tons, ordered by the
British war department. The baling
of the hay is being done at the Atlantic
dock in Brooklyn, where six new ma
chimes are being used. The machine
was invented by man named Lowry.
The hay is put up in bales cylindrical in
form, about the size and shape of the
old-fashioned nail key. or - inches
nigh, and of the same diameter. When
baled in this shape the hay is as hard as
a board. The bales weigh about 145
pounds.
What will surprise Mr.. Mule will be
the way the hay is handed out" It
will be in pancake form. The hay PAN
cakes or layers which make up the bale
are about three-fourths of an inch
thick, and as soon as the mule takes
bite of the pancake ne will be kept
chewing so constantly that he will for
get all about the bullets. Mr.. Peck,
who showed the reporter the process,
did not say that the mules mental
faculties would be engaged to this ex-
tent. That is simply a non-hayeating
layman's own expression. The hay in
the pancakes is so tightly packed that
as soon as the mule begins chewing it
he will have the same buoyant feeling
experienced by the small boy whose
waistband is made tight by eating
dried apples. The most compact bale
of hay put up by the old style requires
about 16O cubic feet space per ton. This
new-fargled Georgia mule hay takes up
only so cubic feet space per ton.
A rather singular combination of
circumstances is afforded at the baling
using Canadian hay, baled in the old
square fashion, in Canada. The old
bales are torn to pieces and fed into the
top of the six new compressors. About
half the product of the Brooklyn plant
goes to South Africa for use in the
army which is fighting the Beers, while
the other half goes to Manila.
The good thing about this new bale
is that mule can carry two 112-pound
bales, and after he is fed off them for
two or three days there's enough left
for cavalryman to use as a miniature
rampant. The hay is packed so tight
that a bullet wouldn't go far into it. A
mule can carry only one of the 145-
pound bales. The greater number of
bales shipped to South Africa weigh 112
pounds. the English hundredweight.
A rather remarkable fact in connec-
ton with this process of baling was dis
covered by accident. Where the hay
goes into the machine through four
mortised holes about the thickness of
the hand the fractional heat caused by
the drawing of the hay through these
holes keeps the whole top of the COM
pressor hot. As the hay passes through
the heat fuses the juices in the timothy
and clover and makes the whole layer.
or pancake, aromatic. Horses prefer
hay run through one of these COM
pressors to hay in its loose state, on &C.
count of its aromatic properties.-N.Y Y,
Tribune.