Newspaper Page Text
THE SOUTHERN WORLD, OCTOBER 15, 1882.
5
jpve §epnrtmmt.
Improving Stock.
The fall season is a favorable time to make
purchase of thoroughbred animals for im
proving common stock, for several reasons.
The prevailing opinion among intelligent
agriculturists is that thoroughbreds are not
best—in the present state of our country—
for general purposes. True, there are those
who insist on having nothing but registered
stock or their descendants, but these are
generally fancy, or professional breeders and
dealers, whose interest or fancy—either or
both—it is to advocate thoroughbred. There
is a similarity in the sound and analogy in
the meaning of this word to the good old
word thoroughgoing, which may, and doubt
less does mislead some by conveying the
idea that to be thoroughgoing in growing
stock, the farmer must be satisfied with
nothing less than thorough-ftreef. While, of
course, it is indispensable that the profes
sional breeder should buy and use only the
best blood, it is by no means necessary that
the ordinary farmer shall become versed in
the pedigrees of all the famous strains of dif
ferent kinds of stock, or to be able even to
discuss the different points in the often
arbitrary " standards of excellence." A few
thoroughbred Jersey bulls in each county
will answer the reasonable demands for
improvement in our milch cattle. It is
not necessary that every farmer should own
a bull or even a thoroughbred boar; and at
anything like present prices of Jersey cattle,
and with the usual methods and practices in
vogue, it would be a very poor investment
with a large majority of farmers.
Each farmer should pursue the plan that
is practicable and available to him in his
circumstances. If he has the means and
some public spirit and enterprise, let him
purchase a few thoroughbreds of the stock he
purposes to improve, and benefit not only
himself but the surrounding country by
thus establishing a nucleus for general im*
provement, as well os for his individual
profit.
But the farmer who has no money to spare
for investment in high-priced thoroughbreds
can avail himself of the opportunity afforded
by those centers of pure blood at a cost that
would be nominal in view of the improve
ment that may certainly be expected. He
has but to select the best individuals from
his own herd of “scrub stock" or by pur
chase from a neighbor and cross with the
thoroughbred and continue to cross the
progeny with the original pure fountain
until he will soon succeed in getting high
grades that, for all ordinary purposes, are
scarcely inferior to registered animals. Even
where no thoroughbred blood is accessible,
in this way much improvement may be
secured by careful selection, crossing, hand
ling and training of common stock. A
farmer will find no great difficulty in the
way of securing a yield of three gallons or
more of milk per cow by selecting the best
cows, breeding to the best attainable bulls,
carefully feeding and training the offspring
through ono or more generations. This care
in selecting the best and “fittest" ought to
be practiced on every farm and with all
kinds of stock, instead of allowing them to
roam at large without restraint or direction.
The improvement of stock is one of the
great immediate benefits that follows in the
wake of the repeal of the time-honored fence
lawsof the country. It is a necessity to which
the people voluntarily submit themselves
who vote for the stock law, knowing that
it will prove a virtue in the near future.
R.
Fattening Hogs.
The time for the annual hog-killing is
rapidly approaching and it behooves the
farmer who has hogs to kill, to push them
rapidly forward so that they may be ready
for killing by the time a good cold spell ar
rives. The earlier the killing after winter
has set fairly in, the more certainly will the
meat keep and the better will be the bacon-
os a rule.
The hog Intended for pork should never go
to bed hungry at any period—but especially
at this season of the year, when food is gen
erally so abundant Corn should be gath
ered just as soon as it is dry eifbugh to keep
well, and the pork hogs should be turned in
to help themselves to peas, peanuts and other
incidental hog crops. There is nothing that
seems more to give tone and vigor to the di
gestive organs than a change of food, and po
tatoes constitutes one of the best changes.
The peanuts, goobers and chufas may be de
ferred until later in the season, or kept in
reserve for the young stock after killing
time is over. Our own practice was to feed
hogs every night on corn, although running
all day in the pea-field or on potatoes or
other good pasture. The object in view is to
convert as large a quantity of food of one or
more kinds into bacon and lard; and it is plain
ly obvious that a large yield of pork cannot
result from a small amount of com, peas, po
tatoes or other food given to the “ pork ma
chines." A hog regularly and fully fed will
rarely over-eat himself, and as the training
of these animals, for generations, lies been
directed almost solely to developing their
capacity for laying on flesh and fat, they
should never lack the raw material for con
version.
The scientific argument for full feeding
and early fattening is contained in few
words':
The animal economy devotes a consider
able portion of all the food consumed to the
purpose of keeping up the daily waste of
flesh and tissue which results from exercis
ing the limbs and active organs of the body.
Another portion is devoted to keeping up
the animal heat to a certain point, below
which the vital processes cannot go on. Now,
it is obvious that the longer the period
during which a given quantity of food is
made to lost, the greater will be the propor
tion of that given quantity that will be de
voted to supplying the daily waste, and keep
ing up the animal heat. It takes just so
much, every day for these offices—varied only
by the amount of exercise taken and the
state of the weather—and this quota must be
forthcoming if it requires all that is given
to the animal. Indeed, if the due supply is
not given the animal will waste away in
flesh and consume his own body in the effort
to keep up the vital heat.
It will be readily inferred from what has
just been said, that hogs or other animals
will fatten more readily and economically in
mild, open weather, such as we usually have
in the fall, rather than in cold, windy and
rainy weather. It takes too much food (fuel)
to keep the body warm when the air is cold
and damp; and either a larger quantity must
then be consumed in order to lay on fat
rapidly or the fattening process must.be
slower and less profitable. R.
Gluten Bread—Ita Composition and Nu
tritive Value.
As is commonly known, the gluten ob
tained from wheat flour in the manufacture
of starch, has been employed for the prepa
ration of a kind of bread which lias been
particularly recommended for diabetics, as
affording them nutriment without any ad
mixture of the carbo-hydrates. The French
chemist lloussingault, recently declared after
investigation of different Parisian makes of
the so-called gluten-bread, that diabetics
would introduce less carbo-hydrates into
their systems by eating potatoes than an
equal quantity of such gluten bread. Still
more recently, Prof. Birnbaum has opposed
these views, concluding that lloussingault
was unfortunate in getting poor specimens
of gluten bread. That of Parisian manu
facture which he tested was much better
than that of Boussingault, but the gluten
bread from the starch factory at Mannheim,
Germany, was superior to the Parisian ar
ticle.
The preparation of the gluten bread in
Paris, is somewhat different from that in
Mannheim, since in Paris they do not op
erate successfully upon a gluten flour very
rich in nitrogen. The purified, air-dried
gluten is too tough to change into fine flour,
and therefore in Paris,*the fresh damp glu
ten is mixed with some S per cent, of flour.
This mixture is formed into kernels by ma
chines of proper construction, and the dried
kernels can be easily ground. By this
means is obtained a yellowish flour resem
bling fine middlings, which is baked in Paris
like ordinary flour, with water and yeast.
The bread remains in the oven until it is
thoroughly dry. It then forms a loaf appear
ing outwardly much like bread, though dry
and easily broken. In the interior, however,
instead of the porous crumb of bread, are
large cavities separated by semi-transparent
walls. The interior of such a gluten loaf
resembles the skeleton of ordinary bread;
in the latter these cavities ore filled by the
soft crumb formed of starch flour.
In Mannheim, however, the gluten is op
erated upon without any addition of flour.
The gluten after having been washed until
the water runs from the machine perfectly
dear, is allowed to lie under water for 24
hours. The fermentation set up during this
time deprives the gluten of its great tough
ness, so that it can be divided and mixed with
leaven. As soon as the leaven has thoroughly
penetrated the mass, the bread is baked, or
rather thoroughly dried in an oven; thus a
loaf is obtained of the same outward ap
pearance as that made in Paris. From 100
kilogrammes of wheat floor twelve or thir
teen kilogrammes of gluten bread is obtained
at Mannheim.
Since the clear gluten bread is somewhat
tasteless, the establishment at Mannheim
manufactures a series of bread products,
none of which will disagree with invalids.
It sells gluten bread with a 10 per cent, mix
ture of flour or bran, and also a mixture of
gluten with previously prepared almonds or
inulin. The almonds are pulverized and
deprived of saccharine matter by proper
means. The inulin which is manufactured
by Wilte, in Rostock, from raw succory
roots, is used becanse it has been shown that
this carbo-hydrate is not changed to sugar in
diabetic organisms. Thus a bread is obtained
which, while free from the tastelessness of
pure gluten, may yet be safely taken by those
who can advantageously use gluten bread.—
Translated by the Milling World from the Oest-
Ung-Mueller-Zeitung.
The South for Immigrant*.
All great immigration movements can be
traced to two general causes: An over
crowded population at home, compelling a
migration of some, for want of adequate
support for all; or again, the opening of
distant and inviting fields, where, to better
their condition, energetic and enterprising
spirits betake themselves.
Both of these causes have operated to direct
to our shores a large number of excellent
and desirable immigrants. These persons
have come from their European homes with
a purpose to locate permanently in this Re
public, and to share with ourselves the for
tunes that mky befall our country. They
are, in many instances, possessed of consider
able means, which they extend in the pur
chase ’of homesteads; they are generally
frugal, temperate and energetic, which qual
ities they devote to the good of the commu
nity in which they make their homes.
For many years this tide of immigration
has been towards the West. The effect of it
is seen to-day in the remarkable growth and
prosperity of those States within whose bor
ders these foster children of our land have
been induced to settle. States that but a
few years ago were covered with unbroken
prairies and unsettled waste, now stand high
in the financial and political world. No
thinking man can fail to see the sequence
of cause and effect.
The influx of immigration is greater now
than it has ever been in the past. The class
of immigrants are as good; and the greater
results that have accompanied their settle
ments heretofore can with certainty be pre
dicted of their location now.
The South, during those years in which
the Western and Northwestern States were
being filled up and made prosperous, has
been busy with righting her own internal
troubles—setting in order her educational,
political and financial machinery. She has
had no time to devote attention to the great
movement going on in all other sections.
With her home matters now regulated or
provided for, her public schools erected and
prospering, her colleges filled with her sons
and daughters, her credits taking rank and
prominence in the markets, and her manu
facturing and mineral interests attracting
the attention of capitalists and investors
throughout the entire Union—the South
finds herself in a position to consider the
important question of immigration, and to
offer inducements to immigrants that can be
presented by no other territories.
The most intelligent of our people have
long anticipated this period in our history,
and all of the Southern Stales have signi
fied a yillingness to advance and foster the
causeof immigration within their own bor
ders. Wise governors and statesmen, well
knowing that when their fertile Southern
acres shall have settled upon them an intel
ligent and energetic farming class, and the
present system of labor have met its refor
mation from this source, that the era of
prosperity, delayed but not despaired of,
will dawn upon the land, and the South
take the place she is so eminently fitted to
occupy, among the foremost in the agricul
tural, mineral and manufacturing world.
The mineral wealth of these States is very
great; within their borders, as was shown
at the recent Exposition at Atlanta, are to
be found all the known and many entirely
new species of ore and gems. A large pro
portion of the gold and silver sent to the
U. S. Mint at Washington comes from these
States. Their watery powers are, beyond
comparison, the best and most satisfactory
in the land. Winter does not stop opera
tion. Summer does not hinder it; and the
material for spindles and looms are at the
factory doors. Their houses of hard and or
namental woods are easily reached, and the
supply apparently inexhaustible. The na
val stores of the world are supplied from the
boundless pine forests that skirt the whole
seaboard of the four States; while the mid
dle and Piedmont sections afford timber for
agricultural aud manufacturing purposes
unexcelled in quantity and quality. The
climate of these 8tates is one of their chief
attractions, and evidenced by the heavy
business of the passenger departments over
their railways. Thousands of tourists and
invalids, from the colder and damper sec
tions of the North and West, annually make
their way into the mountains and groves of
the South. Nor is the travel all during the
Winter months; the mineral springs and
summer resorts of these States are world-
renowned, and justly regarded as among the
most attractive in the Union.
It is a great mistako to regard this section
as a wild uninhabited territory. The South
ern people are refined and educated, and in
many i nstanccs possessed of great wealth. No
country is more generally peopled with braye,
sympathetic and hospitable inhabitants.
The immigrants will not lack for congenial
society, for schools, for church and market
facilities; nor will he have to dispute his
possession with the wild animal and the
wilder Indian. Nature and - intelligence
have combined to make the South the finest
spot in our country for the immigrant
And a tour of inspection among her ore
beds, her grand forests, and her great water
powers, will convince the capitalist that
she offers to him an equally inviting field.—
A Pops, Lynchburg, Va.
The Mississippi River Problem.
The whole valley is filled with silt at least
a thousand feet deep. In order to have de
posited this silt thus all over the valley the
river must have flowed in different ages in
all parts of the valley, doing for countless
centuries justwhatit is doing to day—build
ing up sand-bars and mud banks, breaking
and cutting them again, and tossing the
atoms from place to place, dropping them at
low water, and shifting them in floods, but
always bringing down more, and building
the valley up higher and higher, and carry
ing the delta out farther and farther to sea.
If the supply of material holds out, the Gulf
of Mexico must inevitably become dry land,
as the arm of the sea above it has done.
The character of the silt which forms this
“made ground" is an important factor in
the problem. It is chiefly mineral in its
formation, and is of great specific gravity;
but there is a considerable admixture of veg
etable matter, which doubtless is the cause
of its exceeding fertility. Being formed of
heterogeneous atoms brought in solution by
the water, and not having amalgamated
thoroughly, at least on the surface, or where
the water can reach it, it remains soft solu
ble mud, which is capable of resisting the
action of water only by means of gravity.
It has almost no cohesion, and offers no
proper foundation for any work that is of
greater specific gravity than itself. It is
used as material for the mud banks called
levees, which have been until lately the only
engineering works on which reliance has
been placed, for there is no other material
there to use, but from the fact that it is so
luble it is poor material for such works.
These facts, thoughtfully considered, pre
sent difficulties enough in the way of engi
neering works, but tho main difficulty is
yet untouchod. This lies first in the magni
tude of the river itself, secondly in the vari
ations of its volume, and thirdly in its vari
ations iu altitude and speed. This may seem
like a variety of difficulties instead of one,
but that one all lies in the effort to control a
vast stream which constantly changes in
volume, altitude, lateral position, and speed.
It .o evident enough that it would bo a com
paratively simple thing to control a small
stream of as obstinate nature, or one equally
as large that should not change from month
to month in its conditions. One can man
age a puddle, or protect himsef from the
sea, but against a thing that is alternately
puddle and sea it is difficult to act.
During the floods of last spring the Missis
sippi River from Cairo to the sea—1100
miles—had an average width of not less than
twenty miles, and an average depth, from
shore to shore, not less than ten feet. Of
course, much of this was slack water, or the
backset caused by the overflow.
The problem in brief, then, is to decido
how to keep within fixed bounds a stream
that flows in varying volume over a bed of
mud, without banks that can be called
bonks.—David A. Cuotis, in Harper’s Ma
gazine,