Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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,