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THE SOUTHERN WORLD, MARCH 1,1882. 3 of sacked corn? Agricultural statistics do not record it j for, like the teachings of the Prophet to Ephraim, it is only “hero a little and there a little" in the contracted barns of the country, and that little too often unfit for the summar's use. My friends, have you ever analyzed a bushel of credit raised corn? If not, send it to tiie head of the economy department of your home government for inspection, and his report upon it will be a- bout os follows: It has very little soluble matter that furnishes meat and bone; its fer tilizing—fattening properties extremely lim ited—reverted matter or elements that are essential os plant food economically suppli ed. A total absence of the ammonia of hos pitality, because, owing to the use of the lime of great cost, it has been set free; and being volutile it has escaped. While the total available is about 90 cents the commer cial value, owing to credit prices of the in gredients, is $1.30 It is not strange from the analysis that it is rurcly given to fowls; horses and mules do not find it a good appe tizing esculent, while the neglected hog re alizes too lute itcontuinsthe seeds of cholera and death. From a system furnishing such corn, in the language of the I.itany, "good Lord deliver us.” These are Canaans, and these only, for bought supplies have not the savor of "mi Ik and honey,” and credit farm ing makes no wilderness blossom as the rose. Joy builds no altur in u home of want; hap piness gladdens no heart where independ ence is banished—manhood is dwarfed and contentment estranged. The sun rises be hind a cloud, is faintly visible at noonday through a hazy rift, then sets at evening in tempest and storm. Night, night—a long night of sorrow and gloom—succeeds the day of darkness and cloud. Tiie farmer allows himself his own enemy, b^a refusal based upon .prejudice, to avail himself of the inventions and appliances that science is daily furnishing to lighten his labors and advance his industry. Say what we will of our present lubor, I contend if properly managed and properly remu nerated, it is tiie best for the farmer he will ever get. .Still it is, must be apparent, it is gradually passing-away or becoming too in dependent to work, and it Is a question the future will solve, whether the education of the negro, under his false idea of freedom, will not prove a curse rather than a blessing, for he is educating hisollspring to look upon manual labor as menial and life as an exis tence only of pic-nics and pleasures. These false teachings time uiul necessity, uUlcd by a generous philanthropy of the whites, may remedy, but in* view of their false ideus, it becomes the farmers of Georgia to avail themselves of every assistance—every labor- saving factor—that science furnishes for the cultivation of tiie soil. As lubor becomes scarce or inefficient, it must be substituted by labor-saving machines, which will plow and sow and cultivate and reap, thereby lessening the cost of production und in the same ratio udding to the profits and income of tiie farm. You liuve no longer a virgin soil that can he opened yearly to cultivation. You have no money to buy new lunds, and you have no longer labor you can control at will; lienee tiie necessity of concentrating lubor and means upon a narrower area for a corresponding incrcuso of yield per acre. This can be effected by labor-saving ma chines, with which our farmers generally arc but little acquainted. He who visited the Cotton Exposition must have been pain fully impressed with the idea that we were so ignorant of these inventions and aids which were so economically employed by other agriculturists, who kept pace with the march of scientific and economic agri culture. This is un age of progress. Science is taxing her powers to lighten man's bur dens and to perform his labors. Tiie work of hands—slow, toilsome and weaiy—is be ing superceded by modern inventions and working machines, and ignorant prejudice -must no longer reject them, if you would keep pace with your progressive industry. Europe, under the teachings of agricultural science, has token u step in advance of our country, and to-ddy steam, iustcad of horse power, is plowing her lunds and reupingher harvests. Steam culture is now in success ful operation in England, Scotland, France, Austria, Itussiu, Italy, Germany, India, West Indies, Demarara and Peru. The steam plow may be ridiculed—so was the steam engine, which now transports your commerce, laughed at by the wagon and cart unbeliever; so were the spinning jenny and mule ridiculed by the sceptical spinner of other days. Yet now we are moved by ma chinery and dressed and clothed by steam, and the day is coming when steam and me chanical agencies to cheapen production will be as important agencies In agriculture as they are in commerce. Agricultural sci ence is progressing, and he who laughs at its march and rejects its assistance, is tamper ing with bis interest and cheaply parting with his birthright. The mechanic who sticks to the hand-saw, the jack-plane and the chisel—discarding the assistance of machin ery and the use of steam, is a journeyman in his profession and a patch-work jobber, while he who has kept up with the wonder ful progress in tiie mechanic arts becomes the skillful artisan—the rich inventor, the developer of industries and benefactor of his race. So he who clings to the hand-loom and cotton cards of our mother's, cannot contend in textile and mechanical industry against the machinery of the factory, which, under the guidance of skillful operatives, does the work of many hands. As in these industries, so in agriculture, science will perform the work of hands, while nutural agencies, under educated control, will cul tivate your fields und gather your crops. Away then with your prejudices against scientific improvements, which are formed in ignorance and nursed, because they were unknown to your fathers. Science tells you that rotation of crops icrcases the produc tiveness of your lands, andthnt "nothing is mure exhausting to the soil than repented croppings by the same product,” yet most of our farmers, from necessity under this system, follow cotton with cotton and corn with a little corn, thereby exhausting their soil and crippling their industry. A good example is set you by the most successful agricultural countries in Europe, of a rota tion system (forced in some by statuto'.y regulations) bienninl, triennial, and in others, quardrennial—and each successive year adds to the fertility of their soil. Besides improving your soil this rotation would give you more cereals nnd better results, for I still adhere to an opinion given you years ago, that with cereals as the main crop and cotton the surplus, your profit account would be larger than under your present system. Would that I could impress upon you that it is more profitable to raise more grain and less cotton than to raise ail cotton to buy grain. Small grain is cheaper and more profitable, because they require fewer laborers, nnd therefore a smaller num ber on the pay nnd supply roll, and is equally as good feed as corn ; and be assured hog cholera is not an epidemic where these are grown in abundance, and stock do not look like n bnrn before the weather boarding is put on. The agricultural statistics of Europe tell us the iiymcnse population and stock of their most progressive countries subsist entirely on wheat, oats, rye, pens, und root plants, and if they are profitable there with their small acreage and vast population, they can bo equally so here, at lenst it is worthy of trial, for believe me, diversified farming, aided by all the appli ances science can give, is the surest road to success. But lastly—farmers are enemies to their profession in this—they underestimate and decry it. This is evidenced in the fact that few of them study it, and fewer still are educating their sons to master it. Rest as sured there will be no grand success in any calling or profession that does not command the love of those engaged in them. Success is the reward of effort, and effort is energized by a love of the occupation in which we labor. The marble would have remained untouched in the quarry, and the world would have never been entrusted with the Jupiter of Phydias, the Greek Slave of Pow ers or the Apollo Belvidere of the Vatican hud sculpture possessed no charms and commanded no pleasant hours of study for those whose self-imposed labor has inscribed their names upon tablets more lasting than the marble upon which they worked. The canvas would never huve been animated witli the creative fancies of the painter, and lovers of art would never have enjoyed the grand conception of the Lnst Judgment of Michael Angelo, or the expressive beauty and grandeur of Raphael’s transfiguration had not their bosoms, filled with the soul of nature, longed and studied to catch its breathing spirit, that they might transfer to canvas its deep passion and ideal existence. The starry heavens would be regarded to-day as they were by the shepherds of Galilee, had not Galileo and Jupiter, inspired by their love of science, revealed their mysteries and transcribed their language. The lightnings, acknowledging no laws, useless and unserv iceable, would still wreathe our mountains with fiery garlands or leap from cloud to cloud amid crashing thunder, as they did around craggy Binai, had not Franklin and Morse and other scientists opened the door ways of. the .skies and subjugated them to man’s will and necessities. Science, inspired by her triumphs, is breaking the seals and opening new books of earth and sea and sky, from whose pages are streaming the light of new discoveries for the elevation of man and the glory of God. Astronomy is basking in the light of new constellations. Philosophy is argumenting her influence with the powers of new discoveries; mechanics is utilizing to her glory und elevation the properties of earth and the elements of Heaven. And shall agriculture, that art and science which existed before the flood and about which Moses wrote, and which is the basis of every art anil the life-sustaining element of every science, be supplemented with no “fuller revelation” of the honors that crowns its industry, of the power that underlies the profession ami the distinction that may be attained in its study and pur suit? Are the young men of the country to be educated to the belief that laurels can only be won at the “bar and bench," styled by Allison “the charnel house of genius,” when along the paths of other professions crowd honorable distinctions and upon the many columns in tiie temple of fume are written, in incfliiccuble characters, the names of scientists, mechanics, artists, agricultur ists and professors, whose fame will be sounded down the corridors of the ages? Away with the idea that there is no merit in honorable labor und no distinction in agri cultural pursuits! Agricultural science in vites investigation and offers emoluments and honors to the geologist, the chemist, the botanist, the mineralogist, the physiologist, the philosopher who reveal its mysteries and unfold its blessings. Seek not to degrade your profession by circumscribing its powers and influence, for as a profession it embraces a vast field of study und enters tiie domain of every science. Love, then, your calling; give to it your energies and your hopes, and honors nnd rewards await you. Love it, because it is dignified, honorable, manly, Hoaven ordnined. Study to build it up, for it is the foundation stone upon which is huilt all prosperity, all advancement, all honor. These plain truths huve been spoken to you time nnd again; but verily they have not lost their power or appeal by age or repetition, for, like the Sermon on the Mount, its blessings are as pronounced, its exhortations are as urgent as they were over eighteen centuries ago, when they were spoken to the multitude from Galilee and from Jerusalem and from beyond Jordan. Heed them und Heaven will smile upon your labors and crown them witli riches and with honors. OATN VN. COHN. An Essay delivered by Mr. It. J. ItcuniNO, at tbe Augusta Agricultural Convention Feb. it, lSSi. I shall endeavor to set forth in its just light, the importance of the out crop as a main reliance for stock food, and to show its superiority in quality, cheapness nnd relia bility. It is not my purpose to detract from the merits nnd well sustained reputation of Indian corn as a fattening nnd bread mak ing grain. Still less would I ndvocate the utter abandonment of the old standby, even as a general,stock feed. But I shall insist that corn should change places with oats, and that oats should become the leading stock feeding grain of the South. So impressed have I long been with the great iniportanceof the subject, that I would have preferred that the opening paper on this occasion had been prepared by one bet ter qualified than myself to do justice to the subject. Owiug to little practice in extem poraneous public speaking, I crave your in dulgence for the infliction of this manu script, and in return therefor, will promise to be short—hoping, and not doubting, that anything that may be overlooked by me will be supplied by others who may follow in the discussion of the subject. The question to be discussed is the compar ative value of oats and corn, as food crops for working animals. I affirm that oats are superior to corn for working animals. CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. In supportof this proposition, I direct your attention, in the first place to the proximate analysis of these cereals respectively. Agricultural chemists divide the constit uents of foods into two classes: albuminoids or flesh formers, and carbohydrates or fat formers and heat producers. Albuminoids (whose essential element is nitrogen), serve to nourish and build up the muscular system, supplying the daily waste of muscular and nervous tissue. There can be no strength to labor or power of endur ance witljput muscle, and the food must contain a sufficient quantity of those con st! tuents which enter into the composition of lean flesh or muscle, or the animal will be unable to do full work. The carbohydrates include all those ele ments of the food which furnish fuel to keep up tiie animal heat. They are com posed chiefly of carbon and hydrogen—hence the name, carbohydrate. The oils we use for the production of light and heat, are com posed of these two elements, and in the form of starch, woody fibre, gum, sugar, fat, etc., they enter into the composition of food and arc taken Into the system, digested, and thrown into the circulation; and by their union with oxygen produco the heat which keep the vital organs in operation. Any excess of carbohydrates in food, will be stored up in the body as fat, to serve future necessities of the animal, or be rejected from the system as waste matter. Wo are now prepared to present the proximute analysis of oats and corn, ns follows: Oats—12.0 albuminoids or flesh formers; 07.0 carbohydrates or fat formers; total 79.0. Corn—10.0 albuminoids or flesh formers; 75.0 carbohydrates or fat formers, total 85.0. It is thus seen that oats contain I-5th more of the flesh forming elements than corn, and about l-Oth less of the fat-forming ele ments; or to state it differently, the propor tion of albuminoids to carbohydrates is in oats, ns 1 to 6; in corn as 1 to 0.8. Elaborate experiments in feeding have shown that the hitter ratio is is too high for profitable or economical feeding to work animals. The ratio between these classes of food eleiuents in oats, is much nearer the correct one. Without attempting to pursue the scien tific question, we mnysum upon this point: Oats abounds in albuminoids; corn in carbo hydrates. Outs produce muscle rather than fat; corn fat rather than muscle. Corn has a surplus of starch and oil, which must oitber be stored up as fat, consumed in res piration, or pass off us waste. Too much fuel produces too nwich heat, which must be relieved by a more profuse perspiration. We may say further, outs are especially adupted, not only for working animals, but also for growing unimats of every kind— particularly those to ho used for draught purposes. Oats are chiefly nouriehing—fitted for building up the bones, muscles und nervous systems of the growing, and sus taining the strength of the working animal. Corn is primarily u fattening food, adapted to prepare nnimals for the butcher, while giving strenth to lubor in less degree. While oats are a less heuting food than corn, a fact universally admitted, thoy are also more easily digested and more wholesome. When fed as clean grain, the husks render them more bulky than shelled corn; they distend tiie stomach to a greater degree, and a horse is much less likely to injury from over feeding on oats. Who ever heard of a horse being colicked on oats? The facility with which oats may be thoroughly mixed with their straw by the use of the feed cut ter, is another advantage in their favor. A minor advantage is found in tho less labor required in masticating oats. ACTUAL EXPERIENCE. I am indebted to the kindness of several gentlemen, farmers in different sections of the State, for replies to queries sent to them with a view to get all possible light on tho question. Their uniform testimony is that oats are much more wholesome than corn, especially in summer time. Major R. H. Harduwuy embodies in few words the opin ions of nearly a dozen farmers whom I in terrogated, and doubtless they will be cor roborated by most of thoso who bear me to day. He says: “ I consider oatB in summer, when cut two-thirds ripe und cured, superi or to any other food for work horses and mules. You get all the gluten, purer and in a state more easily digested, than in any other food; besides, you get all the sweets of the straw. As a feed it acts upon the horse, the same as do fresh, tender vegetables upon man; imparting vigor, strength, health and vivacity to the stomach, blood and bowels, that corn and fodder cannot do.” It is useless to multiply words on this point. I appeal to the experience of every practical farmer, who has grown and used enough oats to enable him to form a well- considered judgment, in support of the views just expressed. I might, however, mention under tbe same head, one or two incidents 1 advantages. One is that oats offer scarcely any temptation to the midnight crib or manger thief. I ven ture to say that there have been a thousand bushels of corn stolen for every bushel of oats so token. Ihe midnight thief is not a patron of oat meal, but leaves it for the more refined palates of our city friends. Another incidental advantage- is that, oats