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Wickson, Edward J. (Edward James), 1848-1923

"One Thousand Questions in California Agriculture Answered"



Heating and Fermentation.

Please explain why dampness will cause anything like hay, Egyptian corn
or other like products to heat.
Heating is due to fermentation, which means the action upon the
vegetable substance of germs which begin to grow and multiply after
their kind whenever conditions favor them. The earlier stages of this
action is called "sweating," and it is beneficial as in the case of hay,
tobacco, dried fruits, etc., as is commonly recognized - resulting in
what is known as curing - and it is the art of the handler of such
products not to allow the action to go beyond what may be called the
normal "sweating." If not checked by proper handling, which involves
drying, cooling, etc., fermentation will continue, and other germs will
find conditions suitable for them to take up their work of destruction,
and this new action produces higher temperature still, and if not
checked by cooling or drying or otherwise making the substance
inhospitable to them, "heating" will result, and thence onward rapidly
to decay, if they have everything their own way.

Moonshine Farming.

What influence, if any, has the moon on plant growth? Are there any
reliable data of experiments available?
Very prolonged investigation by the Weather Bureau determined that no
difference was found in planting in different phases of the moon. If we
paid any attention to it, we should plant in the dark of the moon, so as
to get the plants up so that they could use the little more light which
the moon gives.


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