596 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[November i, 1884. 



quality, 160 to the pound; 107 lb. from 1 oz. of eggs; 

 worms fed abundantly on white mulberry only. On 2nd 

 May, 1883, he reported that he had raised 2,500 lb. of choice 

 cocoons in his three cocooneries, and had imported persons 

 and looms from France for reeling, and was having 15 

 reeling looms made according to his own invention. Later 

 he sent specimens of his reeled silk, the first specimen 

 1 icing somewhat coarse and brittle, but the last making hand- 

 some skeins, and showing rapid and marked progress in 

 the reeling. James Hyatt, Dutchess County, New York, 

 reports that of two packages of silkworm eggs sent from 

 your bureau to me, one netted 12 dollars to a lady to whom 

 1 gave them, and the other furnished 1,200 or ] ,300 cocoons 

 not yet marketed." 



A portion of the report is devoted to giving publicity 

 to such notices as the following: — " Mr. Samuel G. Stoney, 

 of Charleston, 8. O, offers to furnish outtings of the osage 

 orange, morns multicaulis and morus alba, at 1 dollar 50 

 rents per 100, in any quantity, cuttings to be from 9 to 

 12 inches long ;" and allusion is made to the Mississippi 

 Valley Silk Culture Enterprise Company, of Missouri, having 

 issued on the 19th January the first number of a Silk 

 i uZture Directory, to be issued weekly for the silk raising 

 term. In this they offer to furnish to praties within reach 

 of their headquarters silk caterpillars already half gro.vn, 

 to be reared by these parties on half shares, thus assum- 

 ing the risk of the proper hatching of the eggs and of 

 the success of the subsequent culture. The Silk Culture 

 Directory contained instructions in the methods of rearing 

 ^ilk caterpillars, with illustrations and correspondence. Mr. 

 Virion des Lauriers, New York, stated that he had market 

 for more cocoons than he could supply. He distributed 

 early in the season the prospectus of a mulberry nursery 

 :ind model school farm and cocoonery, to be established 

 at the South Jersey Silk Colony, Bridgeport, Burlington 

 < 'ounty. New Jersey, on the plan of the school farms and 

 i ncooneries of France; but later he reported himself from 

 the Virginia Silk, Farm, in Genito, Va., where on the 

 1 0th June he was raising the issue of 27 oz. of eggs, expect- 

 ing to get from them 500 1b. of dry cocoons, besides those 

 set aside for the perpetuation of the breed. Mr. des Lauriers 

 reports himself as sole agent in the United States for the 

 Krench Government silk school farms and nurseries, and 

 as an importer and dealer in silkworm eggs, mulberry 

 trees and seeds, and silk culture requisites; and the report 

 concludes with a notice sent by the organisation in New 

 Orleans of an association styled the Southern Silk Industrial 

 Association, for the sale of silkworm eggs and mulbeny 

 trees. Cocoons obtained by the association from worms 

 fed on white and black mulberry combined are repo ted 

 of good quality, moderately large and firm, and the moths 

 free from disease. — Leader. 



AGRICULTURE ON THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE. 

 (Special Letter.) 



Paris, September 6th. 



I'AUMING — -MILK AND COWS — ENSILAGE — BREWING — SUGAR. 



French fanning is passing through an evolution, the 

 result of the terrible law of the struggle for life. Since 

 ten years the owners of small patches of ground, won by 

 a life-time sweat of the brow, are selling their little pro- 

 perties and becoming comfortable farm laborers, so that 

 the miserable patches of laud will be consolidated, worked 

 with capital, and directed by modern, scientific skill. So 

 much for the soil. 



The processes of farming are also being revolutionized. 

 Leaving the culture of the vine and beet aside, the soil 

 tends now to be appropriated to cereals, milk industries, 

 t'roit and kitchen garden products. The first and third 

 have been ever in favor, but are now being more intensely 

 pursued where natural circumstances either favor or com- 

 pel. Milk industry, to which is joined the production of 

 meat by precocious races of stock, is akin to an innovation. 

 Indeed it has been forced on French agriculturists by the 

 severe competition in butter and cheese on the part of 

 Northern Europe and the United States. It is every day 

 becoming more difficult to get off stocks of butter from 

 Normaudy and Brittany, aud old prices are still harder to 

 obtain. 



Respecting milk farming: to be successful two conditions 



are essential, a proper race of cattle and suitable and suffici- 

 ent food. France possesses some excellent local breeds of 

 cattle, which, if the milch cows were selected for their 

 speciality, and crossed with a herd-book Durham bull, the 

 result would soon repay the attention. In this amelior- 

 ation of races the weak point with French breeders is, 

 that they rear the bulls resulting from these crossings, 

 instead of having them cut and converted into excellent 

 oxen. And French agricultural societies are much to blame 

 for admitting such mongrel. bulls into competition. The 

 tendency now is to cross selected local races with Durham 

 blood ; the Flemish cow unites the most of the desired 

 advantages. 



Though the food may be liberal and good, if the cows 

 be lean, they cannot yield milk rich either in butter or 

 cheese. The renovation of the tissues of the animal eco- 

 nomy presents the secretion of milk. The food has also an 

 important determining influence, and the kind of water 

 supplied affects the flavor of the milk ; it is to the latter 

 circumstance that is attributed the objectionable quality of 

 Dutch cheese. 



Milk is a little heavier than water, and when pure, of 

 an opaque whiteness, possesses a milk flavor and a slight 

 odour. Some question if it has a yellowish tinge. The 

 milk of pure Jersey cows is decidedly yellow in color, 

 and like the Breton breed is rich in butter. The Channel 

 Islands cows are estimated to yield one pound of butter 

 per day per animal. The density of milk varies then with 

 the race, food, age and health of the animals. 



Schiebler says the milk of cows submitted to a good 

 regime and house-fed contains in 1,000 parts 24 of butter, 

 110 of cheese, 50 of skim milk, 77 of sugar of milk, al- 

 bumen, lactic acid and mineral salts, and 739 parts of water. 

 Light-colored cows are popularly believed to be better milk- 

 ers than dark maroon or reddish brown, but their milk is 

 not so rich. Climate affects the yield of milk as transpir- 

 ation is greater ; thus the cows in the south of Frauce are 

 bad milkers, while the contrary is the case in the north. 

 Cold is equally objectionable, the mountainous districts prove 

 this, where the temperature, not the pasturage, is at fault. 

 Weither young nor old cows give much or rich milk ; they 

 are in their prime after the third calving, or when four 

 or five years old ; then the organs of secretion are devel- 

 oped. An animal cannot develop itself and yield a satis- 

 factory supply of milk at same time. Cows may remain 

 profitable milkers till twelve years old. When aged from 

 six to eight, and about six weeks after calving, a cow if 

 " spayed," will, it is alleged, secrete one-third more milk 

 and uniformly for a longer time. 



Cows fed on green or aqueous food will yield most milk. 

 White clover tells handsomely ou the quality of the butter. 

 Then ranks natural meadow, superior to artificial, because 

 containing a greater variety of grasses, and of an aromatic 

 and condimeutary character. Marshy forage is in every way 

 detestable, chicory is bitter, madder colors the milk, while 

 spergel trees tell on the quality. De Weckherlin considers 

 potatoes increase the quantity of milk at the expense of 

 its quality ; mangolds are satisfactory, and carrots more so. 

 There are dairy farmers who can command what price they 

 please for their butter; well, carrots and piime hay, aud 

 white clover soiling given, not much at a feed, but frequ- 

 ently, is the stage secret of their success. Grains and 

 wash were formerly in more favour, but are considered to 

 fatigue the digestive organs ; cabbage and dry fodder are 

 esteemed; artichoke leaves impart a bitter flavor, while 

 pea-pods communicate a peculiar taste to, while reducing 

 the quantity 0? milk. In the cheese factories the latter 

 stuff is blamed for preventing the milk from curding. ( >ak 

 and ash leaves mixed with forage are said to produce butter 

 of a waxy, close-grained nature, possessing a nutty flavour. 



In France and Italy the milk of a cow after calving is 

 not considered to be in its normal state till ten days; at 

 this stage it is called colostrum ; it contains no caseiue, turns 

 rapidly, but does not acidify. It has been alleged the longer 

 the milk remains in the adder the richer it will be, hence 

 the morning is superior to the evening milkings. "Wolff's 

 experience does not confirm this. Milk may not only be 

 bitter as a consequence of marshy fodder, but also from 

 the animal's bile, entering into the circulation and so pass- 

 ing to the milk. 



Associated dairy-farming in France has to struggle with 

 the legal difficulties which fetter the formation of co- 



