EFFECTS OF CLOVER ON IVHEK. 43 



a pungent substance that comes from the East Indies, and is 

 made into a cuny, and used largely in that way. It gives a 

 very yellow color. I was giving my cows about a teaspoon- 

 ful of that turmeric a day, to give increased color to the 

 milk ; and I found that had a beneficial effect. Then I was 

 going, by reason of that experiment, still further. Knowing 

 that if animals are fed with madder root, which is a sweet 

 substance used for dyeing, but at the same time very nutri- 

 tious, it will color their bones red, a query arose in my mind 

 whether, if I fed that turmeric to my cows, and wanted to 

 sell them for beef, the butcher would not find the bones yel- 

 low and want to know what the matter was ; and it might 

 discredit the beef. So I told my man to shut up six chickens 

 in different coops. I wanted to try the effect of the tur- 

 meric root on them ; thinking I might reason by analogy, 

 as to its effect on animals. 



I think we have an explanation of the effect of clover in 

 decreasing the milk, in the fact that when cows which have 

 not had sufficient phosphate in their previous food, have clover 

 fed to them, the phosphate carries the nourishment to the 

 bone and decrease the milk. 



While I am up, I will say that a number of years ago, 

 having some interests near Utica, I went to one of the cheese- 

 factories, feeling some interest in those things. I was run- 

 ning a woollen mill at that time, and I bought a great deal of 

 cheese-oil, to use on the wheel, instead of lard-oil, and the 

 other oils that had formerly been used. I know it occurred to 

 me at that time, that if I were manufacturing cheese, I would 

 devise some way to keep that butter in the cheese, and make 

 it better. As INIr. Lewis is from that section, I thoui^ht it 

 might be interesting to him and to the farmers here who are 

 interested in cheese making, to inquire whether it would not 

 be better to keep the whey-butter in the cheese, than to 

 have it lost ; for I know that one gallon of that went as far as a 

 gallon of lard or olive-oil in oiling machinery. 



Prof. Agassiz. Among the experiments concerning the 

 food of cows, there is one which nature has been trying in 

 Switzerland, on a very large scale, and which may not be 

 known to the farmers here. There are two very distinct 

 districts in Switzerland, geologically : the portions north and. 



