AGRICULTURAL MUSEUMS. 



375 



In a third row of boxes the soils will be arranged with a view of 

 showing what they are specially rich or deficient in. Then will 

 follow the analyses of the different crops raised, and over against each 

 will be placed the special manure, or manures, needed to mee their 

 special wants. The scheme is rudely indicated in the accompanying 

 plan : — 



It remains to make the acquaintance of the live stock. One can 

 scarcely imagine any intelligent farmer or ploughman who does not 

 wish to learn all he can about his chief property. The farm animals 

 are not very difficult to understand ; and it ought not to be an 

 impossible task to represent the main features of their structure and 

 relations to the eye. The facts that the hoof is an enlarged nail- 

 covering over the first joint of the finger or toe, and that the so-called 

 " knee " is really the ankle or wrist, and the lower part of the leg 

 beneath "the knee" represents the bone or bones in the substance of the 

 hand or foot metacarpal or metatarsal, and that the animal therefore 

 walks on the tip of the finger or toe, ought all to be clearly expressed. 

 The common ancestor of all the ungulates, with its five toes or digits 

 on each foot, and their gradual reduction to four in the Rhinoceros, 

 ought also to be indicated. 



The bearing of the character of the toes on classification should 

 also be clearly shown, with examples of the odd-toed group, the 

 perissodactyla, and the even-toed group, or artiodactyla. The other 

 characters hy which this is generally accompanied might also be 

 illustrated. 



For instance, in the odd-toed ungulates the stomach is simple, 

 while in the even-toed it is more or less complex ; in the former the 

 dentition is usually complete, in the latter it is usually incomplete. 



