‘1868. | Agriculture. ; 59 
other roots, a much greater advantage would undoubtedly be ob- 
tained in the winter season when so large a bulk of cold and watery 
food as is often given must not only waste but injure the digestive 
powers of the animal. 
A recently published report of Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert 
affords a good illustration of the fact that living things have to 
obey the laws of their nature, and cannot be manipulated by treat- 
ment according to the arbitrary will of their cultivator. The 
experience of many years at Rothamstead has taught that special 
manurings have hardly any appreciable effect on the composition of 
the ash of wheat, which maintains its uniformity, whatever variation 
may have been artificially presented in the mineral food with which 
the crop has been fed. This fact tallies perfectly with the whole 
course of agricultural experience in teaching that the farmer cannot 
with impunity set himself to be the master of his circumstances. If 
he be wise he will only endeavour to be their intelligent servant, 
trying to turn them to account, but avoiding the costly and waste- 
ful process of opposing them. A living thmg must be preserved 
in health if it 1s to yield abundant produce, and with that view 
it must be treated according to its nature; and so, whether it be 
plant or animal that is cultivated, the maximum of produce will be 
obtained not necessarily by presenting it with abundance of the 
ingredients or elements of which that produce consists, but by 
taking care simply to provide the conditions of healthy growth, 
leaving the produce to develop as it may. 
Dr. Voelcker’s researches into the composition of town milk have 
lately been published in the columns of the ‘ British Medical Jour- 
nal, which has startled its readers with proof of the scandalous 
adulterations generally practised by the milk-dealers. Of only one 
out of ten samples analyzed from as many different shops, could 
it be said that the milk was pure; though sold at 4d. and 5d. a 
quart it was really in general worth only from 1d. up to 3d. for 
that quantity. In one case examination proved that artificial 
colouring had been added, that one-fourth of the cream had been 
removed, and one-sixth of water added! In another, the “ new 
country milk” was skim-milk, with one-third water added! In a 
third, one-fourth of the cream had been taken, and 33 per cent. of 
water added! Genuine country-milk contains 4 per cent. of fatty 
matter, 3 per cent. of casein, and nearly 5 per cent. of milk-sugar ; 
but of these three ingredients the figures were 3, 2?, 4—1°6, 2°8, 
and 4:1—1-62, 2°68, and 4:09 respectively—in some of the ex- 
amples investigated by Dr. Voelcker. And in the second of these 
instances the price charged was 5d. a quart, and the profit per 
annum must have been 200/. a year on every ten gallons sold per 
diem. It is plain that all classes dealing with the shops from 
which these samples were obtained are being victimized, and the 
