166 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 



that the falling off of milk amounted in four days 

 to fifteen quarts per day in the aggregate. Upon 

 changing them to the first field, the flow gradually 

 increased, until in about four days it was back again 

 to its original quantity. The experiment of chang- 

 ing the animals was repeated three or four times 

 with corresponding results. The explanation is 

 afforded in the difference which existed in the 

 grasses, in the amount of sweet nutriment which 

 the water held in solution in the circulatory vessels 

 of the plants. The quantity of food was abundant 

 in both fields, and also the clover and the June 

 grasses were produced in both, but in the one the 

 juices were thin and watery, in the other they 

 were richly laden with saccharine and nitrogenous 

 products. The field giving the best results had 

 been under the plough five years previous ; the 

 sod of the other had not been broken for twenty 

 years. We do not give sufficient attention to our 

 pastures in New England, and by withholding fer- 

 tilizing agents, and allowing the sod to become com- 

 pact and cold, the growths are sadly deficient in 

 the milk and flesh forming constituents. I believe 

 that it pays well to cultivate and give attention 

 to pastures in all our thickly settled districts. One 

 acre maintained in good tilth, so that nutritious 

 and healthy grasses are produced, is worth to the 

 farmer more than three which are suffering from 



