THE FARMER AT HOME. jjg 



r ally. It is by decomposition that all manures are formed, and it is 

 1 y regulating, aiding, and combining the action of different substances, 

 t lat the most valuable composts and fertilizing powders are prepared. 

 [ 'o preserve plants, timber, and vegetables from premature decomposi- 

 1 .on, has occasioned much research, and though in some cases success- 

 \ al, there are others in which all efforts to arrest the original laws of 

 ,' ction have proved unavailing. 



DEER. An animal which in England is kept in parks, 

 ( ither for ornament or for the chase ; the flesh of which is called 

 unison. In North America, we have five animals of the deer 

 and, the Moose or Elk of Europe ; the American Elk, a stately ani- 

 nal, whose branching horns are sometimes five feet in length ; the 

 3ommon Fallow or Virginia deer ; the mule, or black tailed deer of 

 :he Rocky Mountains ; and the Reindeer. The male of the fallow 

 leer, is called buck, the female, hind. The stag, hart, or red deer of 

 Europe, the female of which is called hind, is not found in this coun- 

 try. It is a characteristic of all these animals, that they shed their 

 horns once a year. 



DESERT. A wild, uncultivated, uninhabited place or country. 

 Geographers use the word in the general for all countries little, or not 

 at all, inhabited. In Scripture, we find several places in the Holy 

 Land, or places adjoining thereto, called deserts, which were not 

 absolutely barren or unfruitful, but such as were rarely sown or culti- 

 vated ; and though they yielded no crops of corn or fruit, they never- 

 theless afforded herbage for the graziers of cattle, with fountains or 

 rills of water, though more sparingly interspersed than in other 

 places. The wilderness or desert which was the scene of our Saviour's 

 temptation, with several others mentioned in Scripture, was of this 

 nature and quality. Many of these deserts contained cities and 

 villages, rich and well peopled ; and, indeed, almost every city had 

 some desert according to the Scripture idiom, belonging to it for pas- 

 ture ; so that the word meant no more than a land, or tract, that 

 bore neither corn, wine, nor oil, but was left to the spontaneous pro- 

 ductions of nature. 



DETON CATTLE. Among the several varieties of the bovine 

 family in Great Britain the Devons have been deservedly noted. 

 With many it has been a great favorite ; and its popularity is well 

 deserved. Among the reasons for it the following may be named. 

 These cattle, although not large are well formed, their several parts 

 distinguished for symmetry ; oftentimes highly beautiful, yet having 

 sufficient bone and muscle to render them hardy and active. They 

 have great uniformity of appearance in every feature, size, shape, 

 horns, and color. The oxen exceed the cows in size more than is 

 common with other breeds ; and both, when cut up for beef are 

 found to go much beyond what is estimated by those not familiar 

 with them. And their meat is distinguished for fine flavor and rich 



