THE FARMER AT HOME. 



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LAC TEALS. A set of vessels which convey a milky fluid, 

 vhence they derive their name. They arise from the cavity of the 

 ntestines, from minute beginnings which elude the eye. The milky 

 luid which they carry is the chyle, elaborated from the food after it 

 las passed the stomach, and has been mixed in the duodenum with 

 he bile and pancreatic fluid. The lacteals charged with chyle pass 

 ;hrough the glands of the mesentery, where some change is prob- 

 ibly made upon it ; thence it is conveyed by the lacteals into the 

 receptacle of the chyle, then to the thoraic duct, by which it is carried 

 to the left subclavian vein, to be afterwards incorporated with the 

 blood in the lungs. 



LACTOMETER. This is an instrument to ascertain the quality 

 of milk ; or the proportion which the cream bears to the milk, of any 

 particular cow. The lactometer consists of any number of glass tubes, 

 half an inch or more in diameter, and eleven inches in length, fitted 

 into an upright wooden frame ; each tube having aline drawn around 

 it, ten inches from the bottom ; three inches from the line downward ; 



LACTOME TE R. 



it is graduated into inches and tenths of inches. Each tube, at tho 

 time of milking, is to be rilled up to the top line, with the milk of a 

 particular cow. To make the test as accurate as possible, the milk 

 should be taken as soon as drawn from the cow, and from the middle 

 of the pail, which may be done by dipping a small pot or vessel below 

 the froth. After standing twelve hours, the quantity of cream which 

 floats upon the surface will be shown by the scale of inches and tenths 

 marked on the tubes. Thus, it will readily be seen what is the 

 relative richness of milk from each of the different cows ; what pro- 

 portion yielded by each one is cream. 



LAMA. An animal of Peru and Chili, resembling the camel. 

 Like the camel they have the faculty of abstaining from water, and 

 like that animal their food is coarse and scanty. They travel, though 



