226 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



brought less than one-half the price of good English or Italian 

 butter. He tried to introduce the American churn, and the 

 mode of working, salting and putting down. It is needless 

 to say the attempt was an utter failure. They had always 

 had hair and butter together, and they always would have, 

 till death. In Proverbs (xxx., 33) we are told that " Surely 

 the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing 

 of the nose bringeth forth blood : " There would seem to be, 

 at first sight, no special analogy between the process of churn- 

 ing and pulling a man's nose until the blood comes, if you 

 consider our method alone. But, in the native operation, 

 the comparison is a just one and natural ; for the women seize 

 and squeeze and wring the milk in their goat-skin bottles in 

 a vigorous way which would soon fetch the blood if applied to 

 the nasal organ of some antagonist. 



The mountains and plains of this great empire, both in 

 Europe and Asia, afibrd unrivaled facilities for the keeping 

 of sheep. In the summer the flocks pasture on the mountain 

 slopes, while the shepherds with fire-arms and dogs keep 

 careful watch against the attacks of wild beasts. In the 

 winter, immense flocks migrate from European Turkey into 

 the milder climate of Asia Minor. There is such an enor- 

 mous extent of vacant pasture land that no expense is 

 incurred, except in the transportation of so many animals 

 across the Bosphorus or Dardanelles. 



The fat-tailed Caramanian sheep are the most singular and 

 surprising animals to be met with in Turkey. While yet 

 lambs, the tail begins to broaden and thicken with a fat 

 which is regarded by the natives as a great delicacy, and 

 equal to butter for cooking purposes. In a few months the 

 weight and size of the tail becomes a positive burden to the 

 animal, furnishing, in those creatures that have been carefully 

 fed and tended, from fourteen to twenty pounds of pure fat, 

 superior to lard, and entering into competition with butter. 

 If, as often happens, the end of the tail drags upon the 

 ground, so as to endanger excoriation, a very simple though 

 laughable remedy is resorted to. A little carriage, rudely 

 made, with wheels of about six or eight inches in diameter, 

 is placed under the end of the tail, which is thus sufliciently 

 sloped out from the body, and is so harnessed to the lord 



