414 



NEW ENGLAND FAHMER. 



IRRIGATION OF GARDENS. 



This is a subject tliat receives but very little atten- 

 tion from cultivators ; and yet from the nearness of 

 gardens to buildings where there is often a good 

 supply of water, they might frequently be irrigated 

 with convenience and profit. We copy the follow- 

 ing judicious article from J. J. Thomas, in the Albany 

 Cultivator : — 



From repeated experiments, we are induced to 

 draw the conclusion, that next to manure, the great 

 prime mover in successful culture, there is nothing 

 more important to vegetable growth, in many cases, 

 than irrigation. Practical gardeners, in countries far 

 more moist than our own, regard it as indispensable, 

 and a large share of their success depends on copious 

 waterings. 



Some interesting instances, which have recently 

 occurred, may be worth stating. Two rows of rasp- 

 berries stand on ground in every respect alike, except 

 that one receives the drippings from a wood-house, 

 and the other does not. The watered row is fully 

 four times as large in growth as the other. Again : 

 the berries on the bushes of the Fastolif and Fran- 

 conia raspberries were at least twice as large when 

 the soil was kept well moistened, as afterwards when 

 allowed to become dry ; a repetition of the watering 

 again doubled their size. Again : a near neighbor, 

 who cultivates strawberries for market, and who uses 

 a water-cart for irrigating the rows, raised at the rate 

 of one hundred and twenty bushels to the acre on 

 common good soil by this means ; and he noticed that 

 where the cart was left standing over night, so that 

 the water gradually dripped from it for some hours 

 upon a portion of the plants, the fruit had grown to 

 double the size of the rest, in twenty-four hours. 



It should be observed that those advantages of a 

 copious supply of water pertain chiefly to small or 

 annual plants. The roots of fruit-trees, being larger 

 and deeper, are to be supplied with moisture in a 

 different way ; that is, by a deep, rich, mellow soil, 

 kept moist by cultivation, or by covering thickly 

 with litter. Water applied to the surface rarely 

 descends so low as the roots, and only hardens the 

 soil to a crust. 



HOW RUMINANTS CHEW THE CUD. 



As no answer has ever been given to our question 

 relative to the process of chewing the cud (we do 

 not use the vulgar term quid) among ruminating 

 animals, (see I^eaf, vol. i. p. 176,) we have thought 

 the following extract from Ruschonberger's Elements 

 of Mammalogy might prove interesting to many of 

 our readers. This subject has been the theme of 

 much profitable discussion among the members of 

 the class in physiology in our school here, during 

 the past week. More especially does it seem entitled 

 to consideration, since there exists some diversity of 

 opinion among authors who have attempted to ex- 

 plain it. W. 

 — Scholars' Leaf. 



" When these animals (ruminants) feed, they swal- 

 low their aliments at first without having chewed 

 them. These substances then enter into the paunch, 

 and there accumulate ; thence they pass into the 

 second stomach, (reticulum ;) but after having re- 

 mained there for a certain time, they are carried back 

 again into the mouth to be chewed, and afterwards 

 swallowed again ; and when they descend again into 

 the stomach, they no more enter the paunch or 

 reticulum, but go directly to the manypUcs, (third 



stomach,) from which they pass into the fourth 

 stomach, or rennet-bag, where they are digested. 



•' At first, one is astonished to see food pass at one 

 time into the paunch and reticulum, at another into 

 the many plies, (third stomach,) according as it had 

 been swallowed for the first time, or after it has been 

 regurgitated ; and one is tempted to attribute this 

 phenomenon to a sort of tact with which the open- 

 ings of these different digestive pouches seem to be 

 endowed. But there is nothing of the kind ; this 

 result being the necessary consequence of the ana- 

 tomical arrangement of the parts. The oesophagus 

 terminates below in a species of gutter, or longitudi- 

 nal slit, which occupies the upper part of the reticu- 

 lum (second stomach) and the paunch, and is con- 

 tinued to the tnanyplies. Ordinarily, the edges of 

 the slit of which we have just spoken lie close 

 together, and then this gutter constitutes a perfect 

 tube, which leads from the oesophagus into the manyp- 

 Ues, (third stomach ;) but if the alimentary ball swal- 

 lowed by the animal is solid, and somewhat large, it 

 distends this tube, and separates the edges of the 

 opening through which the wsopliagus communicates 

 with the two first stomachs ; the food falls into these 

 pouches ; but if the alimentary ball be soft and pulpy, 

 as is the case when mastication has been completed, 

 the matter swallowed enters into this same tube 

 without separating the edges of the slit, and reaches 

 the third stomach. 



" It is by this mechanism that unchewed food, 

 which the animal swallows for the first time, stops in 

 the paunch and reticulum ; while, after it has been 

 chewed a second time, and well mixed with saliva, it 

 penetrates directly into the tnanyplies. 



" The mechanism by which aliment accumulated 

 in the first stomach is carried back to the mouth, is 

 also very simple. When regurgitation begins, the 

 reticulum contracts, and presses the alimentary mass 

 against the slit-like opening which terminates the 

 oesophagus ; then this opening enlarges, so as to seize 

 a pinch or portion of the alimentary mass, com- 

 presses it, and forms it into a small pellet, which en- 

 gages in the oesophagus, the fibres of which contract 

 successively from below upwards, to push forward 

 the new alimentary ball into the mouth." 



THE GAIT OF THE HORSE. 



Most people know when a horse walks, trots, or 

 gallops ; but verj' few can distinguish the philosophy 

 of these movements, and the way they are done. 

 There is, however, a method in these things, which 

 is very plain when once found out. In walking, an 

 animal lifts one foot at a time, and while the others 

 are on the ground, so that the body is in no manner 

 thrown even partly from the ground. A pace or 

 rack is very similar, sometimes even precisely the 

 same ; but usually there is something like a side- at-a- 

 timc movement, very similar to the motion of a bear, 

 or an elephant — a motion no way elegant, but for 

 horseback riding very easy to the rider. In a word, 

 it is probable, we may say, in the trot, the alternate 

 fore and hind feet move together ; in a pace, the feet 

 on the same side ; and in a gallop, the fore feet as 

 well as the hind ones, move together. This may not 

 be plain, but we think it very true, and it is at least 

 the result of careful observation. For different uses, 

 horses should be trained to different movements. A 

 carriage horse, for instance, may be so trained as to 

 have forgotten that he can gallop at all ; and of this 

 kind are our fast trotting horses, who never break. 

 By proper management of a young horse, he may be 

 taught a certain lofty movement, which %'ery much, 

 indeed, enhances his appearance in harness, and con- 



