No. 1. Loss of Beef in Cooking. — Fodder for Cattle. — Irrigation. 13 



willing' to destroy him. He therefore re- 

 quested Mr. Read, veterinary surgeon, to 

 examine him; who decided that the only 

 chance of renderinfj' the animal useful would 

 be the division of the great flexor tendon of 

 the leg. Accordingly the operation of tendo- 

 tomy, or dividing the tendon, was performed 

 Ten days after the operation he walked flat 

 on the sole of his toot: one month after- 

 wards he was put to the plough. He is now 

 as useful as any horse on the farm, and per- 

 forms all the duties a horse is required to 

 perform. Four months have elapsed since 

 the operation was done; a fair trial has 

 therefore been given to test the utility or 

 inutility of the operation. — Western Times. 



Loss of Beef in Cooking. 



Beef is the staple animal food of this coun- 

 try, and it is used in various states — fresh, 

 salted, smoked, roasted, and boiled. When 

 intended to be eaten fresh, " the ribs will 

 keep the best, and with care will keep five 

 or six days in summer, and in winter ten 

 days. The middle of the loin is the next 

 best, and the rump the next. The round 

 will not keep long, unless salted. The bris- 

 ket is the worst, and will not keep longer 

 than three days in summer, and a week in 

 winter." In cooking, a piece of beef, con- 

 sisting of four of the largest ribs, and weigh- 

 ing eleven pounds one ounce, was subjected 

 to roasting by Mr. Donovan, and it lost du- 

 ring the process two pounds six ounces, of 

 which ten ounces were fat, and one pound 

 twelve ounces water dissipated by evapora- 

 tion. On dissection, the bone weighed six- 

 teen ounces, so that the weight of meat fit 

 for the table was only seven pounds eleven 

 ounces, out of eleven pounds one ounce. It 

 appears that when the butchers' price of ribs 

 is 8^d. per lb., the cost of the meat when 

 duly roasted is 11-^d. per lb., and the average 

 loss arising from liquefaction of fat and evap- 

 oration of water is 18 per cent. With sir- 

 loins, at the price of 8^d. per lb., the meat 

 cost, when roasted. Is. I l-6d. per lb., at a 

 loss of 20^ per cent. A loss of 18 per cent, 

 was also sustained on boiling salted briskets; 

 and on salted flanks at 6d. per lb. the meat 

 cost 7i^d. per lb., at a loss of 13 1-.5 per cent. 

 In regard to the power of the stomacli to 

 digest beef, that which is eaten boiled with 

 salt only, is digested in two hours and forty- 

 five minutes. Beef, fresh, lean, and rarely 

 roasted, and a beef-steak broiled, take three 

 hours to digest: that fresh and dry-roasted, 

 and boiled, eaten with mustard, is digested 

 in three hours and thirty minutes. Lean 

 fresh beef fried takes four hours to digest, 

 and old hard salted beef boiled does not di- 



gest in less than four hours and fifteen min- 

 utes. Fresh beef suet boiled takes five hours 

 and thirty minutes to digest. — Combe. 



Comparative Nutritive Powers of 

 Green and Dry Fodder for Cattle. — A 



communication has been made to the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, by M. Boussingault, 

 on the comparative nutritive powers of green 

 and dry fodder for cattle. Hitherto the re- 

 ceived opinion was, that natural or artificial 

 grasses, on their being converted into hay, 

 lost a portion of their virtues. To deter- 

 mine this point, M. Boussingault fed a heifer 

 alternately, for ten days at a time, upon 

 green or dry food, and weighed the animal 

 after each ten days. He found no difl^erence 

 in the average weight; and therefore comes 

 to the conclusion, that the hay made from 

 any given quantity of natural or artificial 

 grass has the same nutrition as the quantity 

 of green food from which it was made. — 

 London Alhenceum. 



Irrigation. 



We liave repeatedly in the course of our editorial 

 labours, adverted to tliis subject, and take pleasure in 

 introducing the following very clever extract from 

 Stepkevs' Book of the Farm. Many situations offer fa- 

 cilities for enriching land, and greatly adding to its 

 productiveness, by this method, which are suffered to 

 remain unimproved: and it were well to recollect that 

 every advantage unappropriated, is, according to Poor 

 Richard's theory, so much lost. — Ed. 



The mode in which water acts in produc- 

 ing the effects witnessed in water-meadows, 

 has not yet been completely ascertained. It 

 is not the sediment in the water that alone 

 works the charm, for clear water produces 

 similar results; though, no doubt, enriching 

 ingredients carried by the water encourage 

 the growth of plants more rapidly than clear 

 water, as witness the produce of foul- water 

 meadows in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 

 Profe.ssor Low has these observations on the 

 theory of the process: "The theory of the 

 process of irrigation," says the Professor, 

 "has not been satisfactorily exp'ained. That 

 the effect is not produced by the mere sup- 

 ply of deficient water, appears not only from 

 the period at which the water is admitted, 

 and when in our climate the soil is always 

 saturated with the fluid, but from the cir- 

 cumstance that the effect is not produced 

 when the water is alloiced to stagnate, and 

 sink down in the soil, but lohen it is kept in 

 a current over it. When the water is suf- 

 fered to stagnate, the soil tends to produce 

 carices, junci, and other sub-aquatic plants; 

 but when it is kept in motion, and drained 

 off at intervals, the finest grasses peculiar 



