No. 2. 



Gardening as a Science. — Milk. 



43 



lead only to conjecture ; and so it is throug-h- 

 out. Natural philosophy is an interesting 

 and beautiful study, — it displays wonder 

 everywhere ; but we in vain endeavour to 

 search into causes. 



" It were wise, therefore, to cease from 

 appealing- to chemistry, as a clue to the pro- 

 cesses of assimilation and organic action : 

 chemistry can only investigate the products 

 of dead or inert matter; and in vegetable 

 structure it teaches that its ultimate ele- 

 ments, as shown by analysis, are four gases, 

 —oxygen, hydrogen, carbonic acid, and nitro- 

 gen, and some saline and earthy substances, 

 in the form of ashes. Manures, earths, and 

 soils, contain the same elements, and there- 

 fore we are instructed to apply these sub- 

 stances in order to furnish the rough mate- 

 rials of sustenance ; and herein we observe 

 analogy between the vegetable and animal 

 kingdoms. Food must be taken into the 

 systems of both, — or rather, those elements 

 must be supplied which the vital principle 

 can elaborate and assimilate, so long as the 

 several tiinctions retain their vigour of health. 



" The principle of vitality remains a pro- 

 found secret, and we are placed in the di- 

 lemma between two opinions — 1st, Whether 

 the living plant be to a certain extent en- 

 dowed with sensation and a power of volition, 

 so as to imbibe at pleasure, according to its 

 necessity, the crude aliment which is appro- 

 priate to its temperament; or, 2nd, Whether 

 it be acted upon solely by the external agents, 

 air, water, light; electricity producing and 

 keeping up a sort of galvanic process, which 

 prepares the sap and propels or attracts it 

 into suitable channels." 



The mind is lost in the contemplation. 

 We feel that 



" Not a tree, 

 A plant, a leaf, a blossom, but contains 

 A folio volume. We may read and read, 

 And read again, and still "hnd something: 

 new. 



We may pursue our speculations, and fol- 

 low the chemist into his laboratory, witness 

 the delicacy and exactness of his analyza- 

 tions, but afler all, however we may have 

 been gratified, and even instructed in our 

 inquiries, we are obliged to give up the pur- 

 suit, and acknowledge our entire inability 

 "to make one hair white or black." We 

 are entirely incompetent so to arrange the 

 elements of inorganic matter, as to form out 

 of them, even the semblance of the minutest 

 organic compound. We must refer the whole 

 train of vital phenomena to the hitherto un- 

 explained, and perhaps inexplicable laws of 

 Creative Wisdom, contenting ourselves with 

 observing results, and still consenting to 



study the most beneficial applications of in- 

 creased knowledge. Z. Y. 

 Gloucester co., N. J. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Milk. 



Having recently seen a litter of fine pigs 

 of four months old, that have increased in 

 weight a pound a day, each, since their 

 birth, and had been fed exclusively on 

 milk, I was induced to look into the compo- 

 sition of an article which is thtis capable of 

 supporting animal life, without any other 

 food, and of building up such carcases, com- 

 posed of bones, meat, fat, skin, bristles, 

 hoofs, &c. 



Chemists say that cows' milk is composed 

 of the following articles, viz: 



Cheese, - . - . . 4.48 per cent. 

 Butter, 3.13 " 



Sugar of milk, - - - 4.77 " 

 Salts and mucus, - - 0.60 " 



Water, 87.02 " 



100.00 



And the above articles, when analyzed, 

 are found to be composed of carbon, oxygen, 

 hydrogen, nitrogen, and various saline and 

 earthy substances. 



A French chemist states, in treating on 

 the phenomena presented from micro.=copic 

 observation, in tlie transformation of cream 

 into butter, that the cream consists of the 

 globules of the milk, which rise to the sur- 

 face from their lightness, and which contain 

 the butter in the form of pulp, enveloped in 

 a white, thin and elastic pellicle. The ac- 

 tion of the churn, he says, produces nothing 

 more than the rupture of the pellicle, and 

 it is the fragments of this pellicle which 

 whiten the liquid called butter-milk. 



When cows are fresh and are fed with 

 nutritious food, the quantity of butter con- 

 tained in these pellicles is greater, and the 

 covering is thinner, and consequently less 

 agitation in the churn breaks them, and the 

 butter comes much sooner than it does when 

 they are fed sparsely on articles containing 

 but little nutriment. 



The sugar of milk is obtained by evapo- 

 rating the whey to the consistence of honey; 

 the saccharine matter remaining dissolved in 

 the whey after the curd is formed. A. 



Ladies, veil not your faces! — A cele- 

 brated writer on sight, says that the wearing 

 of veils permanently weakens many natu- 

 rally good eyes, on account of the endeavours 

 of the eye to adjust itself to the ceaseless vi- 

 bration of that too common article of dress. 



