1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



377 



ner as sour leaven does when mixed with sweet 

 dough . 



Now, old and pai-tially decayed cheese acts in a 

 similar way when introduced into the stomach. It 

 causes cliemiciil ciianges gradually to commenc.;, 

 among the particles of the food which has pre- 

 viously heen eaten, and thus facilitates the disso- 

 lution which necessarily precedes digestion. It is 

 only suiiie kinds of cheese, however, which will 

 effect t'lis purpose. Those are' generally considered 

 the beat in vvldch some kind of cheese mould has 

 established itself. Hence the mere eating of a 

 morsel of cheese after dinner does not necessarily 

 promote dig^.-^tion. If too new or of improper 

 quality, it will only add to the quantity of food 

 with which the stomach is already overloaded, and 

 will have to await its turn for digestion by the or- 

 dinary process. — Chemistry of Common Life. 



For the New England Farmer 



CHAPTEE ON HUSBANDRY. 



NUMBER I. 



Mr. Editor : — Will you indulge me with a few 

 l:ints to the live "lords of creation." 



Ist. Every farmer should practice the art of 

 mechanics to a certain extent, so that he can lay a 

 shingle, build a pig-pen, mend a harness or his 

 farming tools ; ke -ping all tliese things in order, 

 80 that rainy days in summer, and snowy days in 

 winter, are occupied in these odd and end jobs 

 which draw a little on his genius. 



2nd. Take a saiall corner of a building, which 

 can always be spared — with his bench and all the 

 necessary tools to do this work, and thus he saves 

 many dollars every year without the vexation of 

 hearing repeitedly — "0, you shall have it to-mor- 

 row and no mistake." 



2d. Have one place for your tools, and no neg- 

 lect in placing llwin. Polish your shovels, forks, 

 scythes and iioes when you hang them up. Rust 

 corrupts and weakens. Did you never see a plow 

 that had tak :n its cheerless winter quarters in the 

 frozen furro^v, waiting for a spring thaw? and 

 the "br m-uew"' scythe left to dangle in the crotch 

 of the old farm tree year after year? not unusual 

 sights these. Drive pins, to hang your yokes up- 

 on,nail strips of board from joist to joist to liang tlie 

 3hain8 upon — make a rack over head for your 

 pitciiforks, raki's, turning-sticks, &c. 



4th. Too barii-cellar is tlic bank, and the best 

 outlay of capital, — never return home with an 

 empty cart, t.ie return cargo will enrich your 

 farm w'len placed in the barn cellar. One load 

 of SUCH manure, well mixed in the cellar, is worth 

 two lu;id ui .) (Hloor, evaporated manure, it being 

 saturated with urine, and very strong. 



Gth. Plow<L'. p, ivgardlessof the"yellowdirt,'' 

 (which was formerly the caution to the lioys) and 

 the roots will dee] eu in the soil, and derive a l)e"- 

 efit mucii greater, t'lan if struggling near the sur- 

 face, will be better protected against drougiit, and 

 the soil less lial)l'.!,to be blown away, as much ol 

 it is, by drying blasts. 



7th. Use the long spade in your vegetable gar- 

 den. Tap roots are never timid about driving- 

 deep. 



8lh. Hay is your staple commodity, make it in 

 the most compact manner possible. All tlie 

 aroma that sweetens the air, is so niucli Iofs to tlie 

 value of the hay. To mow, spread, and let it lie 



and take one night's devr, and prepare to get it in 

 the next day without having l)een cocked up, is a 

 positive loss, of nearly a quarter part of its value. 



'Jth. Grain should be harvested as soon as the 

 straw has begun to deaden and the berry has 

 passed the milk. Oats and barli;y straw will be 

 the better for fodder, and wheat or rye straw loses 

 nothing — beside, you scatter no gra'in in gather- 

 ing. 



Mr. Editor, my subject is far from being ex- 

 hausted. Should it meet your apprjval, I shall 

 appear to you again. Yours truly, n. r. 



Brooklyn, June 24, 1854. 



Remarks. — Excellent advice, the whole of it. 

 How any farmer can get along without a bench and 

 a few tools, we cannot imagine. •• 



In this age of progress and improvement, when 

 farmers visit and criticize the operations of each 

 other so much — when line upon line and precept- 

 upon precept are so constantly given in addressee, 

 lectures, and agricultural papers, upon neatness 

 and order in the management of the farm, fully 

 one-half of all engaged in the art, lose the inter- 

 est of some two or three hundred dollars annually 

 ill the Jirglcct of their tools. 



SUGAR IN THE LIVING ANIMAL. 



One of the greatest discoveries of our day, says 

 a French paper, is that made by Claude Bernard, 

 of the constant formation of sugar in the liver of 

 animals. Feed an animal how you will — with 

 food containing sacciiarino matters, and with food 

 containing no trace of them, you will always find 

 the animal has, from t'le bl(.)od, formed sugar for 

 itself. This sugar which is secreted liy the livf-r, 

 is, like all secretions, under the influence of the 

 nervous system ; you have only to cut what are 

 called the pneumogastric nerves, and in a i"-}w 

 hours all the sug ir vanishes. The amount of su- 

 gar thus formed in every healtliy animal, may bo 

 increased by certain intluences, sind then it gives 

 rise to, or is the indication of various diseases. 

 In one disease the quantity is so great, that M. 

 Thtnard extracted fil teen killogrammes of sugar — 

 something like thirty pounds — from the secretion 

 of one paticiit; real sugar, too, and of irre- 

 proachable taste, nccording to Boussingault, who 

 tasted it. Rut now attend to this ; what nature 

 does in disease, man ein do in the terrible theatre 

 of experiment. Claude Rernard has proved that 

 there is a very small region of the spinal column 

 — by anatomists styled medulla oblongata — the 

 wounding of which — between tlio origin of the 

 pneumogastric ana acoustic nerves — provokes this 

 inci eased secretion of sugar, and if, with a sharp 

 instrument you wound a dog or rabbit, in this 

 place, you will lind tliat, in a little while, sugar 

 lias accumulated to an immense extent in the 

 blood and other liquids. 



Gravklmng AVaiks. — How few gravelled walks 

 do we lind on whijli a Lidy with a thin shoe can 

 walk. The gravel is loose and coarse and gives 

 at the pressure oi' the foot. If those who are 

 putting on gravel woiild mix one-twellth of wa- 

 ter lime, and wet it up as fur umrtar, loosen the 

 dirt slightly in the walk, and then spread on the 



