278 



Treatment of Domestic Animals. 



Vol. VII. 



view of establishing her claim to the very 

 liberal offer, published last spring in the 

 Germantown Telegraph, of a premium of 

 several hundred dollars, for any cow, neither 

 Durham nor Devon, making over 12 pounds 

 of butter in a week. The account of her 

 milking published in the Cabinet last spring, 

 stated, that from pasture alone, she made 

 within two ounces of 14 pounds of butter, 

 and her former owner stated, that with mode- 

 rate feed, she made for six successive weeks, 

 16£ pounds per week. I had hoped to 

 have a portrait of her by Woodside, for the 

 Cabinet, to accompany the statement of such 

 a proposed trial ; but as it is now too late, 1 

 would refer the readers to a portrait of the 

 Alderney cow, " Lady Emily," in volume 5, 

 page 153, which is pronounced by all who 

 saw her, a most excellent likeness. I my- 

 self doubt, whether he could have drawn 

 her more to life; the hollow back, the large 

 overgrown belly, light thigh, the head, horns 

 and lace, having a most remarkable resem 

 blance. Indeed such a shape always speaks 

 for itself as regards milk. 



I have the satisfaction however, of having 

 secured from her two heifer calves, by " His 

 Grace," which give great promise of sus- 

 taining the reputation of their distinguished 

 dam, as milkers, while they surpass her in 

 comeliness and beauty. 



Would it not be well for Agricultural So- 

 cieties, in their list of premiums to pay more 

 attention to the subject of milking stock, by 

 offering distinct premiums for the best milk- 

 ers, and giving this department to the charge 

 of a .special committee. They could then 

 be informed beforehand, where there was a 

 cow to be offered for competition, and could 

 satisfy themselves at their leisure, either by 

 repeated visits, or by placing her for a defi- 

 nite time with some disinterested person ; it 

 being common with some, to disbelieve any 

 statement of a yield over seven or eight 

 pounds per week, and who would be satisfied 

 with nothing else than the report of an im- 

 partial committee. In the vicinity of large 

 cities, milk and butter are certainly far more 

 worthy of attention than beef, or feeding 

 qualities, and yet in the award of premiums, 

 they receive the least attention; a cow low 

 in condition, and with the points indicating 

 milk, has generally a poor chance for com- 

 petition against a cow with round barrel 

 form, broad loin, heavy buttocks, and other 

 indications of a good feeder. Ought not the 

 highest premiums of every agricultural so- 

 ciety be disposed to the encouragement of 

 that branch or division of farm management, 

 most important to the farmers among whom 

 it is located. In the far West, where they 

 raise and graze stock for the Eastern markets, 



milk and butter should receive only second- 

 ary attention, but here they are entitled to 

 the primary notice, and the largest premi- 

 ums of our agricultural societies. 



P. M. 



Allerton Farm, nnar Westchpster, Chester 

 county, Pa., Third mo. 13th, 1843. 



Siliceous Stone—tripoli. 



There are rocks in the interior of conti- 

 nents, at various depths in the earth, and at 

 great heights above the sea, almost entirely 

 made up of the remains of zoophytes and 

 testacea. Such masses maybe compared to 

 modern oyster-beds and coral-reefs; and, 

 like them, the rate of increase must have 

 been extremely gradual. But there are 

 varieties of stony deposites in the earth's 

 crust, now proved to have been derived front! 

 plants and animals, of which the organic 

 origin was not suspected until of late years 

 even by naturalists. Great surprise was 

 therefore created by the recent discovery o: 

 Professor Ehrenberg, of Berlin, that a cer 

 tain kind of siliceous stone, called tripoli 

 was entirely composed of millions of th( 

 skeletons, or cases of microscopic animal 

 cules. The substance alluded to, has lonj 

 been well known in the arts, being used ir 

 the form of powder for polishing stones anc 

 metals. It has been procured, among othe: 

 places, from Bilin, in Bohemia, where a sin 

 gle stratum, extending over a wide area, ii 

 no less than 14 feet thick. This stone 

 when examined with a powerful micro 

 scope, is found to consist of the siliceoui 

 cases of infusoria, united together withou 

 any visible cement. It is difficult to con 

 vey an idea of their extreme minuteness 

 but Ehrenberg estimates, that in the Bilir 

 tripoli there are 41,000 millions of indivi 

 duals of the Gaillonella distans in everj 

 cubic inch, which weighs about 220 grains 

 or about 187 millions in a single grain. A 

 every stroke therefore, that we make wit! 

 this polishing powder, several millions, per 

 haps tens of millions of perfect fossils, an 

 crushed to atoms. — LyeW.s Geology, vol. 1 

 page. 52. 



Those who wish to raise bountiful crops 

 of grass, must not be parsimonious of seed 

 for be sure, there will not be more spears o 

 grass than there were grass seeds sown 

 Orchard grass combined with clover, has 

 commended itself much to many who hav< 

 tried it; and in some soils it is found to an 

 svver better than timothy. Some say, th< 

 more kinds of grass seed sown together 

 the more pasture and hay will be pro 

 duced. O. 



