320 



The Milch Cow, §c. 



Vol. VII. 



water in a rock of primitive or granite form- 

 ation, of which the island is composed, and 

 which are not to be met with except in its 

 fissures; thus increasing the difficulty of 

 ascertaining where they lie. And lastly, to 

 discover the secret, by which these islanders 

 contrive, on a farm of four acres of land, 

 " to live and get gain."* 



But the glory of English agriculture is its 

 sheep husbandry; and here will be an ample 

 field for the tourist's labours — all new ground 

 too, and requiring his peculiar tact of cha- 

 racter in the cultivation of it. And although 

 it may be true, that much relating to the 

 subject might be foreign to this country in 

 its present circumstances, yet if a Colman 

 cmnot perceive that much also maybe made 

 subservient to our present state of agricul- 

 tural attainment, it will be strange indeed. 

 The introduction of a regular rotation of 

 green crops, the turnip especially, has made 

 England what she is; and the system will 

 be as applicable here as elsewhere, when 

 taken up and prosecuted on a regular and 

 sufficiently extended scale: the theory is 

 correct, and therefore the practice must cor- 

 respond. P. 



Philadelphia, April 10th, 1843. 



A modern writer of a series of articles 

 upon electricity, published in the Magazine 

 of Domestic Economy, of 1841, has adduced 

 evidences in proof of the universal agency 

 of that ethereal agent, which are equally 

 bold and striking. He says: 



"There is life in the seed and in the em- 

 bryo plant, which makes the first to germi- 

 nate, the latter to grow, become developed, 

 and acquire an organization it did not at 

 first possess. We know not what this liv- 

 ing principle is in plants, which possess nei- 

 ther sensibility nor locomotion, nor volition; 

 but we may readily hazard the supposition, 

 that it is closely connected with electrical 

 action, which excites the efforts of vegeta- 

 tion, and governs all the changes and func- 

 tio ill' its organs. The absorption by plants 

 of carbonic acid, and the assimilation of its 

 carbon as nourishment, and the emission 

 into the atmosphere of its oxygen, under 

 the influence of light, the decomposition of 

 water by the leaves of plants, the absorption 

 of its hydrogen, the rejection of its oxygen, 

 which is diffused through the ambient air, 

 the giving out by plants of carbonic acid in 

 the d irk; these, and the various other func- 

 tions of vegetation, arc governed by electri- 

 cal agency." — The British Farmer's Mag- 



"Dialogues," page 18-2, vol. 3, and 203, vol. 4, 

 of Cabinet. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 The 3Iilch Cow. 



I know not that I can better notice the 

 Montgomery Farmer's communication in 

 your last, than by referring him to P. M.'s 

 article in the same number, giving an ac- 

 count of the life and death of the M'Elroy 

 Cow. Here is one of our very best breed- 

 ers of pure Short-horns, and most intelligent 

 correspondents of the Cabinet, telling tabs 

 out of school, or I am much mistaken. The 

 fact is, when a cow makes 16 pounds of 

 butter a week, I believe we would all be 

 apt to call her "my beauty," even if she 

 were " hollow backed, and consequently 

 large bellied, with a light thigh;" all indi- 

 cations of deep milking; P. M.'s "Bessy" 

 exhibiting the latter of these defects, in a 

 way so as to add at least 50 per cent, to her 

 value in my eye, and that of every one who 

 understands the matter — her owner's, espe- 

 cially. 



P. M.'s recommendation to agricultural 

 societies to pay more attention to milking 

 stock than they have hitherto done, giving 

 premiums to the best milkers, without re- 

 gard to shape or breed, is refreshing; the 

 more so, coming from a Short-horn breeder, 

 it shows an independence of mind not al- 

 ways found even among breeders. 



In a recent publication on the manage- 

 ment of the Mid- Lothian Dairies, the au- 

 thor observes: "The farmers now do not 

 even rear their own milch cows, but pur- 

 chase them from time to time, as required, 

 in some cases every season; so that their 

 dairy is always in full milk, the new cows 

 being purchased newly calved; and those of 

 the former year are then fattened and put 

 off to the butcher." And with this I take 

 leave of "A Montgomery County Farmer," 

 admitting that every one has a right to his 

 own opinion, and is at liberty to convert 

 others who differ from him if he can. 



Zebu. 



A late traveller in Norway, asserts that 

 the Norwegians, in their journies over the 

 half frozen rivers, use the following con- 

 trivance to release their horses when they 

 fall through holes in the ice, viz : they 

 throw a noose over their necks, which they 

 pull tight, till the horse, beginning to be 

 strangled, has its abdomen so much swelled 

 with gas as to float on its back, and is 

 thus easily drawn out of the water over 

 the edge of the ice. — London Medical Ga~ 

 zelte. 



"What's beauty? Call ye that your own?- 

 A flower that tildes as soon as blown." 



