34 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



be added, that the mass of Qevon cows in this 

 country are and have ever been raodefate milkers 

 and hite in maturin;^, I think there can hardly be 

 any thing worse. It is true, that many of these 

 animals, bad in point of form, were good in point 

 of milk. But aniTnals to be good, should be good 

 in everything ; they should milk well, they should 

 feed well and should niake level and well pointed 

 carcasses of beef. 



Now there are Devons that are all that good 

 cattle shpuld be, are milkers, feeders and have 

 abundant substance, just form, light offal, long 

 mossy or fnrry hair, -with thick undercoat, mellow 

 hid^is, and admirable touch, and of early maturity ; 

 although there ai-e such, they are far from numer- 

 ous. 



In 1850 I imported a number of Devons, select- 

 ing them from the best herds in Devonshire, Eng- 

 land. Among the number is the bull now owned 

 by the Messrs. Hurlbut, of Winchester, Conn. 

 I invite the breeders and admirers of Devon to see 

 him. They will find him what a Devon should be ; 

 and he came from a dam, who is as remarkable for 

 milking power, as she and her son are for form, 

 style and substance. They are the reverse of the 

 picture I have drawn above of bad ones. I import- 

 ed several heifers and two bulls, besides Messrs. 

 Hurlbut's, and I selected them as meeting my re- 

 quisitions, and in them I can show early maturity, 

 broad backs and chines, round ribs and full crops, 

 clean throats, and broad deep briskets, and straight 

 bellies with level carcasses. My three year old 

 heifers have milked, with first calves, 18 and 19 

 quarts of milk, and a two year old, 16 quarts. These 

 animals came from the best sources in Devonshire, 

 ■ viz., the Messrs. Quartleys, Davy & Merson. 



The Devons are pre-eminently the race for all 

 New England, and should fill it everywhere. The 

 right ones, weight for wei^^ht, can equal any for 

 the pail, for slaughter ; and concededly can excel 

 all others for the yoke. But let New England 

 breeders see that they get the proper ones. Pos- 

 sessed of such they can produce as much beef, 

 milk and butter from a given quantity of land, or 

 food, as with any other race of cattle, and on light 

 land more. But to do this, they must change nine- 

 tenths of all the Devons now in the country. I 

 think the spirit is awakened that will ere long ac- 

 complish this, and I for one shall rejoice in it. But 

 this will be delayed or defeated if the belief be in- 

 duced that now the Devons are as a race in Amer- 

 ica either good in carcass, or abundant in milk. 

 They are, as a race, neither, and the sooner this is 

 understood the sooner will improvement commence, 

 and the more rapidly will it progress. 



Ambrose Stevens. 

 Nevj York city. 



December. — "Old Mr. December" has arrived. 

 lie has nipped off the days at each end, and stuck 

 the pieces on to the nights, probably by way of 

 revenge on lovely June, for having done the very 

 reverse. We are inclined to think it is a good 

 move with both. The days are so cheerful and 

 pleasant in blooming, leafy, hopeful June, that if 

 we cannot have more of them, it is well to have 



COOKING AND DIGESTION. 



A mixed diet of bread, meat, and vegetables, is 

 better than any of the three alone ; meat satisfies 

 the appetite more completely and for a longer time 

 than either of the other two ; and, if a choice must 

 be made between bread and vegetables, the bread 

 should be chosen. Most kinds of game are easy 

 of digestion. Eoast beef and mutton are the most 

 easy of digestion of all butcher-meats. It is a fact 

 worth remembe\ing, that roasting and broiling are 

 the modes of cooking meat which best suit the 

 stomach ; this is proved by a comparison of the 

 time required for the digestion of different sorts of 

 food. Thus, beef or mutton roasted or broiled, 

 rather -underdone, are digested in three hours — 



Hours. 



Pork, broiled 3J 



Sail pork, broiled 44 



I'ork, rOHsiPd 5i 



Salt beef, cold, boiled 4J 



Soft eggs 1 10 3 



Hard boiled, or fried eggs 1} 



Venison, broiled. . . .♦ IJ 



Veal, broiled 4 



Veal, fried 4^ 



Heart fried 4 



Rice 1 



Milk, boiled 2 



Bread 3^ 



Fruit and vegetables require from two to four 

 hours, according to quality and mode of cooking. 

 rotatocs roasted and baked, and raw cabbages, are 

 digested in two hours and a half; but boiled pota 

 toes need another hour, and boiled cabbage with 

 vinegar, four hours and a half — Family Econo- 

 mist. 



LYCEUM LECTURE. 



We had the pleasure of listening to a lecture 

 from Dr. J. Reynolds, of Concord, before the cit- 

 izens of that town, on W^ednesday evening, the 

 8th inst. His subject was Vegetable Chemistry. — 

 He first spoke of the wonderful and beautiful pro- 

 cesses going on around us, all acting harmonious- 

 ly for a common end, and thus proclaiming their 

 common origin. To the careless observer all ap- 

 pears to be a conflict of elements — but the student 

 of nature disTJOvers unity in diversity, beauty in de- 

 formity, &c. Uniformity is the great law of na- 

 tufe. Art, by varying the circumstances under 

 which the laws of nature are excited, may vary 

 the result, and on this important fact rests the 

 hopes of the farmer. Work, work, is the great 

 law of life. When living beings cease to work, 

 the life that is in them goes out. Place a seed in 

 the earth, and its oxygen goes to work ; its root- 

 lets strike into the earth, and its plumule into the 

 air, and these are the sources through which its 

 nutriment is to be derived. The under surface of 

 the leaves, studded with little mouths which stand 

 open to drink up the carbonic acid from the atmo- 

 sphere, is the source from which tlie frame of the 

 plant, the woody fibre, is obtained. He spoke of 

 the analogy between the embryo plant and animals, 



them made longo_r by robbing the nights;— and Lj^^^ after arriving at a certain stage of maturity, 

 the days are so chilly and cheerless m December, ^, f i. j • ii • 1. -^^^f f,.,^,v, 



with the flowers all killed, the leaves all fallen and they are prepared to denvc their nutriment fiom 

 birds all fled, that it is no matter how short they bodies in contact with them ; also of the formative 

 be. — Maine Farmer. process, the most important in vegetables. Nature 



