ssi-s 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



59 



(i) 8 



M 



the straw. The best yields were obtained by dibbling 

 one seed four inches in drill and in rows twelve 

 inches apart. 



Considerable improvements are now making in 

 Kr.gland in the art of feeding wheat plants fertilizers 

 that aboun.l in available azote — a substance the 

 agricultural value of which vi-as first taught by Dr. 

 AXViu. MrrcHELL, of New York, about 60 years 

 ago. It most abounds in cabbages or in cruciferous 

 and leguminous plants. Azote is but another name 

 for nitrogen, which forms about four-fifths of the air 

 we breathe. This atmospheric nitrogen is not avail- 

 able in wheat culture till it is combined chemically 

 with hydrogen to form ammonia, or hartshorn ; or 

 with oxygen to form nitric acid {aquafortis.) This 

 acid combined with potash makes saltpetre, which is 

 a most valuable fertilizer for wheat. Leached ashes 

 and stable dung in a compost is a sort of nitre bed — 

 a contrivance for converting atmospheric azote into 

 nitric acid, just as burning wood converts the oxygen 

 of the air into carbonic acid. The economical prep- 

 aration of food for plants on scientific principles, is 

 altogether too much neglected in this country. — 

 Probably not one-tenth part of the liquid and solid 

 excretions voided on the farms in the United States, 

 is ever re-organized in the succeeding crops. After 

 the manure is applied to the land, more than a moiety 

 is lost before it enters the roots of plants. We^ran 

 never have good crops of grain, grass, and potatoes, 

 at a cheap rate, till we learn how to save all fertili- 

 zers, and work up the raw material of our several 

 harvests to the best advantage. It is just as bad 

 economy to apply too much as too little manure, to 

 any given surface. 



Two of the most expensive elements in grain 

 culture are phosphoric acid and potash. These are 

 derived from the soil alone, and are everywhere 

 wasted, over more than 100,000,000 acres, in this 

 empire of farmers. Other elements, equally neces- 

 sary and nearly as expensive, are also thrown away 

 in a thousand forms. It is high time there was a 

 poiidrette manufactory in every city and village in 

 the Union ; and that the fertilizing atoms so pre- 

 pared be drilled in with seed wheat, here as in Eng- 

 land, Belgium, and China. We evince a strange 

 lack of common sense by continuing to impair the 

 natural fertility of our arable lands, with the certainty 

 that we must give more and more labor for every 

 100 bushels of potatoes, wheat, or corn that we 

 annually grow. Keep all manure out of the rain. 

 Be careful to save all ashes, and procure bones, 

 gypsum, and lime. 



Messrs. Editors : — Several of my neighbors have 

 received seeds from the Patent Office at Washington, 

 and among them was one paper of Okra seed. How 

 are they used ? Some say that the pods are pickled. 

 If so, at what time. A. Willson. — Marcellus, JV. 

 Y., 1850. 



Okra is a, native of the West Indies, where it is 

 much used in soups and stews. Its use is rapidly 

 increasing in this country. There are two varieties, 

 the large and he small podded. The seeds are 

 planted in the spring, either in rows or hills three 

 feet a])art. Tlie plant thrives readily, and requires 

 no further care than is requisite to keep it free from 

 weeds. 



THE COMPOSITION OF MILK. 



Modern chemistry has thrown much light upon this 

 very important branch of rural economy. Of all 

 agricultural products, none is more valuable, more 

 widely diti'used, or more difficult to dispense with, 

 than 7nilk, and the butter and cheese manufactured 

 from it. Many elaborate and careful experiments 

 have been made by Bodssingaui.t in France, Prof. 

 Thompson, and others in England, ^vith the view to 

 test the quantity and quality of milk produced by 

 animals fed upon different kinds of food. These 

 experiments have elicited many important facts of 

 great value to the dairy farmer ; but much remains 

 yet to be done before this subject can be fully cleared 

 up. The economical production of milk by means 

 of the machinery which Nature has provided, must 

 be carefully studied, and reduced to a science. This 

 article, which constitutes so large a proportion of 

 human food, will then be regarded as a ieffitiniate 

 manufacture, and improvements in the machinery, or 

 the animals which elaborate it, will add millions to 

 the agricultural wealth of the country. 



The component parts of milk in all animals, both 

 herbiverous and carnivorous, is the same. It difiers 

 only in the proportion of its principal ingredients. 

 Substances are, however, occasionally found in milk, 

 arising from the peculiar food of the animal, which 

 render it medicinal, or even poisonous. The follow- 

 ing table exhibits the composition of the milk of 

 different animals, in its ordinary state, as found by 

 Profs. Henry and Chevallier : — • 



"Woman. Cow. Ass Goat 



Casein, (cl>ee«e,).. 1.52 4.48 1.82 4.0B 



Butter, 3.5.5 3.13 O.II 3.32 



Milk Sugar, 6.50 4.77 6.08 5.28 



Sahne matter 0.45 0.60 0.34 0.58 



Water 87.9S 87.02 91.65 86.80 



100.00 lOO.OU 100.00 100.00 

 From the above it will be seen that asses' milk 

 contains much less butter and clieesey matter than 

 that of the cow. It is probably from this circum- 

 stance, and its similarity to that of the human species, 

 which, from the most remote times, has recommended 

 it to invalids as a light and easily digested drink. 



The richness, or proportion of butter and cheese, 

 contained in cows' milk is well known to depend 

 upon the food of the animal, the period of gestation, 

 and the time of her giving the milk. That taken 

 last from the cow during the same milking usually 

 contains much the larger proportion of butter. Its 

 temperature is from 65'^ to 75'^. To the naked eye 

 it seems a pure, white liquid ; but when viewed 

 through the microscope, an infinite number of minute 

 globules appear, which contain the oily part, or the 

 butter. VVhen the milk is set away in the dairy, 

 these oily particles, being the lightest, gradually rise 

 to the surface and form the cream. But when milk 

 is exposed to the atmosphere, the sugar it contains 

 slowly changes into an acid called lactic acid. This 

 causes the casein or curd to coagulate, prevents the 

 separation of the cream, and the milk becomes sour. 

 As this acid is usually formed before all the buttery 

 globules have risen to the surface, the curd always 

 contains more or less butter ; sometimes as much as 

 two per cent., or one-half the whole quantity con- 

 tained in the milk. Hence, the longer we can keep 

 the milk sweet the more cream we can obtain. Now, 

 it is impossible to prevent the change of the sugar 

 into lactic acid ; but we can in some measure coun- 



