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of these boxes were about six feet in height. Each 

 box had a door swinging on a wooden pivot inserted 

 into a block of wood sunk in the ground — the upper 

 hino-e also formed of wood (we mention these points 

 to show that these fixtures were made by using such 

 materials as every farmer can supply) — and when 

 closed fastened with a sliding bolt. A good plank 

 floor was also laid in each one, and straw for litter 

 was plentifully supplied. After a week's time each 

 animal knew its place ; and when turned out for air 

 and exercise an hour or two each day, you could see 

 them anxiously waiting for the liberty to enter. His 

 experience, as related to the writer, showed conclu- 

 sively that animals cared for in that way were fed 

 with more economy, and with far greater convenience, 

 than by promiscuous feeding in the yard ; and last, 

 what may more interest the milk-maid, it was much 

 more pleasant and agreeable to open the door and 

 sit down by the side of a gentle and cleanly-kept cow, 

 than, as formerly, to select if possible a dry spot in 

 the yard for milking. 



Warmth, to a certain extent, is an equivalent for 

 food. By a wise provision of nature, whatever may 

 be the external temperature, the living animal has its 

 own invariable standard of vital heat. This degree 

 of heaL varies in different races of animals, but each 

 has its own. By the consumption of food this tem- 

 perature is maintained ; and the colder the external 

 temperature, other circumstances remaining the same, 

 the more food must be consumed to keep up the 

 vital heat. Now, precisely at this point every one's 

 experience tells him that, to a cei-tain extent, shelter 

 is an equivalent for food. We might give numerous 

 illustrations on this point; but will give only one ex- 

 periment, from Johnstoii's Agricultural Chemistry, 

 page 609: 



" A lot of sheep, twenty in number, were fed in the 

 open fields, during the months of January, February 

 and March. Another lot of twenty, as nearly equal 

 in size, weight and condition to the former as possible, 

 were fed under shelter. Both lots were fed upon 

 turnips, as many as they chose to eat, half a pound 

 of linseed cake, and half a pint of barley, to each 

 sheep per day, with a little hay and salt. The sheep 

 in the field consumed the same quantity of food, all 

 the barley and oil cake, and about nineteen pounds 

 of turnips per day, from first to last, and increased in 

 weight, on the whole, five hundred and twelve pounds. 

 Those under the shed consumed at first as much food 

 as the others ; but after the third week they ate two 

 pounds less of turnips per day, and in the ninth week 

 again two pounds less, or only fifteen pounds per day. 

 Of the linseed cake they ate about one-thu'd less than 

 the other lot; and yet they increased in weight seven 

 hundred and ninety pounds — showing a gain of two 

 hundred and seventy-eight pounds by reason of the 

 shelter provided." 



But while we urgently recommend warm and com- 

 fortable quarters for stock, be sure and make due 

 provision for fresh air and ventilation, or your kind- 

 ness may become positive cruelty. The experiments 

 now in progress by the Agricultural Societies of 

 England and the United States, if carefully con- 

 sidered and analyzed, would go far to render the 

 science of productive farming less empirical than is 



too much the case at present. It is only by a 

 careful and systematic course of procedure that the 

 value of any system of feeding can be ascertained ; 

 and we trust every one who has at heart the good 

 of agricultural science, will take note of whatever 

 facts he may observe, and communicate them for the 

 benefit of others. 



" Tcacliing we learn, and giving we receive." 



THE VALLEY OF THE AMAZON. 



The influences of commerce upon the civihzation 

 and advancement of the nations of the world, are 

 worthy of a careful and candid consideration. Say 

 what we will about the utilitarian spirit of the present 

 age — its worship of the Almighty Dollar — its grasp- 

 ing after place and power — yet for all these evila 

 there is an equivalent in its love of peace, the exten- 

 sion of the arts and sciences to the remotest regions 

 of the earth, and the waking up to life and mental 

 action of slumbering milhous of our fellow men. 



The restless spirit of the Anglo-Saxon race, not 

 content with founding a nation upon the Pacific shore, 

 now turns toward the fabled land of the Amazons, 

 beneath a tropic sun, and holds up to our view a land 

 the wonders of whose wealth — vegetable and mineral 

 — can hardly be credited. 



The recent report of Lieut. Herndon, who was 

 directed by our government to descend the Amazon 

 and examine carefully the topographical features of 

 the vast and almost unknown regions of tropical 

 South America, contains a mass of information of the 

 most interesting and valuable kind. 



The area of the valley drained by the Amazon is 

 calculated at 1,796,000 square miles ; and with its 

 navigable tributaries, it washes the shores of five re- 

 publics and an empire. Commencing its course within 

 sixty miles of the Pacific Ocean, it affords an unin- 

 terrupted navigation from the foot of the Andes to 

 the Atlantic Ocean — a distance by the river of 3,662 

 miles, not including any of its tributaries. On the 

 south, the waters of its tributaries intermingle with 

 those of the great River la Plata; while on the north, 

 the Cosiquiare forms a natural canal between the 

 waters of the Rio Negro and the Oronoco. Three 

 leagues of artificial canal only are wanting to coni- 

 I^lete a continuous internal navigation from Buenos 

 Ayres to the Caribbean Sea. This remarkable and 

 unique feature of the formation of the South Ameri- 

 can continent, wifl yet afford the means of the great- 

 est inland commerce the world has ever seen. In the 

 Oronoco, steam navigation has already been com- 

 menced — an American steamer is now on its way to 

 Paraquay ; while between Rio de Janeira and Para, 

 the Atlantic part of the Amazon, steamers have for 

 several years ran twice a mouth. 



Brazil, through which the Amazon runs for 1,200 

 or 1,500 miles, is not only to open her own territories, 

 but has invited the co-operation of the countries 

 lying upon the head waters of the Amazon and con- 

 tiguous to herself. Venezula communicates with the 

 Amazon by the Rio Negro at the Brazilian port 

 Barra ; New Granada by means of the same tribu- 

 tary — the Japura and the lea or Putumago ; Equa- 

 dor by the Napo, in whose waters gold beds are said 



