364 



EUROPEAN FARMING. 



ness with which liquids, and even many poisons, like 

 mercury, are absorbed into the general circulation, is 

 well known to medical men. Lambs dipped into a 

 strong decoction of tobacco to free them of ticks, 

 have been killed by the absorption of the poison 

 through the pores of the skin. Oil passes pretty 

 freely through nearly eveiy tissue of the system. 



The following table exhibits the relative propor- 

 tion of different ingredients in the milk of various 

 animals, from which the fluid is commonly obtained : 



Cow. Goat. Sheep. Asg. Mare. 



Water S61.0 868.0 856.2 907.0 896.3 



Butter 38.0 33.2 42.0 12.10 traces. 



Casein 68.0 40.2 45.0 16.74 16.2 



Sugar of Milk 29.0 52.8 6n.O > „„ „ „, , 



Fixed Salts 6.1 6.8 6.8 J "'-"^ "'-^ 



As the parts are given in thousandths, it will be seen 

 that the ruminants, cow, goat, and sheep give milk 

 rich in butter, while the milk of the mare contains 

 only a trace, and that of the ass but 12.10 parts in 

 1000. The milk of the latter is also poor in casein, 

 or cheese as compared with that of the cow, but rich 

 in sugar. The milk of the mare and ass contains 

 less water than that of the ruminants named, and 

 therefore yields more sohd nutriment. 



The improvement of dairy stock depends in some 

 degree on the treatment of calves during the first 

 twelve months of their existence. Too many fail to 

 get their just share of the milk which nature kindly 

 provides for them, and are forced into the condition 

 of starvelings by a mistaken economy. Unless it can 

 be proved that little, meanly-looking runts of ani- 

 mals, made up mainly of skin and bone, are better 

 and more profitable than those which are the oppo- 

 site in character and appearance, we can discover no 

 good reason for breeding downwards, or for a man's 

 keeping more stock than he can maintain in a thri- 

 ving condition. This principle applies not only to 

 the rearing of calves, but to pigs, sheep, horses, mules, 

 and poultry. Instead of allowing domesticated an- 

 imals to multiply till a moiety or more die of starva- 

 tion, the owner should keep down their numbers by 

 sales or otherwise, to the measure of a growing and 

 fattening subsistence at his command. As the im- 

 proved land (so-caUed) of the country is impoverished 

 by improper cultivation, as it is in every State in the 

 Union, it becomes less capable of supporting live- 

 stock, and in one way or another the number must 

 be diminished. From the State census of 1845 to 

 the U. S. census of 1858, the number of sheep kept 

 ia the State of New York was reduced some two 

 and a half millions; and the number of horses, cattle, 

 and swine was also considerably reduced, although 

 there was an increased namber of acres under im- 



provement It is a common mistake to suppose that 

 the number of acres in tillage, meadows, and pas- 

 tures indicates practically the capacity of a State to 

 support live stock. With more acres under cultiva- 

 tion in 1850 than they had in 1840, both Tennessee 

 and Kentucky had less stock at the last than at the 

 former census. This diminished capacity to keep 

 stock arises partly from the almost universal habit of 

 wasting manure, and partly from the injury done to 

 land by injudicious cultivation. The manure annu- 

 ally wasted by farmers in the United States exceeds 

 one hundred milhon dollars in value, and is to that 

 extent a needless drain on the fertility of the soil. 

 This constant impoverishment of the so-called im- 

 proved land of the country operates directly to dete- 

 riorate the blood of nine-tenths of the cows in the 

 Union by lessening the average standard of their 

 keep. It tends also to diminish their size, for calves 

 and young stock can not grow to a fair size on short 

 allowance. Two little cows weighing each five hun- 

 dred pounds can pick up a subsistence where one 

 large cow, weighing one thousand pounds would 

 starve. The two small animals could travel over 

 twice as much surface to find their indispensable food 

 as the large animal ; while the nourishment of each 

 small carcass would be attained with about half the 

 quantity. It is this principle in animal nutrition 

 that produces so many millions of small hogs, small 

 sheep, and small cattle in this country. They subsist 

 to a large degree in many States on the natural re- 

 sources of the vegetable kingdom, which are gradu- 

 ally diminishing by the advancement of a semi-civi- 

 lization. Our resources in the soil, in the vegetable 

 and animal kingdoms, need a wiser system of hus- 

 bandry before our live stock can be generally im- 

 proved. All the manure, both liquid and solid, pro- 

 duced from the vegetables consumed by domestica- 

 ted animals must be turned to some useful account 

 before either land or stock can be generally raised 

 to a higher state of excellence. Advancement is 

 attainable in one way only, and that is by wisely 

 feeding the land that feeds man and the animals 

 which he has domesticated and made his dependent 

 creatures. 



SEMABES ON EITEOFEAN FASUINO. 



The last Journal of the Royal Agricultural Soci- 

 ety of England contains an interesting article upon 

 " Continental Farming," from Peter Love, an Eng- 

 lish practical farmer, who went out to visit and in- 

 spect the estate of Gleneral Hatnau, in Hungary. 



