T68 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[November, 



beets at very low rates, so "low that they have 

 given it up after a few trials. Unless this is 

 remedied it may be as long until Mr. "Ware's 

 bright visions are realized as he says it will be 

 until the lands of Louisiana are in a proper 

 state of cultivation. Mr. Ware's book con- 

 tains much valuable information, but we fail 

 to be convinced by many of its statements, 

 and believe it affords room for a good deal of 

 adverse criticism. — Nexc Era. 



VEGETABLE ANIMALS. 



What is an animal, and what a vegetable ? 

 Most persons are in the habit of thinking 

 them entirely different, but who can draw the 

 line of distinction between them ? Cuvier, 

 the celebrated naturalist, thought that mo- 

 tion, the power of moving alwut at will, was 

 a faculty which animals had and which vege- 

 tables had not; yet the sponge and corals of 

 the ocean are composed of innumerable ani- 

 mals which cannot change their places any 

 more than cabbages can. 



There are animals that have not muscles, 

 or nerves, or mouths, or stomachs, yet they 

 move, they eat and tliey digest. There are in 

 ponds plants so small that a teaspoon would 

 hold thousands of them, which move almost 

 with the rapidity of lightning. Our micro- 

 scopes are not powerful enough to show us 

 their organs of locomotion, but they undoubt- 

 edly have them. 



Animals feel. So do plants ; and it may 

 be that their sensibility is owing to their 

 having a nervous system. Look at the 

 Mimosa pudica, or sensitive plant. Touch 

 its leaves and they will immediately close ; at 

 night they close of their own accord. The 

 poet says : 



" Weak with Dice sense the chaste mimosa stands, 

 From each rude touch withdraws her tender hands ; 

 Oft, as light clouds o'erpasf the summer glade, 

 Alarmed, she trembles at the morning shade, 

 And feels alive through all her tender form 

 The whispered murmurs of the gathering storm ; 

 Shuts her sweet eyelids to approaching night 

 And hails with freshened charms the rising light." 



Animals sleep. So do plants. Many plants 

 sleep at night, and there are some of noctur- 

 nal habits, like the owl of the animal king- 

 dom. The plant commonly known as the 

 evening primrose puts forth-its yellow flowers 

 at nightfall. 

 " A tuft of evening primroses, 



O'er which the wind may hover till it dozes, 



O'er which it well might take a pleasant sleep 



But is ever startled by the leap 



Of buds into ripe flowers." 



Animals eat and drink. Plants eat and 

 drink, too, and some are exceedingly fond of 

 animal food. The "sundew," a little plant 

 that grows in low, marshy land, has small 

 round leaves with a hairy fringe. At the end 

 of each hair is a drop, apparently of water, 

 of really extremely sticky secretion. An in- 

 sect comes along and alights on the leaf. If 

 but one of his toes touches the shining drop 

 ■his doom is sealed. He becomes the sun- 

 dew's dinner. 



In marshy places in North Carolina grows 

 the Venus' fly-trap. Every leaf has a row of 

 spikes so arranged that when the lobes of the 

 leaf are closed the spikes interlock so that 

 nothing can pass them. If a fly alights on the 

 leaf he gets a pressing invitation to dinner, 



which he is always compelled to accept. The 

 strangest thing about the plant is that its 

 leaves will not close upon a piece of wood, or 

 a button, or anything else that is not food. 

 . The nepenthes, or pitcher-plants, of India, 

 also catch and digest insects. The leaves are 

 shaped like pitchers. The rim of each pitcher 

 is smeared with something which looks and 

 tastes hke honey, and which continnes some 

 distance into the pitcher. Then the surface 

 becomes as smooth as the smoothest glass. 

 The insect slides down this inclined plane to 

 the bottom of the pitcher and plunges into an 

 acid which kills it. These pitchers are in re- 

 ality stomachs, and they digest a fly or a bit 

 of beef or mutton exactly as a human stomach 

 digests its food. 



There grows in stagnant water a plant hav- 

 ing minute translucent bladders attached to 

 its leaves. Each of these bladders is full of 

 water and has a little trap door which can 

 be opened only from the outside. If the larvffi, 

 which are so abundant in stagnant water, 

 touch the trap door it opens hospitably and 

 L.'ts them in. As soon as they get in it shuts 

 with a bang. They are prisoners for life. For- 

 tunately, life in that cell does not last long. . 



It is said that animals have instinct, at 

 least, if not reason, and vegetables have not. 

 Do not be too sure of that. Mr. Darwin saw 

 the tendril of a climbing plant voluntarily 

 withdraw from a hole in a well after it had 

 chosen it and remained fixed in it for thirty- 

 six hours; and it is a fact that the tentacles 

 and leaf of the sundew will move a little dis- 

 tance upward after a fly— and catch him, too. 



Perhaps some wise person will ask if ani- 

 mals can be propagated by slips, as plants 

 can, and smile while he asks. Certainly; that's 

 the easiest thing in the world. The common 

 hydra, abounding in ponds, can be cut into 

 twenty pieces and each piece, will become a 

 perfect hydra. If the body be cut in two, 

 lengthwise, the parts will grow together 

 again, and if the two parts be kept separate, 

 each will become a hydra. The same is true 

 with jelly fishes. 



Professor Huxley says: " The difference be- 

 tween an animal and a plant is one of degree 

 rather than of kind, and the problem wheth- 

 er, in a given case, an organism is an animal 

 or a plant may be essentially insoluble." 



So, to be on the safe side, I shall call such 

 things as the sundew, Venus' flytrap, and 

 so forth, vegetable nmmals.— Christian Union. 



AMERICAN CHEESE AND ITS EX- 

 PORTS. 

 Our population is now fifty millions, and 

 we ought to consume the entire cheese pro- 

 duct of the country. It amounts annually to 

 400,000,000 pounds, and of this about 125,- 

 000,000 are exported. England has a popula- 

 tion of about 2.5,000,000 and her amiual cheese 

 consumption is over 500,000,000 pounds or 20 

 pounds per capita. If we consumed annually 

 our whole product, it would be only at the 

 rate of 8 pounds per capita, but as we use no 

 more than 275,000,000 pounds, the actual 

 consumption is 5| pounds per capita. If we 

 used cheese as freely here as in England, our 

 annual consumption would re:iuire one thou- 

 sand million pounds. There is not the proper 

 effort made to promote home consumption. 



The bulk of our finest cheese goes 

 the poorer sorts are left for home use, and the 

 influence of all poor, ill- flavored cheese, is to 

 check the rate of consumption. Outside, the 

 chief cities it is seldom more than one variety 

 is offered in market, and that is a second or 

 third class Cheddar. There is pressing de- 

 mand for fine, small cheeses, of 6 to 10 pounds 

 weight, but our dairymen seem to make but 

 little effort to get out of the regular exporta- 

 tion size and style — and so long as they have 

 an annual surplus of 150,000,000 pounds of 

 this kind, they must expect to have prices on 

 our whole product regulated by a foreign 

 market. Prices fluctuate from week to week, 

 and from season to season, according to for- 

 eign demand and cable quotations from Liv- 

 erpool and London. In 1879 the finest cheese 

 made in this country sold in the interior 

 markets at 6 cents per pound. Because 

 cheese sells high this season is no certainty 

 that it will sen equally well next year. 

 The recent developing of cheese dairying 

 in Russia and other parts of Northern Eu- 

 rope, in Australia and New Zealand, will, 

 in a few years, have more or less influence on 

 our export trade. Our dairy interest ought 

 to be independent of foreign shipments. Our 

 population is rapidly increasing, and the en- 

 tire-cheese product of the country ought to be 

 consumed at .'home; but to eflect this desirable 

 result, a change must be made in our running 

 all goods into Cheddars. We must have more 

 varieties and different styles to suit home 

 wants. When this shall be fairly inaugurated, 

 we may look forward to less fluctuation in our 

 dairy markets, and to a very steady demand 

 at remunerative prices. — Hon. A. K. Willard, 

 in American Agriculturist for JSowinber. 



SELECTING A GOOD COW. 



The lecture by Hon. Willis P. Hazard, of 

 West Chester, before the Berks County Ag- 

 ricultural Society, in the Courthouse, Read- 

 ing, on Saturday afternoon last, on "The 

 Guenon System of Making Selections of Good 

 Cows," was an able eflbrt, and proved ex- 

 ceedingly interesting and valuable to the 

 large audience of farmers who had assem- 

 ble'd for the purpose of being enlightened 

 upon this important subject. Mr. Hazard is 

 a gentleman about fifty years of age, of pleas- 

 ing address, and has devoted years of pains- 

 taking investigation to improvements in stock 

 breeding and the dairy. 



The lecturer said that it is only two years 

 since the report of the Pennsylvania Com- 

 mission upon the Guenon system was made, 

 and that since then the system has taken 

 such a firm hold upon the people, that buy- 

 ers of cattle may now be found examining the 

 escutcheon before making their purchases. 

 The keystone m raising the tone of your herd 

 is proper selection. Every dairyman has his 

 points, and if we have five or six good ones, 

 why not add one more, and adopt the system 

 discovered by Mons. Guenon. The cow is the 

 dairyman's best machine, unless he considers 

 tlie pump-handle of greater importance. A 

 well selected cow will always prove a profit- 

 able investment. In the selection of a cow 

 the following must be considered: Breed, size, 

 general appearance, care in treatment, sur- 

 roundings, period of gestation, and the age of 



