NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



115 





LACTOMETER. 



The lactometer is composed of a wooden frame, 

 •with a set of long glass tubes, marked with, inches, 

 and at top with eighths of an inch. The object of 

 this apparatus is to ascertain the quality of milk 

 given by each cow, as shown by the quantity of 

 cream when it has risen to the top ; aj its depth is 

 indicated by the graduated marks in the glass. 



lire milk from each cow should be put into a sep- 

 arate glass ; and it should be taken from each at the 

 same stage of milldng, as the first, the middle, or the 

 last. Each glass should be filled at precisely the 

 same height. And care should be taken to turn the 

 milk into the tube immediately after milked, ex- 

 cluding the froth, as, by setting only a few mmutes, 

 the cream will begin to rise. 



The lactometer is highly valuable to every one 

 who keeps cows, as it will enable him to judge of 

 the value of cows by the proper criterion, the rich- 

 ness or value of "the milk, instead of its quantity 

 or weight. One cow may be regarded as the best in 

 the herd, as she gives the largest quantity of milk ; 

 but on investigation the milk may prove to be thin 

 and poor, and of less value for daiiy purposes than 

 a smaller mess given by another cow, whose mUlc is 

 remarkable for its richness. 



It requu-cs only seven quarts of milk of some of 

 the Jersey cows to make a pound of butter, while 

 fifteen to twenty quarts are necessary from some 

 cows that have been distinguished for yielding large 

 quantities of mUk. Some say that the average quan- 

 tity of milk required for a pound of butter is ten 

 quarts ; but we think that twelve quarts would be 

 nearer the general average. 



The richness of milk depends very much on the 

 feed of cows ; therefore, in making experiments on 

 the comparative value of milk from different cows, 

 the cows should all be fed in the same manner, for 

 several days or a week before making the experi- 

 ment. 



SIMPLE CURE FOR COUGH IN HORSES. 



Two years ago, (says a correspondent of the Albany 

 Cultivator,) one of my carriage horses had an ex- 

 tremely bad cough, which had continued for six or 

 eight months : different applications were made with- 

 out effect. I applied to a man who I knew dealt in 

 horses, and had paid some attention to their diseases, 

 for a remedy. He at once told me that he had never 



found any thing so effectual for a bad cough as 

 human urine, given a few times, by discharging into 

 a bucket of water and letting them drink it, or on 

 their food and eat it. I directed my driver to do so, 

 and in one week the horse was completely relieved. 

 I have frequently had it tried with the same good 

 effect. 



Remarks by Editok of New England Farmer. 

 We had a horse long afflicted with a severe cough, 

 though several medicines were given, but without 

 effect. We then kept him wholly on sheep's orts, 

 some of which were taken up from the manure, 

 where they were covered several inches deep, from 

 feeding under shelter in stormy weather, the usual 

 mode being to feed on the snow. These orts from the 

 manure were eaten in preference to good hay, and 

 the horse soon recovered. The orts had absorbed 

 the urine of the sheep, they had also imbibed the 

 qualities of the dung, which has powerful mediciaal 

 effects, particularly in the measles. 



INDIAN CORN. 



In the raising of Indian corn, some experiment* 

 have been made which have produced singular re- 

 sults. Mr. Fowler, of Ohio, planted one and a half 

 acres of ground with three different kinds of corn — 

 half acre of china, half acre of yellow gourd seed, 

 half acre of white flint. The result of the crop was 

 seventy-three and a half bushels shelled corn from 

 the china, fifty-six and a half fi'om white flint, and 

 fifty-four from the yellow gourd seed. The result 

 was bej'ond any thing before raised in Northern 

 Ohio, and so much in favor of the china corn, that 

 he has every year since planted it. When he com- 

 menced with corn, it was a flint corn from seven 

 years' use, and it has become so closely allied to 

 gourd seed that the kernel is very much dented, 

 and the ears from twelve to twenty rows ; the same 

 remarks hold good in relation to the white flint. 

 From sixteen years' cultivation and acquaintance, it 

 seems to bear no similarity to its species sixteen 

 years ago : it was then an eight-rowed flint corn ; it 

 is now some sixteen to twenty rows gourd seed ; 

 which demonstrates the fact that this climate changes 

 the species of corn from one kind to that of another. 

 — Pittsburgh Visitor. 



HEAVY OATS. 



At the late show at St. Johns, New Brunswick, 

 three samples of oats which were exhibited weighed 

 respectively 47 lbs., 46^ lbs., and 44 lbs. the bushel. 



