404 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



mans on ! True, it takes time to start an orchard 

 and bring it into bearing ; but then the outlay is 

 small, and the ground may be profitably used for 

 other crops while the trees are growing. When 

 onee in bearing condition, what other crop will 

 pay as well as apples ? For swine, they may be 

 made to save half the corn used in fattening pork. 

 For cattle, they are worth nearly, or quite as 

 much as roots. Plant out the apple trees ; they 

 must prove profitable. — Genesee Farmer. 



LOSS OF THE CUD. 



Literally, there can be no such thing as "loss 

 of the cud." Ruminating animals are never fur- 

 nished with an appendage so ridiculous as a cud, 

 to be used as "gum," in the mouth of a school- 

 boy, which if lost, must be supplied, with an ar- 

 tificial "cud ;" as if the operations of nature must 

 be suspended until this prepared artificial panacea 

 is supplied, to take the place of the natural "cud 

 lost." 



By a slight investigation of anatomy and hab- 

 its of ruminating animals, this very common de- 

 lusion would be dispelled, and the slight under- 

 standing of the "cud," the causes of its "loss," 

 and the means necessary to be used to restore it, 

 ■would be more clearly understood. 



By ruminants, or ruminating animals, we mean 

 those having a complex stomach with four cavi- 

 ties so disposed as to allow of ruminating, or the 

 act of at once laying in a large stock of food, 

 slightly chewed, and afterward to return it to the 

 mouth, and there more thoroughly masticate it, 

 and fit it for digestion. Digestion is always pre- 

 ceded by this action in this order of mammals, and 

 they are exclusively confined to a vegetable diet. 

 Now if debility, loss of appetite, disease of the 

 stomach and digestive organs, or sickness from 

 any other cause ensue, this order of nature may 

 for the time be suspended, and the animal have 

 no need to perform the act of rumination. The 

 ordinary operations of a healthy animal are not 

 called into requisition. Hence, we hear of "loss 

 of cud." The only "remedy" for this "loss" lies 

 in restoring the animal to health, and if we know 

 what is the disease, we can the more certainly ap- 

 ply the "remedy." But all the "made cuds" that 

 ej-cr entered into the materia medica of quack- 

 dom can never compensate for the folly and igno- 

 rance of applying one. 



The stomach of ruminating animals is espe- 

 cially organized for the performance of its pecu- 

 liar functions. It consists of four distinct cavi- 

 ties, all communicating with a muscular canal at 

 the termination of the ccsophagiis. Coarsely mas- 

 ticated food passes from the beginning of the 

 muscular canal into the first cavity, called the ru- 

 men, or paunch. Water is received into the sec- 

 ond cavity, called the reticulum, and almost ex- 

 clusively occupies the honey-comb cells of that 

 cavity, and is gradually mixed with the coarsely 

 divided food which is undergoing mastication in 

 the rumen. When this is sufiiciently advanced, 

 a portion of the mass is raised into a muscular ca- 

 nal, is there moulded into a ball, and by a spas- 

 modic action of the muscles of the gullet is forced 

 into the mouth, where it is perfectly masticated 

 \i leisure, mixed with saliva, and again swallowed. 

 It now passes directly into the third recess called 

 the psalter iim. Here the superfluous fluid is 



absorbed, and the thoroughly subdivided mass 

 passes gradually into the fourth recess, called 

 the ahomasus, where it is completely digested, 

 and from which it passes off into the lesser intes- 

 tines. 



Ruminating is a most interesting process of 

 nature, and it is a most pleasing study to observe 

 and note in its manifold operations, and to wit- 

 ness the supreme satisfaction of a well-fed animal 

 "ruminating," or elaborating by this wonderful 

 provision of Providence, — the mastication of food 

 by delugition, ejection and final swallowing — oth- 

 erwise, "chewing the cud." When we become 

 more thoroughly familiar Avith the beautiful econ- 

 omy of animated nature, and its most wonderful 

 organization, we shall no more hear of the "loss 

 of the cud," but will attribute the effects to their 

 proper causes, and call things by their right names. 

 — J. V. H. C, in Gen. Farmer. 



THE IDYIi OF A -WESTERN WIFE. 



Br ELLA FARMAN. 



Straying here at dusk, I, a housewife merry, 



Lean upon the fence and listen through the gloom, 

 Watch the sunset fade from yonder gleaming ferry. 



Harking with my heart for Joe's light whistle home. 

 ******* 

 All so quaintly built, brown and low our house is : 



Naught but simple-hearted honest folks are we, 

 But we live content as our own moss-roses, 



Though the noisy world doth mind not Joe and me 



Rustic king and queen of these rural riches ; 



Humming hives of bees, and many flocks and herds, 

 And a beautiful and fruitful orchard which is 



Full of sweet, sweet clover grass, and nests of birds. 



By a silver, broad, lone and silent river, 



'Twixt the river and the mossy, ancient wood, 



In our rustic house ; and the wood fowl ever 



Crieth all day through this peaceful neighborhood. 



By the summer's fair, greenest-kirtled fairies 



In the woodbine's flowering, dark-leaved sculpture laid 



In a cornice rare round our stoop ; and there is 



Love's own arbor seat and moon-paved promenade. 



O'er it do the tall, clambering morning-glories 

 Spill at morn their dainty cups of perfumed dew ; 



There walk Joe and I with our household stories — 

 I and Joe, good farmer Joe, when day is through. 



0, how happy we ! through the summer evening walking. 



As the happy ones of ancient Arcady ! 

 O, how happy we ! — rustic married lovers talking. 



Though the noisy world ne'er heard of Joe and me. 

 ******* 

 Straying here at dusk, I, a housewife merry. 



Lean upon the fence and listen through the gloom ; 

 Watch the sunset fade from yonder gleaming ferry, 



Harking with my heart for Joe's light whistle home. 



N. Y. Evening Post. 



Old Peas and Beans. — If you have any old 

 peas or beans in your granaries, which have be- 

 come mouldy, pour boiling water over them, and 

 after drying them thoroughly, grind and give them 

 to your swine. Treated in this manner, and es- 

 pecially peas, they constitute a most valuable and 

 nutritious food for swine. But beans, unless 

 cooked and mixed Avith other substances, are the 

 most valuable for sheep. 



