1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FAnMER. 



551 



monizecl, not only to the taste but to the season. 

 The water quenches thirst and supplies material 

 for increasing perspiration ; the sugar is nutritive 

 and imparts an agreeable taste to the whole ; the 

 acid dissolves the cellulose and reacts beneficially 

 throughout the sj-stem. 



Summing up these facts, w'e find — ■ 



1. In the new supplies of food which the spring 

 and summer bring, the calorific element is nearly 

 or wholly wanting. 



2. In the same manner that we found a heating 

 element added to nutrition proper on the approach 

 of cold weather do we find a cooling added on 

 the approach of warm. This is fruits, and partic- 

 ularly their acids ; from which we conclude, 



3. That ripe fruits are not only the most health- 

 ful of all food in summer, but actual, conservators 

 of health, and necessary in the economy of na- 

 ture. 



But if such is the hygienic character of fruit, 

 whence arises the general opinion of its injurious 

 eflfects, especially in sickly seasons ? and what 

 shall be said of those well authenticated facts of 

 fatal results having been induced by them in the 

 extreme summer weather, and of the generally 

 untov\-ard effects attendant upon a free use of the 

 earlier kinds, particularly strawberries, apples, 

 pears and melons ? 



So far from attempting to deny that such re- 

 sults do frequently follow eating these fruits, we 

 not only admit that the fruit is the direct cause, 

 but that, under the circumstances usually accom- 

 panying those particular cases, it is almost im- 

 possible that any other result should ensue. This 

 question, or fact rather, of the injurious effects of 

 early fruits demands our careful consideration. 



It is alleged that in certain cases fruits are in- 

 jurious, whereas our considerations above led to 

 the conclusion that they are not only harmless 

 but positively beneficial. 



We are, therefore, brought directly to the con- 

 siderations whether fruits are always uniibrm in 

 their action, and whether they may not be, and 

 are not, in some cases hurtful. 



Before any adverse conclusion can be drawn, 

 two conditions must be fully shown ; first, that 

 the fruit was fully ripe ; and second, that it had 

 not commenced to decay. An examination of the 

 chemical condition of fruits and food in general 

 in these respects may serve to elucidate the points 

 at issue. 



FABEWELL TO THE MILKMAID. 



Every one knows the charming part the milk- 

 maid has borne in all English pastoral writings. 

 Poet and novelist alike have written of her simple 

 charms ; but if all accounts are true, a recent Yan- 

 kee invention will banish the milkmaid into the 

 limbo of wooden ships and other obsolete matters. 

 It appears that a milking machine, which had not 

 previously excited any great attention in our own 

 country, was on exhibition at the great London 

 Fair. Every day at eleven o'clock, the inventor 

 milked a cow, to the admiration of a multitude of 

 spectators. It is done by the application of a sort 

 of pump by which the four teats are all milked at 

 once. Orders began to come in for it, and the 

 inventor sold his right for £5000, with a per cent- 

 age on each sale. It is said that enough have al- 

 ready been sold to cover the first cost. — Journal 

 of Agriculture. 



ON FATTENING ANIMALS. 



The common farmer, who fattens, annually, on- 

 ly a pair of oxen, a cow or two, or a heifer, steer, 

 and two or three hogs, gives too little thought to 

 the process, and has too little system in it, to re- 

 alize Avhat a percentage of loss he incurs in the 

 want of more systematic management. It is quite 

 clear to us, that twenty-five per cent, more fat and 

 flesh can be made, under one set of circumstan- 

 ces, on the same amount of food, than will be 

 produced on the same animals, under another set 

 of circumstances. We have seen it illustrated. 



The first requisite to be supplied is, that the 

 animal to be fatted shall have a warm, and every 

 way comfortable apartment in which to stand, or 

 to lie down, or sleep. Without these prelimina- 

 ries, there will, inevitably, be loss in all the sub- 

 sequent proceedings. 



In the first place, the temperature about the 

 animal must not be extremely variable, but kept 

 as evenly as possible at a point that will confer 

 the highest degree of comfort. If it be too 

 warm, the animal will become languid and lose 

 appetite ; and if too cold, the energies of the food 

 will be required to keep the animal warm, instead 

 of producing fat and flesh. In his article on 

 "Food," a portion of which we have copied into 

 another column from the Patent Office Pep(jrt for 

 1861, Prof. Loomis says: "The power of a liv- 

 ing body to generate heat or to preserve it is no 

 greater nor more mysterious than that of a stove. 

 When the fire is once started, each will keep warm 

 so long as there is a supply of fuel, and no longer. 

 The one is combustion with flame, the other, com- 

 bustion without flame. Chemically considered, 

 the processes are not only similar, but identical ; 

 the material consumed, the chemical action and 

 the results of the combination being the same. 

 Heat can no more be generated in the animate 

 body without the consumption of fuel than in the 

 inanimate. The living organization must then in 

 the cold season consume, and therefore, by some 

 means, be supplied with a large amount of fuel or 

 heat-generating food, in addition to that needful 

 for sustaining health and strength in the warm 

 season." This high authority shows us how im- 

 portant an even comfortable temperature is, in 

 sustaining health, — and it is only in this condition 

 that good beef and pork can be made. 



The next consideration is, that the animal he 

 fed at regular periods, so that it may expect its 

 food, and receive it, at a particular time, and not 

 be kept uneasy all the time by an appetite kept 

 sharp and always uncertainly supplied. This may 

 seem unimportant to some, but to the careful ob- 

 server it will be found to have a decided bearing 

 upon the health and prosperous condition of the 

 animal. 



Animals that are stall-fed are often so much 



