1864. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



241 



MULTIPLICITY OF PLANTS. 



The number of plants now known and regular- 

 ly classified, amounts to several hundred thous- 

 and. The Linaaean enumerates twenty-four class- 

 es, one hundred and twenty orders, two thousand 

 genera, and thirty thousand species. 



Of these species, the varieties are almost innu- 

 merable. The arrangement of Linnjeus is very 

 ingenious, and serves greatly to facilitate the ac- 

 quisition of botanical knowledge by its clearness, 

 and the ease with which it enables one to discrim- 

 inate between plants so nearly assimilated in ap- 

 pearances as to demand no inconsiderable degree 

 of research to avoid confusion. 



Of these plants, there are a great many which 

 administer directly to the wants, comfort and hap- 

 diness of man, by affording healthy food, wood 

 for building and other artistic purposes, as well 

 as for medicine, and a great variety of other things. 



"There is nothing in nature," says an ingenious 

 author, "without its use in the animal or vegeta- 

 ble kingdom. Of plants, some give out in the 

 sunshine, vital air, called by chemists, oxygen 

 gas. This he imbibes into his blood through the 

 medium of his lungs, in breathing, and without 

 which we could not live. Some afford substance 

 to the silkworm which spins for him those elegant 

 garments so much worn and admired. Some 

 plants are used for feeding and fattening his cat- 

 tle. In short, without vegetables there would be 

 no animals, and man himself would only catch a 

 glimpse of life, and then miserably perish with 

 hunger." 



What, however, should more particularly ar- 

 rest our attention, is the almost endless variety 

 of vegetables, possessing such a varying degree 

 of taste and of nutritious and medicinal matter. 

 They seem, indeed, to be adapted to all the wants 

 of man and animals. In sickness and in health, 

 for the strong and the weak, some one may be 

 found to suit every case. We know a physician, 

 for instance, of extensive practice, who rarely uses 

 anything as an alterative but apples. If he is 

 sleepless, and is slightly feverish, he rises and 

 eats a crisp and juicy apple, and finds it more ef- 

 fective than any narcotic. This remedy would be 

 quite likely to throw another into convulsions, 

 who would be relieved by a dose of hellebore or 

 the juice of the poppy ! Another person afflicted 

 with a painful disease finds relief from the free 

 use of pears, and another from grapes. Where 

 the kidneys are affected, the patient is often re- 

 lieved by eating freely of ripe peaches, the prussic 

 acid which they contain being properly adminis- 

 tered in this mild form. 



Then, how wonderfully they are adapted to the 

 varying seasons. By the time the snow is fairly 

 gone, some plants push forth their tender leaves 

 with rapidity, so that in a few days the table may 



be supplied with fresh and healthful "greens" of 

 various kinds. Then succeed the delicious small 

 fruits, ripening in succession until delicious pears 

 and apples are waiting to be gathered. 



There is no other country, we believe, where 

 there is such a variety of eatable vegetables, and 

 such an abundance of them, as we have here, — 

 certainly, the markets of England do not afford 

 them. 



MILK, BUTTER AND CHEESE. 



Me. Brown : — Having had some dispute ia 

 regard to milk, we agree to leave the decision to 

 your valuable paper. As to qualities for butter 

 and cheese in proportion to its weight ; also, 

 which will make the most butter, the lightest or 

 heaviest? Please discuss the matter generally, 

 and oblige fl. 



Templeton, July, 1864. 



Remarks. — It would afford us pleasure to make 

 this controverted question clear to our Templeton 

 friends, — but when tkey disagree — the practical 

 "doctors" in the case — men and women of great 

 experience in all matters that relate to the dairy, 

 we may well approach it with diffidence and dis- 

 trust. We have had, however, considerable ex- 

 perience in the dairy room, and with the light 

 which that affords, together with the opinions of 

 good dairy women, and what we can find that is 

 reliable in the records of others, we will present 

 a few paragraphs for consideration. 



The question propounded seems U> be as fol- 

 lows : 



Which will make the most butter or the most 

 cheese, the lightest milk, or the heaviest milk ? 



The specific gravity of milk is 1.032 — that is, 

 one, and thirty-two thousandths parts, while pure 

 water, which is the standard, is 1.000 ; milk, 

 therefore, is the heaviest by the difference in these 

 two sums. 



Several years ago, when the adulteration of 

 milk in the Boston market had become so notori- 

 ous and intolerable that the Legislature took the 

 matter in hand, many experiments were made by 

 different persons to ascertain the various degrees 

 of adulteration. In these trials, new milk, that 

 was known to be pure, was used in nearly all the 

 cases, and with the surprising result, that the spe- 

 cific gravity of all new milk is nearly alike, — the 

 extreme variation being only one ounce in a wine 

 gallon ! 



This certainly is a remarkable result, when we 

 take into consideration the fact that the milk of 

 different cows has a wide range of quality, — the 

 cream varying from Jive or six per cent, in one 

 cow to eighteen or twenty per cent, in another ! 

 We have owned two cows, each of which gave a 

 large flow of milk, for several months after calv- 

 ing, but from neither of them could six pounds of 

 butter per week be obtained from their milk. 



