&46 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



of by using«dry muck, earth, straw, litter and 

 other absorbents and divisors to absorb the 

 liquids and increase the quantity. Fertilizers 

 may be collceted from many sources ; villages 

 and cities will furnish large supplies of various 

 kinds of refuse, waste, and stable manure, and 

 often may be had at reasonable rates when 

 accessible. 



Seeds. — See that those of home produc- 

 tion are well cared for. Cl^an out all of 

 doubtful quality or identity. Be ready to or- 

 der those not raised, as soon as Catalogues 

 are out. 



Tools. — The time of leisure is the time to 

 repair and put in order all implements. If 

 you have no tool room set apart a place at 

 once and fit it with the essentials, so that there 

 may be a place for everything, and you may 

 know when a thing is missing. 



W. H. White. 

 [ South Windsor, Conn., 1871. 



Fur the K(w England Farmer, 

 THE BLOOD, AND ITS OIKCULATION". 



In all organized beings — that is, in all be- 

 ings endowed with life, the process of nutri- 

 tion and growth is carried on by means of a 

 circulating fluid. In the vegetable kingdom, 

 this Huid is called sap ; in animals it is called 

 blood. The blood of insects is without color, 

 while that of fishes is red in the gills, heart, 

 and liver, but nearly colorless in other parts 

 of the body. In mammals, or animals which 

 suckle their young, and in birds and reptiles, 

 the blood is of a dark purple color when 

 drawn from a vein, and of a bright scarlet 

 when it comes from an artery. 



Soon after blood is taken from a living ani- 

 mal, it begins to coagulate, or become solid; 

 and if allowed to stand for a few hours, the 

 clot will be found diminished in size, firmer 

 than before, and floating in the midst of a 

 yellowish fluid, called serum. 



The serum, or licjuid which remains after 

 coagulation, is composed principally of albu- 

 men and water. Albumen is a colorless semi- 

 fluid when pure, but is coagulated or har- 

 dened by heat and by acids. It forms a very 

 large proportion of the brain, spinal cord, 

 and nerves. A good example of this sub- 

 stance may be found in the white of an egg. 

 The icater of the blood is one of its most im- 

 portant constituents, and forms by far the 

 greater proportion of its bulk, — one thousand 

 parts of blood containing seven or eight hun- 

 dred parts of water. 



The cnaguhim, clot or crassamenfum, which 

 is the soliii part of the blood, is composed of 

 fibrin, and numerous red particles, called 

 blood discs or corpuscles. Fibrin is of a 

 whitish color, inodorous, Jnsoluble in cold wa- 

 ter, coagulates at all temperatures, and con- 

 stitutes the basis of the muscular tissue. The 

 blood discs, which contain the coloring mat- 

 ter of the blood, vary in size and form in 



different species of animals. In man, they 

 are little round cells, flattened like a piece of 

 money, and from l-40()0ths to l-2800ths of an 

 inch in diameter. In birds, reptiles and fishes, 

 they are nmch larger. Their number corres- 

 ponds, very much, to the temperature of the 

 animal. In birds, they form fifteen per cent, 

 of the whole mass of blood ; in man they 

 form twelve or thirteen per cent. ; and in 

 fishes and some of the other cold-blooded ani- 

 mals, they form only five or six per cent. 

 The coloring matter of the blood contains 

 nearly seven per cent, of iron. 



The blood is found by chemical analysis, to 

 have nearly the same elements, combined in 

 about the same proportions, as they exist in 

 the animal. It is therefore fitted to carry nu- 

 triment to every part of the system, and thus 

 renovate the tissues, — to furnish at one point, 

 the elements of bone ; at another, those of 

 muscles ; at another, those of brain, and so 

 on. The blood also takes up and carries off, 

 through appropriate organs, all waste parti- 

 cles, and thus maintains in the body a contin- 

 vious round of organization and disorganiza- 

 tion, of growth and decay. 



The organs which carry the blood from one 

 part of the body to another, constitute, when 

 taken together, the circulatory apparatus, and 

 the course of the blood through these organs, 

 is called its circulation. In insects, the blood 

 is sent to the diirerent parts of the body by 

 the alternate contractions of different portions 

 of a central vessel which extends along the 

 back, forming a rudimentary heart. In the 

 crab, lobster, and other members of the class 

 Crustacea, there is a single sack or ventricle, 

 which receives the blood from the gills or 

 lungs, and propels it to other parts of the 

 body. In fishes, we find a distinct heart, di- 

 vided into two cavities — an auricle, and a ven- 

 tricle. Reptiles and amphibious animals, 

 such as the snake, lizard, frog, crocodile, 

 &c., have two auricles or reservoirs, and one 

 ventricle or propelling organ. In the class 

 mammalia, or animals which suckle their 

 young, and in birds, we find a double heart, or 

 what is e(|uivalent to two such hearts as the^ish 

 possesses, with a complete double circulation. 

 Indeed, the heart is constructed on the same 

 general plan in all the warm blooded animals, 

 so that the heart of an ox, a horse, a sheep, 

 or a dog, with the entire circulation of blood, 

 may be taken to illustrate those of the human 

 subject. 



The'^ieart, then, is the great central organ 

 of circulation ; and the double heart is, in 

 form, somewhat like a pear. In man, it is 

 situated in the front part of the thorax or 

 chest, between the lungs, with its base above, 

 and inclining obliquely backward towards the 

 right shoulder, while its apex points forward, 

 and to the left side, between the fifth and sixth 

 ribs, where its beatings can be most distinctly 

 felt. It is surrounded by a firm smooth mem- 

 brane, called the peri cardium, the office of 



