THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1H87. 
same. The mild seems to be best suited tor dairy 
stock. Tlie acid fodder will require an addition 01 
some fatty rations. 
It cannot be too often reiterated that the secret 
of all ensilage lies in the pressing the mass. Those 
apostles of stacking the green soiling, Messrs. Houles 
anu Rouviere continue to receive proof of the ex- 
tension of their views and confirmation of the suc- 
cess of their system in their own practices. The 
heaping of the mass should proceed leguiarly so as 
to bind the stack-rectangular shape preferred in 
one solid mass. The covering weight ought to be 
16 to 28 cwt. per square yard. Eleven feet wide 
and thirteen high length as desired are good stack 
dimensions. The forage should be cut when it is in 
full flower. It will be seen that no outlay is re- 
quired for stack ensilage, and the fodder will conserve 
for a year ; it can be given alone, but it is better 
to mix it with other aliments. Some meadow farm- 
ers manage to sell off their fat stock in June and 
July ; the aftermath is cut in September and ensil- 
aged ; no stock is purchased til) January following 
when prices are low ; the animals bought are fed on 
the silo food for a few months, and next supplied 
with green stuff when they are fattened rapidly and 
are fit for the butcher by June or July. 
M. Nordlinger of Urach, Germany, has recorded 
a series of readings of the thermometer to test the 
comparative temperature between forest and plain. 
His experiments were made in a forest of fir trees 
50 years old, and a plain half a mile distant. During the 
night the air of the forest is two degrees in sum- 
mer and one degree at other epochs warmer than 
the air of the fields at the height of a man. The 
branches act as a screen against the radiation of 
heat. This will explain why the air over the sum- 
mit of trees is during the morning in winter of a 
more elevated temperature than the surrounding plain. 
At two o'clock, the warmest part of the day, there 
is no perceptible temperature — difference between the 
air over the summit of trees and the plain. The in- 
terior of the woods is, as a rule, slightly warmer 
than the air of the open at the height of six feet. 
It is a well-known fact that in spring potatoes suffer 
in their qualities alike for table as for seed. This 
depreciation tells equally when the tubers are required 
for distillation, or the preparation of fecula. The 
richness of fecula can descend from 89 to 51 per 
cent following the mode of preservation. A clear 
dry and cool place is the best for storing the tuber. 
M. Tessier has informed the Academy of Sciences 
that' diphtheria is transmissible from barn-door fowl 
to man and vice versa. It is through the disease- 
germs floating in the air— and the offspring of 
manure emanations &c. entering the respiratory or- 
gans that infectious maladies are contracted ; pigeons, 
and next hens are the most active agents in the 
propagation of diphtheria. 
Veterinary Professor Sauson has analysed and re- 
ported upon the cakes or biscuits having sawdust 
for base intended as food for cattle and horses in 
particular. It is an alimeut not new to Germany. 
This prepared aliment has for chief ingredient very fine 
red sawdust acted upon by muriatic acid a power- 
ful digesting agent. The cakes are thiu ; 8 to 10 inch- 
es in diameter and weight about one pouud. In 
two samples the biscuit was mixed with bran and 
oats. No one of course expects that sawdust alone 
could be utilized as food; it is too poor in protein, 
but it cau act by "ballasting " the digestive apparatus 
giving it the required volume for working. 
As a stomach-ballast sawdust could then enter 
into competition with inferior straws. Chemically the 
biscuits were not nutritively richer than hay, while 
in point of digestibility they were inferior. In cass 
of cavalry when campaigning, where economical ra- 
tions are desirable, there wuiild be required 41 lb. 
of the oat— sawdust cake—more if of bran to 
equal 10 lb. of hay and the same weight of oats. 
Now horses when on the war path must be laden 
with as few heavy weights as possible. The weight 
of the cakes could lie reduced by dessiccatiou and 
volume by the introduction of buiuu highly concentrat- 
ed aliment. The biscuits should be estimated at 
the same value as that of medium hay. Sawdust 
can be eaten without danger by horses. The Omnibus 
Company, when they employed that substance for 
litter, never prevented the horses from eating it, 
that which did them no harm. In Sweden, very 
fiue larch sawdust is employed with advantage 
instead of chopped straw, and mixed with sliced 
mangolds for bullocks and dairy stock. 
That sheep are the "most profitable cattle" a 
farmer can have is an axiom as old as the hills. 
French agriculturists continue to be divided as to 
the maintenance of pure local or perhaps native 
races in preference to cross breeds. Does it always 
pay to rely oh fleece alone? or to unite wool and 
precocity iu flesh ? The French farmer will in all 
probability stick to the breed suitable to his locality. 
He is a worshipper of the Merino; it comes more 
up as a general rule to his conditions of climate 
pasturage and selection— the latter not iu the sense 
of crossing, but from the best specimens of the 
Merino type. It is mooted that a special show of 
Merinos should be organized where animals from 
Spaiu and Germany could be compared with those 
of Naz and Kamboullet along with fleeces from 
Australia and those from long-woolled sheep in 
general. Such an exhibition would be interesting, but 
in all probability would have little effect on the 
decision of French wool growers. 
The Merino breed appears to have a fascination 
for them. Its fine wool preserves its characteristics, 
remains so constant that no deterioration— ordinary 
hygienic conditions being observed — is to be feared. 
A"nd this explains why when crossings are undertaken 
with local breeds the Merino is chosen. If pre- 
cosity cannot be achieved at least a paying fleece 
can be secured. The Merino has exercised a pro- 
found influence on sheep in every part of the world. 
Now it is this cosmopolitan faculty that the breed 
has inherited from the mode of life of tha found- 
ation-stock, which makes it so much a favorite 
because so often a necessity. And the type remains 
the same every where, while its aptitudes have been 
developed, following economic necessities. It was in 
Saxony that the Merino first made a sensation out- 
side Spaiu; the Elector in 1765 imported over 100 
choice rams and ewes and by maintaining the purity 
of the race upheld the fineness of the fleece. Only 
the French Merino— the race Naz could match the 
Saxon wool in fineness of staple, and this was the 
more singular as in Saxony parsimonious feediug 
was resorted to as an aid to the production of 
such a quality, while in France no such plan was 
ever adopted. 
It is an error to suppose then that the introduction 
of the Merino in France dates only from 1780. 
Colbert had introduced Merino rams from Spain for 
breeding in the proviuce of Koussillon. But it is to 
Daubeiitou reverts the honor of having seriously 
occupied himself with fine wool raising at Montbard 
in 1766. Louis XVI in 1786 executed a treaty with 
the King of Spain to introduce Merinos into Fiance. 
The first flock, 42 rams and 342 ewes left Spain 
(Segovia) in the middle of June 1786 and arrived— 
less a few deaths— at Kambouillet in the environs 
of Paris iu October following. Liter another flock 
set out. By the treaty of Bale in 1796, Spain bound 
herself to send 100 rams and 100 ewes annually 
during five years to France. It was by these divers 
importations, that the Merino spread over France. 
In time it assumed two distinct varieties distinguished 
by volume of body and fineness of wool. But the 
parent-type has remained unchanged. 
Naz in the department of the Ain is the head 
centre of the Merino with large body, while retaining 
the conformation of the true Spanish type. _ Iu point 
of fleece it owes its amelioration to selection. The 
staple is homogenous fine, not iu lumps and light. 
It approaches a good deal the Saxon Merino by the 
softness and fineness of its wool. But it has the 
small body, large belly, big head, and voluminous 
horns, besides being agile, hardy, and everywhere at 
home. The sheep receive only iu winter a necess^r^ 
