17-4 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[May, 
are gradually learning that there are some thiugs 
in this country worth having, and that all the good 
things do not originate on the other side of the water. 
Ogdea Farm Papers.— No. 63, 
ET GEORGB E. -WAniNO, JR., 
I have been asked about cattle and sheep-raising 
for Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, how to 
get the best result from raising grades by crossing 
thoroughbred bulls ou the native cows of the re- 
gion ; and in what way to get the best improve- 
ment upon common sheep. If the making of good 
butter for sale is an important item of the business, 
the Jersey is the best breed to be selected. If, 
towever, a combination of milking and beef-mak- 
ing qualities is desired, I should then suggest the 
use of a thoroughbred Devon bull, say from stock 
long ago introduced into Georgia by Mr. Pcter.s, of 
Atlanta, changing the bull every two years to se- 
cure an infusion of fresh blood. Devons, for this 
purpose, would perhaps be no better than Ayrshires, 
but it is not so well demonstrated that the latter 
are well adapted to the southern climate, and good 
Devon grades are admirably well suited for the 
purposes required, being hardy, thrifty, tractable, 
and of good size. As a rule, they are a good milk- 
ing race, and easily fattened to good beef. Con- 
cerning sheep, I should decidedly recommend 
crossing with the Cotswold ram. The proper plan 
would be to get the best lot of native ewes to be 
readily found, and to put Cotswold rams with 
them, this whether the ewes are grades of either 
Merino or some long-wooled kind. In this way, 
early maturity and an increased quantity of wool 
win be secured. The wool will be nearly doubled 
on the first cross. To establish an improved flocl;, 
keep the whole or a part of the ewe lambs thus 
bred, and continue to breed Cotswold rams to 
them, never using a grade ram. However, the 
largest returns of immediate profit will be secured 
by feeding the ewes from the time the lambs are 
dropped, systematically and well, until they are 
ready for the butcher, supplying their places as 
breeders by a new lot of natives. Perhaps the two 
plans might be combined ; or, keep all the ewe 
lambs, get two sheanngs and one lamb, and have 
them ready for the butcher as soon after weaning 
their lambs as possible, to make room for the next 
crop of ewes, and so on. 
I probably get more letters on the subject of the 
failure of cows to get with calf than on any other, 
and have had some trouble of the same sort in my 
own herd. Among these letters, and as a result of 
conversation with farmers, I have come into pos- 
session of more "sure " rules for securing the de- 
eired result than there are cows at Ogden Farm ; 
but every one of th^pi that I have tried has ap- 
peared, like most of the sure rules of life, to have 
at least enough exceptions ta prove their tiuth. In 
short, they are no rules at all, only opinions, some- 
times supported by coincidences. The only sug- 
gestion I have met which seems to have a scientific 
foundation, is that for the removal of the clitoris, 
which is the chief seat of irritation. I have long 
known of the use of this method in Great Britain, 
and that it was considered in some cases a certain 
remedy, but not knowing how to perform the oper- 
ation myself, I have never tried it, though I have 
now a candidate in a valuable young heifer that has 
been barren more than a year, and I shall try to find 
some one who can make the e^teision. Some 
months ago I rceommended the trial to a physician 
in Connecticut, having a large herd of Jerseys, and 
he thinks the operation has been successful. 
This same correspondent submits a curious prop- 
osition, on which some reader may be able to throw 
light, I cannot. He says, " I have four dash ehums 
situated thus : No. 1 (itt.) No. S 
No. 3 (4 ft.) No. 4 
Four feet between 1 and 3, also between 2 and -! ; 
about six to eight inches between 1 and 2, and ?, and 
4. How the butter always comes in No. 1 in less 
than two-thirds of the time it does in Nos. 2, 3, and 
4, and in Nos. 2, 3, and 4 it always comes in about 
the same time, not more than five or eight minutes. 
If it takes 60 minutes for No. 1, it will take an hour 
and a half or three-quarters for either of the otlier 
three. If any one can explain this to me, I think 
you can. If not, I conclude what ' you and 1 do 
not know is not worth knowing.' " 
Mr. Robert Hood, of Cumberland Co., Pa., asks 
why milk drawn throe or four weeks before calving 
curdles on boiling as sour milk does, and ho very 
properly suggests that if the time of calving- is not 
known, occasional boiling of the milk will indicate 
it — of course only when cows fail to dry off in time, 
which is very frequently the ccise with Jerseys. 
A pretty clear light seems to be thrown on this 
subject by Dr. Sturtevant, in his recent paper read 
before the Connecticut Agricultural Society, which, 
like everything coming from this careful investiga- 
tor and unprejudiced reporter, seems to me pecu- 
liarly worthy of attention and confidence. The 
facts reported, although at least confirmed by Dr. 
Sturtevant's own investigations, may have been 
known before, but lie is certainly entitled to the 
credit of giving them to the public in a very iutelli- 
gent and acceptable form . He says that buttsr Is 
not a secretion from the blood, but that it is a part 
of the actual material of the cow's udder, which, 
after undergoing a sort of fatty degeneration, is 
thrown off during the production of milk, and is 
instantly mingled with it in the ducts and reservoirs 
leading to the teat, — that is to say, the whole interi- 
or surface of the udder, constituting the walls of 
the interstices through which the milk passes, is a 
fatty formation, that is, it is made up of minute 
cells containing fat as it exists in the globules of 
cream. These cells follow the common law of re- 
production by the process known as "budding," 
or the formation of two cells out of one, and the 
growth of both to the full size. As these cells 
grow they arc separated from the organism and 
pass Into the milk, and this is the source of all the 
butter globules in all milk. During the excitement 
of the reproductive organs that precedes and fol- 
lows the birth of the calf, the multiplication of the 
cells becomes more active, and they are cast oil 
prematurely, and often before they arc fully sepa- 
rated, cast off in groups ; there is nu undue pro- 
portion of cell membrane, the fatty degeneration 
has not been completed, and they give to the se- 
cretion the character that we know as colostrum, 
which is the purgative milk of a cow that has Just 
calved, or is about to calve, which is not fit for use, 
hut which is especially needed for the cleansing of 
the intestines of the new bom progeny. The same 
production of colostrum corpuscles giving their 
peculiar character to tlic milk, may take place dur- 
ing fevers or as a result of external Injury to the 
udder. It is thisformation of colostnim that spoils 
the milk as referred to in Mr. Hood's letter. 
Dr. Sturtevant has made a careful microscopic 
study of milk, especially with reference to the size 
and character of the butter globules ; and although 
he is an Ayrshire breeder, and a champion of that 
race, (and finds ample physiological reason for the 
faith that is in him), he does not hesitate to accord 
to the Jerseys all the advantage that the study of 
the globules shows them to be entitled to. He 
says that these globules are largest with the Jerseys 
and smallest with the Dutch, or so-called "Hol- 
stein " cows, the Ayrshires occupying an interme- 
diate position. The globules consist of butter en- 
closed in a very thin sac, and the process of churn- 
ing causes the rupturing of the sacs, allowing their 
contents to adhere, and to "come" as butter. 
Other things being equal, the larger the globule the 
quicker the churning, and, consequently, the more 
uniform the size of the globule, '.'ao more complete 
Is the extraction of the butter, ihe influence ex- 
tends also to the length of time needed to prepare 
milk for churning; he says: "Twenty-four hours' 
standing will hasten the churning of Jersey milk 
more than will forty-eight hours affect the churn- 
ing of Ayrshire milk." Butter from large globules 
is of better grain than that from small globules 
of even the same milk, which may account for the 
disadvantage of what is called overchurning ; as 
the larger and better grained globules, which make 
the best butter, will be the first to come, and the 
quahty must be injuriously affected by adding to 
this first butter the product of the later rupturing 
of the smaller and less perfectly grained globules. 
During the early milliing of a fresh cow, when the 
functions of the udder are carried on with the 
greatest activity, the globules are gorged and the 
relative differences in size are exaggerated. The 
butter begins to come after churning a short time, 
and as the process goes on, globules of smaller size 
are ruptured and added to the mass, giving an ir- 
regularity to the character of the product. But as 
time elapses, the production of the milk becomes 
more regular, the difference between the sizes 
of the globules islessened, and, while a longer time 
is required for churning, fhe product is more uni- 
form, and more butter is cxtratted in proportion 
to the actual amount of butter-globules in the 
milk. Again, as the larger globules are lighter 
than the smaller ones, not only will milk having 
large globules throw up its cream more rapidly, but 
the cream first rising will contain the largest 
globules, and therefore make the best butter. 
These internal milk-glands of the udder are allied 
to the glands of the skin, and it is by analogy that 
W'e find a fine and free-skinned cow to bo a good 
butter producer, and that a staring coat and tight 
hide, (whether resulting from breed or from tem- 
porary low condition), to be an index to permanent 
or temporary defective butter production. Such a 
course of feeding as will improve the eondition of 
hide and hair will also improve the development c< 
the butter; good feeding either increasing the size 
of the globules developed, or so stimulating the 
activity of the jiarts that cell budding and separa- 
tion becomes more rapid. The character of the 
globules, and their manner of buddiug or separation 
is a matter of structure, and structure is a matter 
of race or breed, so that the amount and character 
of the butter produced is due less to the manner iu 
which an animal is fed, than to the breed to which 
it belongs ; although, as the globule-prodneing 
character of the raco is tlie -ultimate result of the 
slow influence of care, climate, and diet, acting ou 
many generations, we may, by judicious treatment, 
steadily improve the character of the animal-^ 
we breed, from generation to generation ; but the 
wise course would be to begin with the best devel- 
oped race we can find, in order that our improve- 
ment may start from the highest possible point. In 
like manner, by starvation, exposure, and .abuse, 
we may cause a deterioration of even the best race, 
and we may soon reduce a race of average good 
quality to a really worthless condition. Tlie prac- 
tical teaching of Dr. Sturtevant's investigations, 
therefore, is, tliat the best animals for the butter- 
maker are those in which the large butter-produc- 
ing cell is a fixed characteristic, and that what<'ver 
the natural or structural condition of the animal or 
race may be, it will improve or deteriorate, accord- 
ing to good treatment or to bad treatment. 
Different races have different straetural tenden- 
cies; a race bred for beef, has its development of 
cells subject to fatty degeneration, placed in the 
adipose tissue ; iu a butter producing breed, they 
are placed in the udder ; at the same thne, the 
tendency to fatty development in cither class of 
organs, is closely allied, and may be, in the same 
animal, to a greater or less extent transformed from 
one to the other ; so that the great point is, to have 
an animal with the fat-producing tendency as a 
chief characteristic, in order that when the produc- 
tion of butter ceases, as the milk dries off, there 
will be a deposition of fat in the carcase, and as 
the milking becomes active, there will be a ten- 
dency to divert the fat-producing p:irts of the food 
to the udder, and even, as is constantly seen, a 
transferrence of fat already developed from the 
adipose tissue to the udder, for a demand upon 
the blood to supply cream in the udder. In excess 
of what the food Is able to fnmish, will cause the 
blood to carry in this direction, the fat thrown off 
by the reduction of the adipose tissue. 
Another of Dr. Sturtevant's propositions is this : 
'* The superior cow Is more a creature of art, and 
