28 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
shed, the batter amounted to 5,1 per cent. When fed 
with hay, the butter was 3.9 and 4.6 per cent. When 
fed with portions of potatoes, hay, and bean flour, the 
butter was 6.7 and 4.9 per cent.; with hay and pota¬ 
toes, 4.6 and 4.9 per cent. 
The author then examines Dumas’s theory of the 
origin of fat in animals, in reference to the foregoing 
experiments, and concludes, in opposition to that the¬ 
ory, that the butter in the milk could not have arisen 
solely from the fat contained in the food. Hence it 
must be produced by a separation of oxygen from the 
elements of the unazotised ingredients of the food of 
the animal, in the manner pointed out by Liebig. He 
then quotes, in favor of the same conclusion, several 
experiments of Boussingault, and observations of dai¬ 
rymen in different localities. Potatoes are particular¬ 
ly favorable, both to the flow of milk and increase of 
butter, from the starch they contain. s So malt refuse. 
Porter and beer are also well known to be favorable 
to the production of butter, both in the milk of women 
and of the cow, although these fluids do not contain 
fat. 
The production of caseine in the milk is then consid¬ 
ered in reference to the quantity of albumen in the food 
supplied on different days to the cow, and to the sup¬ 
posed destruction of the tissues by muscular exercise. 
Pasturing in the open field is more favorable to the 
formation of caseine, while stall-feeding is more favor¬ 
able to the formation of butter. It is then shown that 
the proportion of butter in the milk of woman is in¬ 
creased by rest and the diminution of the respiratory 
oxidation. 
From the proprietor of the London New Farmers’ 
Journal, we have received three cuts of Mr. Thomas 
Bates’s celebrated Short-horns, viz : Dutchess 34th, 
Duke of Northumberland, and Cleveland Lad. We 
give the portrait of the former on the opposite page, 
and the two others will follow in succession for May 
and June. 
Dutchess 34th is the most splendid cow we ever saw, 
and we know of nothing that can compare with her, 
except two three-year olds that we were shown along 
side of her at Kirkleavington. She is descended from 
the old stock which has been bred in Durham for two 
centuries, and has the distinctive mark of the short, 
fine, clear, upturned, waxy horn, peculiar to this supe¬ 
rior tribe. She is now nine years old, has had eight 
calves, and, though repeatedly shown against the best 
cows in England, has never been beaten. She was 
offered a few years ago, by her breeder, to come to 
America, but was declined, as we understand, through 
the influence of Mr. Whitaker; whether because he 
was not aware of her merits, or that lie thought she 
would make too fine a show along side of much that 
he sent out here, we did not learn. Had our breeders 
possessed her, and a few others, at the time offered, 
our Short-horn stock now could not be beaten in Eng¬ 
land ; as it is, we must still continue to purchase for 
improvement. If the committee for the forthcoming 
Show and Fair of the New York State Agricultural So¬ 
ciety, wish for a model to judge cows by, at the meet¬ 
ing at Rochester next September, we commend to them 
the superb outline of Duchess 34th. For the history and 
tradition of this stock, and all particulars regarding it, 
we refer the reader to September and November Nos. 
of this paper. 
Introduction of American Roses. —For the information 
of our western friends, we notice in the Gardener’s 
Magazine, that two new American roses have been re¬ 
cently introduced into England, viz : the Rosa rubifolia 
elegans, the Prairie Rose—and Rosa rubifolia , the Prai¬ 
rie Queen. 
Predilection of English ladies for Gardening. —Some 
young ladies lately residing in London, where they 
have no garden, have contrived a very ingenious sub¬ 
stitute for a hot-bed, by having recourse to their side- 
pockets as a source of heat for germinating seeds. 
The seed, enveloped in some moist moss, is put in a 
small tin case, commonly one which has been used for 
peppermint lozenges, or acidulated drops. The case, 
so filled, is carried about the person constantly during 
the day, and put with the pocket under the pillow du¬ 
ring the night. When the seeds have germinated, 
and the plumule, as well as the radicle, has appeared, 
the seed, having now become a plant, is taken out and 
planted in a pot. The same ladies have germinated 
seeds by suspending them over water in a hyacinth 
glass, or small carafe; and in this manner they have 
raised trees from filberts, which, being afterward 
planted in the open ground in the country, have, in 
the course of a few years, borne fruit. They have 
also raised oaks, sweet-chestnuts, and various other 
plants. 
Recipe for destroying the Bug, Scale-red Spider, and 
Green-fly, in Hot-houses. —Take half a pint of stone 
lime, and half an ounce of black sulphur, and mix 
them well up together in four gallons of water. 
Veterinary Medicine. —Under this head, the Edinburg 
Quarterly Journal of Agriculture for March, has a re¬ 
view of Percival’s second volume, of 400 pages, on the 
Disorders and Lamenesses of the Horse; A Manual of 
Veterinary Science, by Dick; and a German work on 
the same subjects; and, by way of calling attention 
to the importance of a better knowledge of the veteri¬ 
nary art, estimates the value of horses, cattle, and 
sheep, in Great Britain, at £120,000,000 sterling (10,- 
000,000 higher than stated in our last); and that there 
is a loss of two millions sterling annually to the na¬ 
tion, by disability, disease, and death, over what there 
probably would be, if a proper knowledge of practice 
prevailed in regard to the treatment of those ani¬ 
mals. 
The Works of George Sinclair. —These works have 
passed to a new edition, under the supervision of 
Cuthbert W. Johnson, Esq. 
Destroying Insects. —The Gardener’s Gazette sug¬ 
gests, as one means of destroying insects that are in¬ 
jurious to fruit-trees and vineyards, to light piles of 
brush-wood when they are about depositing their eggs, 
and that, attracted by the light, they will fly to it by 
myriads, and thus perish in the blaze. Often, when 
engaged in the exciting sport of spearing fish by night, 
in the clear streams of New England, and on the Ni¬ 
agara, have we had our torch-lights literally extin¬ 
guished by clouds of insects from the adjacent forests, 
and been obliged to return home quite fishless. 
Cultivation of Wheat. —We find in the Farmers’ 
Magazine that the Chelmsford Club decide, from ex¬ 
perience, that salt and lime, applied to the seed of 
wheat (probably in the same manner as we do here in 
the United States), are destructive to the slug and 
wire-worm; and that lime is beneficial to the crop, 
both before and after sowing it; that a good clover ley 
is best calculated to produce a full crop of wheat, and 
a bean or pea etch is the next best preparation. The 
March number of this periodical we find rather a dull 
one. It is entirely too much filled up with Guano as 
Manure—making the whole subject a regular bore. 
The engravings are a fat Durham cow, and a fine pig 
of the Yorkshire Grazier breed. 
To fix Ammonia, and disinfect Night-soil. —Add two 
cwt. of gypsum to one ton of night-soil, and it will fix 
the ammonia, which contains the nitrogen. Burnt 
bones will also fix the ammonia, and disinfect the 
