4^8 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
[November, 
THE MILKMAN IN MALTA. —Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
charges were to be fired by electricity, and the arrange¬ 
ment was so complete that it needed but one finishing 
touch—a touch so light that it could be given by the fin¬ 
ger of a little child. It was given—and the great work 
was done. It was a very charming ending, and as I read 
of what the little girl had done, I thought, not so much 
of the explosion, and the amount of rock removed, and 
the immediate work just there, but of the years of work, 
by hundreds of persons, that made it all possible. With¬ 
out the steam-engine the work could not. have been done; 
the many inventors and improvers of the steam engine, 
and the inventor of the drill working by compressed 
air, all helped ; the discovery of glycerine, the making of 
it into nitro-glycerine, and then into dynamite, all had to 
be before hand; then there were a whole host of electri¬ 
cal discoverers and experimenters, who perfected the 
battery by which the explosive was fired. The firing 
must take place under water, which could not well have 
been done without gutta-percha to cover the wires, and 
this was furnished by the Malays and Ceylonese in the 
far East; the platinum for the wires that fired the charges 
was, no doubt, produced by half savages in the Ural 
Mountains of Russia—but it will tire you to tell all that I 
thought of. I saw in my imagination a long line of in¬ 
ventors and discoverers of the past and present time ; I 
saw the workers in the forests and mines of far distant 
countries ; I saw the skilled engineers, and the hard¬ 
working laborers of the present day, all bringing their 
contributions, so varied, and each one so necessary, that 
it might be possible for the finish to be put upon a 
great work by the child’s touch of little Mary Newton. 
The Milkman in Malta. 
One of the most interesting things about traveling in 
foreign countries is, to us, not so much the countries 
themselves, as the people who live in them. While we 
admire fine scenery and grand buildings, and like to 
visit those places famous for some event in history, we 
also like to know the people, and see how they live, and 
how they manage their matters of every-day life in the 
house and out of it. We have met people who have 
spent years abroad, and who could talk about mountains 
and lakes, cathedrals and paintings, but could tell 
nothing about the people of the countries they visited, 
and who seem to have taken no interest in what was go¬ 
ing on outside of the hotels where they staid. When 
we visit a strange city, even in our country, we are sure 
to make a visit to the market, and see what the people 
live upon, and the different ways in which the things are 
brought to market and sold. The difference between a 
market in Boston, and one in Charleston or New Or¬ 
leans, is as great as if the two were in separate countries, 
and if we go over the border to Montreal or Quebec, wo 
find many things that seem new and strange. Not 
in the markets only, but other every-day matters are 
managed differently in different parts of our own coun¬ 
try, and these things are still more strange when we go 
abroad. When we first visited a city in our next-door 
neighbor-country—Mexico—one of our first surprises 
was the way in which people were supplied with water. 
Coming from a city where there was water in every 
house, and one had only to turn a cock to get an abun¬ 
dance, you may imagine how strange it seemed, to see 
the water brought around to the houses in great leathern 
bags upon the back of a burro or jackass. These bags 
were so arranged that one hung down on each side of the 
animal ; at the bottom of each bag was a hole, from 
which to draw off the water, and the funniest thing of 
all was the way in which this hole was stopped, to keep 
in the water until it was wanted. A cow's horn was 
put in from the inside, and stuck part way through the 
bole ; when the water-man wished to draw off water for 
p customer, he pushed up the horn a little from the out. 
side, and when enough had been drawn, he let go of the 
horn, and the weight of the water in the bag pressed it 
down so tight into the hole that not a drop would leak. 
Another odd thing in the same city was the way of serv¬ 
ing milk; there were milk-men, but no milk-carts ; the 
old cow herself was both can and cart, as she was driven 
from house to house, and milked in the street before the 
doors of the customers. This is a slow performance, 
and hardly fair ou the cow', to oblige her to make the 
milk, and carry it around besides, but the customer is 
quite sure to get fresh milk and pure, though if all that 
is said of milk-men in Yankee cities is true, they would 
not be long in contriving some way to water the milk. 
The traveler who visits Malta, will see something like 
this Mexican method of serving milk, only goats take 
the place of cows. In our country boys and girls, at 
least those who do not live in cities, know little about 
goat’s milk, though in cities many of the poorer people 
of the foreign population, keep goats, as their neighbors, 
who have gardens, know to their sorrow. Goat's milk 
is very rich indeed, but you would not like to drink it, 
as it has a taste quite different from cow's milk, though 
persons used to it do not mind it; we have often, in 
other countries, used it in coffee, and found it very good. 
In hot and dry countries there is not for the greater 
part of the year grass enough to support cows, and the 
people use goats instead, as they will li e upon any 
green thing, and flourish where a cow would starve. In 
Malta, and other places in southern Europe, the people 
use goat's milk almost altogether, and the towns are 
supplied in the manner shown in the engraving. The 
flock of goats are driven along the streets, and milked 
at the house-doors. The goats show great intelligence, 
and seem to know their business quite as well as the 
persons in charge of them, as they soon learn the places 
where they are to be milked, and will stop at the right 
houses of their own accord. 
