BREEDING OF FARM STOCK. 
285 
hellebore and bane-berry separately in thirty ounces of 
boiling water, exhibited the following distinctive chemical 
reactions: 
Solution of Perchlo - 
ride of Iron. 
Solution of Sulphate 
of Copper. 
Solution of Chloride of 
Barium. 
Solution of Chloride 
of Lime. 
Black Hellebore. 
Only a slight change 
of colour, and generally 
no marked percipitate. 
No perceptible change 
during the first five 
minutes. 
No marked change. 
Colour of infusion 
soon destroyed. 
Bane-berry. 
Deep bluish or green- 
black colour, and abun¬ 
dant precipitate. 
No immediate change, 
but in the course of a 
minute or two the infu¬ 
sion becomes cloudy, and 
soon deposits a dirty- 
brown precipitate. 
Brownish precipitate. 
Colour of infusion 
deepened, and a brownish 
precipitate formed. 
“The above chemical reactions will, no doubt, vary to some 
extent in different specimens, but as I have tried them in 
several instances, I have no reason to doubt but that they will 
be found essentially as I have tabulated them. It is always de¬ 
sirable, however, in testing a vegetable substance, to try more 
than one reagent.” 
THE PRINCIPLES WHICH REGULATE THE BREEDING OE 
FARM STOCK. 
By Henry Tanner, M.R.A.C., Professor of Agriculture 
and Rural Economy, Queen's College, Birmingham. 
Prize Essay. 
(<Continued from vol . xxxiv, p. 723.) 
Production of Milk. 
The milking character of our various kinds of stock takes a 
wide range even amongst females of the same class. Apart 
from the influence of food, we may remark that the quantity 
of milk secreted depends upon the supply of blood which the 
mammary glands receive as well as upon their activity, 
whilst its quality is mainly dependent upon the internal or¬ 
ganism of the animal. We find, as a rule, that those do¬ 
mesticated animals which exist under circumstances most 
