which to continue his studies. Before the s< 
term expired, he got a school to teach at $30 t 
per month. Thus encouraged, on his return 11 
he began a classical course. The principal as- ^ 
signed him as teacher, to a class in algebra, to 
pay his tuition. Though only a few weeks 
ahead of his class, his talent; for mathematics » 
enabled him to teach with satisfaction. Soun- 
remittiugly did be pursue his studies, that his ^ 
nervous system gave out and he had to aban¬ 
don tbe school for a time. He afterwards ^ 
completed the course, acting port of the time " 
as assistant professor. The faculty of concen- I ^ 
tratmg his whole mind on whatever he had ^ 
before him. made him a ready scholar and an 
efficient teacher, and has been of great service 
to him all his life. During all his academic ! 
career, he was extremely abstemious in diet: 
and in addition to his studies and the discharge 
of his duties as assistant professor, he did ' 
chores and sawed and split wood for the vil¬ 
lagers, that he might accumulate a little 
money with which to go to college. 
He entered Union College, Schenectady, N. 
Y., in 1841, and in 1848 was honorably grad¬ 
uated having, in addition to the required 
studies, pursued others. When he left college 
he returned to his father’s farm, farming 
Summers and teaching Winters, having teach¬ 
ing aud study iu view as his life-work. In 
1845 or '4i'., he accepted the position of assist¬ 
ant professor of mathematics iu Fairfield 
Academy, but the sudden failure of his fath¬ 
er’s health just before the commencement of 
the term, decided him to remain on the farm; 
a step which he never regretted, though it 
turned the whole course of his life. His father 
lingered until 1856 aud then followed his 
mother, who had died in 1823. 
On the death of his father he resolved to 
make farming his business, and at once be¬ 
came deeply interested in dairying, meantime 
keeping up his studies, taking up French, 
Spanish and Italian, aud going extensively 
into vegetable and animal physiology, aud ag¬ 
ricultural chemistry, and was led to investiga¬ 
tions beyond the scope of the text-books. He 
had none of tbe prejudices of his time against 
‘ ‘book-farming.” Ini852 be married Miss Me¬ 
lissa Bishop, of Lansing, Tompkins Co., N. Y., 
which may have had something to do with his 
resolution to stick to fanning. His love for 
dairying increased, and in 1857 he took an 
active, part in forming a farmers club at Lit¬ 
tle Falls, before which he read his first essay 
ou this subject. This afterwards appeared, 
among others, in a volume entitled “Essays on 
Agriculture.” Before this club Mr. Arnold got 
a most needed drill in the use of the pen and 
voice, laying the foundation for his future 
success as a public lecturer. In 1859, he took 
charge of the agricult ural department of the 
Mohawk Courier, published at Little Falls. 
Here he did pioneer work, as the dairy, up to 
that time, had no literature. His contribu¬ 
tions attracted much attention, and subse¬ 
quently appeared in semi-monthly form, under 
the title of Dairyman’s Record. This was con¬ 
tinued under the name of The Dairy Farmer, 
to which he was a constant contributor. In 
1801 the ill health of his wife forced him to 
relinquish dairying. He moved to Tompkins 
County, and took up his residence ou a farm 
of 43 acres, where he remained until after the 
death of his wife, in 1806. 
In 1867 he married Mrs. Elizabeth Wood¬ 
ward (formerly Miss Jefferts) of Rush, Mon¬ 
roe County, N. Y., who was one of his early 
pupils. His old determination to pursue dairy¬ 
ing returned, and he built a cheese factory in 
1808, where he worked up bis own milk and 
some bought from his neighbors. His factory 
was a regular laboratory or experimental in¬ 
stitution, where he continued the investiga¬ 
tions begun 30 years before. In 1869, he came 
more prominently before the dairy public 
through his discovery of rennet cells and their 
active agency in cheese making. This is be¬ 
lieved to have been prior to similar discover¬ 
ies by European scientists. An account of this 
discovery appeal's in the Fifth Annual Report 
of the American Dairymen’s Association, 
under the head of “Rennet—Its Nature anil 
Use.” In the same report appears Mr. Ar¬ 
nold’s “Essay on Cheese as an Article of 
Food,” for which he was awarded a prize of 
$100 offered by the Association. 
In 1870, and iu advance of everybody in 
this country, if not in the world, he made a 
concentrated liquid extract of rennet, puri¬ 
fied, and freed from other auimal matter, 
which he nsed iu his own dairy, it was 
thought at the time to he too expensive for 
general use, bub afterwards it was made in a 
commercial way, and gave entire satisfaction. 
He is still connected with its manufacture. 
About this time he discovered that the fats 
of the milk, though expanding and contract 
ing much more by heat aud cold than the 
watery portions, do so much less rapidly—a 
fact now so generally recognized, and which 
has led to the plan of raising cream by deep 
setting in cold water. 
About 1870 contributions from him were 
sought by all the leading journals giving at- di 
tention to dairying, and be has been and still tl 
is an extensive contributor to the leading agri- al 
cultural and dairy papers. The Rural New- tl 
Yorker has frequently been thus favored. si 
Owing to ill health, lie’ discontinued his ol 
small factory in 1870. and rented his farm. ti 
Two years later he was made President of the ci 
Rochester Turbine Water Wheel Mannfae- ei 
turing Company, wtiose business, owing to the. - 
panic which soon followed, was suspended, 
and has not since been resumed. From 1872 
to 1874 he lived in Rochester, and since then 
has lived on a five-acre farm near that place. - 
He was for several years Secretary of the 
American Dairymens’ Association, and sub¬ 
sequently elected its President. 
In 1875 he discovered the anatomy which t 
enables a cow to bold back her milk, which 
discovery is described in his hook on “ Ameri- j, 
can Dairying.” t 
The discovery in 1877 of the injurious effects e 
of acid on tbe action of reuuet, led to im- J 
provements in the manufacture and curing c 
of cheese. The next year he went among i 
dairymeu,practically demonstrating the super- i 
iority of cheese made by getting the action 
of the reuuet in advance of the development s 
of lactic acid, and theseparation of curd before ] 
the whey acidifies. Mr. Arnold, with Dr. < 
Eugelbardt, of Syracuse, made a series of ex- i 
peri clients in digesting cheese with pepsin. < 
He found acid a hindrance to digestion. He 
subsequently discovered that lactic acid dis¬ 
solves the phosphates in the curd, rendering 
them liable to be washed out by the whey, 
which explains why cheese made by the so-call - 
ed “ sweet curd process” is more digestible thau 
that made by the acid process. In 1876 he was 
chosen judge of the dairy products at the Cen¬ 
tennial Exposition, aud creditably repre¬ 
sented the United States, Europe being repre¬ 
sented by two celebrated scientists. 
In 1879 while lecturing and teaching in Can¬ 
ada, he discovered that by exposing warm 
curd to the oxygen of the air, any foreign 
odors, including animal odors, contained in 
it, steadily diminished in intensity, and that 
most, if not all. could be removed. Thismode 
of deodorizing curds by oxydation is now used 
by huudreds of cheese-makers in the States 
and Canada, enabling them to make a fine- 
flavored cheese out of milk which before would 
only produce a bad-flavored aud short-lived 
prod net. 
The Winter of 1879 80 was spent at Cornell 
University in lecturing to the students iu agri¬ 
culture. and in working in Dr, Caldwell's la¬ 
boratory. Daring his stay he demonstrated 
that the flavor of batter is lightened and its 
keeping quality increased by the oxydation of 
cream by exposure to air at a mild tempera¬ 
ture. The details of these experiments ap¬ 
peared in the first anoual report of tbe Cor¬ 
nell University Experiment Station. Mr. Ar¬ 
nold was the first to discover the possibility of 
the digestion of fat, hard as well as liquid, by 
the action of gastric juice alone, which he 
treated iu a paper read before the Society for 
the Promotion of Agricultural Science at 
Montreal iu 1882. His connection with this is 
more significant than that with the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, 
of which he is also a member. During the 
Winter of 1883 at London, Cauada, he read a 
paper on “ Milk Secretion,” a field in which he 
has made much original investigation. He also | 
delivered four lectures ou dairy topics before 
the classes of the Minnesota State University. 
He was also summoned lief ore a committee of 
the Canadian Parliament to give testimony 
on the dairy needs of the Dominion, and to 
suggest the best methods of promotiug its 
dairy interests. He is called “ Professor ” by 
common consent, though his positions in Fair- 
field Academy aud Union College entitle 
him to this, to say nothing of his position as 
lecturer at Cornell University aud elsewhere. 
Prof. Arnold has never struck out into other 
5 pursuits than farming and dairying with sue- 
t, cess. He has rarely takou an interest in party 
, politics, though always deeply interested iu 
1 all that is calculated to promote the welfare 
of his fellows. He was for three years super- 
f visor of his town in Herkimer County, and 
f wielded considerable local influence. He has 
always manifested anabidiug love for truth 
l and justice, and has equally detested all false- 
i hood and shams. After leaving college Mr. 
Arnold read medicine aud attended a course 
■, of lectures; but he disliked the empirical cou- 
s dition of so-called medical science. The 
r knowledge thus acquired, however, was of 
a subsequent use to him iu caring for his health, 
i. and he has prolonged his life to three score 
years aud ten, by a careful attention to his 
.s diet, and by bis temperate habits. He has 
> ever shown complete control over his appetites 
e and passions, and has seldom shown auger, 
a though he has often had occasion to express 
h his disapprobation and even indignation. His 
p early-acquired habi t of thoroughness, .has been 
of incalculable value to him and to the public, 
e Exceedingly painstaking, persevering and in¬ 
dustrious, and withal strictly economical 
though uotpenurious, no one will he surprised 
after reading the history of his life, to learn 
that lie has aeeumnlated but a very small 
share of this world’s goods. The simple story 
of such a well-speut life precludes all eulogis¬ 
tic comment, and is ample reply to all jealous 
carpiugs of the adversaries which every hon¬ 
est and progressive man must encounter. 
&\)C 
_ *_ — 
THOROUGHBRED “ NATIVES.” 
In the Rural of March 1st, page 132,1 find ^ 
the following statement: 
“It is believed by many, remarks the New England , 
Farmer, and probubly uot without reason, that If I 
the best selections were now made from our best so- e 
called common calves, and the selections followed fi 
up fora few generations, the result would he a bet- £ 
ter class of an! mals for production aud profit than Is 
obtained from the pure stock, where every animal, j 
however Inferior, Is raised simply because It has a h 
pedigree.” t 
Every fovv weeks I notice statements of the t 
same import iu the different agricultural pa- c 
peps, aud 1 have heard the same opinion advo- t 
cated in agricultural speeches. Now, as a s 
matter of fact, has uot this very practice been a 
carried out in thousands of instances, by intel- i 
ligent breeders, within tbe last hundred years s 
and more? I believe it has been. Surely the f 
knowledge and practice of good stock breed¬ 
ing are not new things in our country. There 
are, no doubt, at the present time more gene¬ 
ral enthusiasm ou the subject, and vastly 
greater pecuniary inducements than existed 
in earlier times. It would be passing strange 
were it uot so, after all the “object lessons” 
incideut to the importation of the best breeds 
of the world. But there have been, at all 
times, in tbe history of our country, breeders 
who have manifested the most intelligent and 
humane interest in the propagation and care 
of their stock; they knew the laws of good 
I reeding, and they applied their knowledge 
rith a quiet earnestness fully iu advance of 
he spirit of their times. At the time when 
he importation of foreign breeds became 
uite general, thex-e were in the Eastern 
itates, numbers of native herds which 
night justly claim the appellation of 
1 Thoroughbred Natives.’’ 1 cannot say 
hat these animals might not have been bred 
o still greater perfection in whichever direc- 
ion the times and local requirements might 
lemaud; it is fair to suppose they might 
iave been. Why, then, did the inheritors and 
ueeders of these herds drop them so suddenly 
m almost the first sight of the foreign bull! 
They saw that by means of the latter they 
•oifld accomplish at a single bound what they 
iad never yet attained, and wbat they could 
itherwise hardly hope to attain in their natu¬ 
ral life-time. 
Up to this time there wore no large cities in 
America (with possibly three exceptions)— 
ffiose enormous consumers of beef aud dairy 
products The rural districts required some 
beef, and a domestic supply of milk, butter 
iud cheese, but, above all, an active and 
hardy working ox; the native auimal ful¬ 
filled these conditions fairly well. Then facto¬ 
ries began to multiply, cities grew in size and 
numbers, the great West was being opened 
up, foreign countries were overcrowded aud 
huugry. The demaud had come for something 
better, aud the material to supply this de¬ 
mand was found ready-made iu the old coun¬ 
tries. 
The following example furnishes a fair il¬ 
lustration of the manner in which the minds 
of progressive breeders were wrought 
upon by an acquaintance with foreign cattle. 
About 40 years ago, I went to visit a farmer 
in the central portion of New Hampshire. 
For nearly 50 years he had spared no puius iu 
the care and breeding of his nutive held; lie 
bred to ft hair, literally. He had chosen a 
bright, cherry-red for color: aud I remember 
the pride with which he looked down along 
tbe row of thirty cattle as they stood iu their 
stanchions and said, “There is uot a white or 
black hair on an animal here, and, what’s 
more, there is not an animal here which will 
breed one.” Then going behind the herd, ho 
said, with Bobernoss, “But how in the world 
am I ever going to get a rounder barrel, and a 
heavier thigh? My cattle are too light be¬ 
hind.” That day we went to the State Fair. 
Naturally enough the farmer’s first interest 
was in the direction of the cattle. Almost 
the first animal we saw, was a four- 
year-old Devon hull; there ho stood in 
all his symmetry of form and wealth of 
color. It was the first thoroughbred animal 
of any description the farmer had ever seen; 
he was a sight to behold, lie stood transfix¬ 
ed, with an expression of face indicative of 
awe akin to reverence. Hero was the dream 
of his life, suddenly materialized uud standing 
before him: here was his missiug link—the 
means of correcting the defects in his stock’ 
which two horn’s before he was bewailiug. It 
is needless to say that he took a Devon bull 
home with him. The effects of this bull upon 
his herd and upon the cattle of his town every 
stockman can readily conceive. 
It is often said, and has been said over since 
theimportationof high-bred cattle began, that 
only the speculator and “ fancy farmer ” can 
afford to buy this high-priced stock, and that 
the enormous sales of these animals are accom¬ 
plished by dint of exaggeration and advertis¬ 
ing. Nothiug can be farther from the truth; 
the fact is. they came iu to fill “ aching voids;” 
the demand existed, aud the market was made 
for them before they touched the shores of 
the New World. Thousands of farmers, like 
the one just cited, were trying to accomplish, 
to them, imposstbil it ies. When the West was 
brought into cultivation, an animal was want¬ 
ed solely for beef, and the Western breeder 
found this desideratum in the Short-horn. 
Certain sections have found butter-making 
profitable, aud the Jersey and Guernsey breeds 
have there found a new home. More recently 
there has gone forth aloud cry for “every¬ 
thing in one.” And so the Holsteins have 
come over—this time to stay—and full w T ell 
they are fulfilling their mission. The native 
stock, thoroughbred and otherwise, served 
well in their day, but they are no longer 
equal to the day of specialties, aud they will 
soon go the way of stage c laches, Hint, locks, 
and spinning wheels. Peace to their ashes I 
Providence, R. I. 0 C. w. 
floriaiititral. 
A NEW VARIEGATED LEAF PLANT. 
(LAVATERA ARBOREA VARIEGATA.) 
This plant was introduced by Mr. William 
Bull, of England, last year. It was described 
as having the leaves irregularly variegated 
with greenish gray and pure white, aud it 
w as so highly indorsed by some of the Eng¬ 
lish horticultural magazines that it seemed it 
would prove a most valuable addition to bed¬ 
ding plants. But, however valuable it may¬ 
be in England, it is uot likely to be of much 
value in this country unless it comes nearer 
realizing the claims put forth in its behalf, 
in other places, than it does here. I raised 
about 300 plants last year, planting them out 
ou three varieties of soil—a light suudy, a 
heavy loam, and a mucky meadow—and so 
far as growth aud ease of culture are con¬ 
cerned, it proved all that could be desired. 
The seeds germinated quite freely iu a cold- 
frame, aud the seed-leaves of nearly all the 
plants showed the white variegation, but 
none of the true loaves became variegated till 
mid-Sommer, when some of the central leaves 
became marked and blotched with a darker 
green, and, finally, late in Auturnu, with a 
dull yellow, the variegation not being at any 
time pronounced enough to he noticed at a 
little distance, and the plants, which branch 
freely, have a rank, weedy appearance. It 
is very hardy, the leaves standing a tempera¬ 
ture of 18 degrees without material injury, 
and it is said to stand the Winter in England. 
The seeds arc offered by most American seeds¬ 
men this year. If any other of the Rural 
readers have tried this plant, will they please 
report? w. goodell, 
Hampshire Co., Mass. 
THE MUCH- ABUSED PETUNIA. 
Ought a person who has many virtues to 
be severely condemned for a single fault? If 
not a person, why a flower? Of all the flow- 
o- s of my acquaintance, not one blooms more 
profusely and more persistently, with less 
nursing, thau the petunia. Its bright, up¬ 
turned flowers are always open and fragrant, 
and its period of bloom is only limited by 
frost. Nothing in the flower garden or on the 
lawn is more showy aud fragrant than the 
petunia bed; no flower submits more patiently 
to ignorance aud neglect in its culture. It is 
objected that it is uot pretty in bouquets. Of 
course, its delicate bell-shaped flowers 
cannot submit to being crowded into a 
bunch, and its stems are not long 
enough for convenience. A few of 
the brighter-tinted flowers, however, placed 
by themselves in a vase, and garnished with 
pretty leaves, are by no means an unpleasant 
sight, and they will remain fresh for several 
days. The paler colors, it is true, are uot at¬ 
tractive, hut witli a careful selection of seed, 
there is not much occasion for growing these. 
I once slipped a few of the finest flowering 
plants early iu Autumn, and kept them during 
the Winter in the greenhouse. They soon 
commenced blooming, and by placing all the 
pots in a group I had ft most brilliant display 
throughout a largo part of the Winter. About 
March 1 the plants having grown very large, 
■ l cut them all hack to within a few inches of 
