The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1875-04-06

| IlCai IIOpOItlOHS WhlNh VIC obSSl We III
the best bred specimens of that race /;
and in him we behold the facsimile OF
the ideal model, which served as y
guide to his breeders.
The well bred race horse, and the
muscular draft horse, are other ex-
amples of this intelligent design. In
dividual excellences may come by
chance, but the production of a full
and perfect development which varies
in any considerable degree from the
original type, and fixed habit of re-
species, is the work only of intelligent,
persistent effort.
FOOD FOR STOCK.
The adaptation of food to the con-
| dition and necessities of our various
animals, and its preparation and sup
ply, in the best manner and amount,
to produce the most perfect thrift with
the least waste of material, is another
interesting field for study and observa-
ton. An over-supply of nutritious
food not only results in direct waste
of material, but endangers the health
of the digestive organs of the animal.
| All the necessary constituents may
also he present and in just the right
amount. and yet, as in over-lipe grass,
| be so locked up and unavailable, ms to
defy the powers of the digestive organs
| to digest and assimilate them.
| ZOOLOGY AND VETERINARY SCIENCE,
| We should know something of the
| anatomy of our domestic animals, and
of the functions of their organism We
should study those hygienic laws by
the observance of which, only, we can
| maintain in them the most perfect
health and vigor of constitution, or
restore them to health when diseased.
| We should consult their natural history
and habits, in determining the amount
of exercise which we should give them
and the kind and degree of protection
which they require. The horse, the
COW, the sheep, the swine, in short,
every variety of farm stock needs its
peculiar care.
| ENTOMOLOGY AND oRNlTHoLoGY.
| The farmer has many natural
enemies to contend with, rs well as
| friends to aid him. His orchard, garden,
meadows, his grain and potato fields,
| swarm with insect life, many of which
prey upon his crops, and often ruin his
| hopes of success. He has also number
less forms of parasitic life TO contend
with. He should study the nature and
habits of all these, and learn how he
can most efIectually avoid or destroy
them. In the feathered tribes he finds
industrious workers which aid him in
| their destruction. He should observe
the habits of these, also, that he may
learn to appreciate and protect them.
| MICROSCOPY.
There is also a wide field for study
| found in those microscopic forms of
animal and vegetable life, which exist
in countless myriads around us, and
which affect, more or less seriously,
the interests of the farmer That
diseased and unwholesome milk may
have been rendered thus by the micro
scopic contents of the waters which the
COW drank from the stagnant pool, and
which have multiplied in her and her
product, to an almost inconceivable ex-
tent, and baffled all attempts to convert
her milk into good butter or cheese.
Countless microscopic spores, and
germs of putreiaclion in various forms,
infest the air, causing mold, mildew,
blight, and vegetable rust to fastcn up
on the farmers crops and stores. Even
in the yeast used by the housewife,
there first springs up this kind of
vegetable life, which is soon succeeded
by swarm of animal life, which in
turn decays, and converts the whole
into putrid mass, emitting that UNI
wholesome odor peculiar to stale yeast,
especially that composed largely of
milk, and Of course, rendering it unfit
tain the germs of parasitical disease,
which he should learn to detect and
destroy. The tape worm ,trichiniie, DC.
are examples of tbs. \ knowledge OF
this world of minute exstences, is
properly embraced in the scope of an
agricultural education.
These are some of the most obvious
subjects for thought and and observa.
ton, and challenge the investigation OF
the progressive farmer He who fully
comprehends the nature and import
ance of the numberless questions to be
settled in perfecting the details of {
complete system of agriculture, will
not fail to discover subjects enough fol
thought in this department of industry
What science presents so wide lielc
,, for practical improvement, or so many
subjects OF interest to the curious
observer of natural phenomena, a,
this?
Yet scientific knowledge of agricul
ture will not alone insure SUCCESS il
> farming. Only diligent application o
its principles, under the supervision o
sound judgment, and good degree O
practical common sense, will do this
The indolent man should neverattemp
e to gain living by agriculture, drone
v cannot thrive nv This oacnnation N m,