YIELD OF MILK FROM COWS.

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much unlearned and learned speculation. It is evident that the milk is not the only secretion of a yellow colour, for in addition to the eyes and ears being tinted, it is one of the peculiarities of the best animals that there is a yellow tinge at the root of the tail. It has been suggested that the colour is derived from bile, but yellowness is not the essential character of that secretion. Its properties are to be bitter, carbonized, and to perform certain functions in the animal economy. Its active principle (cholesterene) is indeed white. Colourless bile is possible, and so, beyond a doubt, is yellowness without bile. But that the colouring matter of the milk and tissues of the Channel Islands' cow may also be the colouring matter of the bile, is an hypothesis which no physiologist would condemn; so is the doctrine that the near vicinity of the sea may supply an excess of soda in the grass, and that the practice of closely tethering, by limiting the amount of exercise, may engender a tendency to something akin to bile, if not bile itself, to be in excess.

The large yield of milk from the island cows and the richness of the milk for butter are well known. Extreme cases show that from sixteen to seventeen pounds per week of butter have been made from the milk of one cow; but the average annual yield of a well-conducted dairy farm, though not so startling at first sight, affords a means of estimating the produce far more instructive. It is stated by Mr. F. Carey, of Woodlands, Guernsey, that the average annual produce of five cows on his land has been 1,680 lbs. of butter and 13,760 quarts of butter-milk. The former is worth fully one hundred pounds sterling, and the latter nearly fifteen pounds. These cattle were fed in the ordinary way, and milked three times a day. Each cow requires about one and three-quarters English acres of grass land, and is fed during winter, from the beginning of November, on mangold wurzel, turnips, parsnips, and hay.

Good cheese can be made from the milk, but it is not manufactured for sale.

The breed of sheep in the islands offers little worthy of remark. The animals are for the most part small, poor, of bad shapes, with indifferent fleeces, and coarse boned. That they are capable of great improvement, with care, is however quite cer tain. The pigs are without special interest, although in Jersey much improvement has recently taken place in the breeds.

Of horses, there is nothing important in the various breeds. Those of Jersey were improved about the beginning of this cen tury, by the admixture of blood from some Cossack horses, landed with a body of Russians in 1800. The result has been the production of a hardy and hard working animal, which for want of attention is now deteriorating. Within the last few years, both in Jersey and Guernsey, more attention has been directed to breeding, and several good stallions have been introduced. Useful animals may be obtained in the principal islands at moderate prices.*

The donkeys are of the ordinary English breeds, and do not exhibit any peculiarities. They are not very common.

Of poultry there are few curious varieties, the common fowls being of mongrel breeds. They lay tolerably well in all the islands, and in sheltered and warm spots, though the proportion eggs is not so great as in France. Each island exhibits some slight varieties. Geese are not very common, and turkeys are extremely rare.

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* To Mr. Smith, for some time resident in Guernsey, and better known as the first introducer of the screw propeller principle in steam navigation, than for his agricultural proceedings, the island of Guernsey is indebted for some capital stok. both in horses and sheep. A few such intelligent breeders would greatly impr the islands in these respects.

FROM the cultivation of the fields, we proceed to consider that of gardens. These are of two kinds, either for pleasure or profit, and both admit of a good deal of remark in special reference to the Channel Islands. The climate of the islands is perhaps even more clearly indicated by an account of what has been done. with care and knowledge, in the way of introducing, and successfully cultivating, the finer kinds of fruit and certain foreign plants, than by a mere notice of the routine operations of agriculture, and a comparison of two things so different as farm cultivation and crops in a large and small island.

THE FRUIT GARDEN.

Most of the fruits cultivated in England, whether in the open air or under glass, or by forcing, are also cultivated more readily, with greater economy, and with at least equal results as to flavour, both in Jersey and Guernsey. On the whole, the aspect of Jersey being more south, is more favourable for fruit than that of Guernsey, and the more clouded atmosphere of the latter island is another reason why the success of cultivation in the open air is less marked. The equable climate, and the absence of chill at night, are, however, redeeming points, and the ripening of fruits there also is regarded as both successful and economical. Rare and valuable fruits, such as the pine, are not cultivated, but there seems no reason why they should not succeed with proper management and artificial heat. The guava has been ripened in Guernsey, and probably many other tropical fruits might be cultivated without much difficulty in houses. There is, doubtless, in all the islands, and especially in Guernsey, an absence of sun heat, and of the direct action of the sun's rays in summer, which must have its effect, and a remarkable prevalence of cold, dry, east wind in late spring, retarding vegetation. Owing also to the rain and damp, the trees suffer from mildew and blight, as well as from various aphides.

The results of cultivation are, notwithstanding, eminently favourable; and although the light-rays do not all penetrate the clouds, the heat and actinic rays seem to be much more successful. However this may be, it is a matter of fact, th almost all garden produce ripens sooner in the islands, th either on the nearest French land, or in England, so that th English market is supplied from them several days earlier th from any other source.

The difference of ripening under glass between Guernsey a Penzance, has not been accurately determined; but between the islands and places a little north of London, the comparison

unmistakeably in favour of the former, and the fruits cultivated in houses are ready very much earlier. Thus the earliest apricot in Guernsey, in 1861, was ripened by the 24th of June, and near London not before the 9th July. The "red nutmeg," the earliest peach, was a week earlier, and nectarines of the same kind were from sixteen to nineteen days behind. This observation is confirmed by a careful comparison of the periods of bringing the fruit to the table, or to market, during several successful seasons, made by competent authorities.

The Vine.-Many varieties of the vine are known in the islands, but the bulk of the crop is every where the black Hamburgh. It grows freely, of fair colour and rich flavour. The fruit hardly ever ripens in the open air, but the cultivation is almost entirely in houses without heat. With heat it ripens well in May. For earlier produce the supply hardly competes with England; but from May till August very large quantities are sent. Without heat, ripening commences early in August, and lasts till the end of September. It is only within ten years that grapes have been largely exported from Guernsey. The supplies now sent to the London market exceed nine tons per annum, and have steadily increased since 1855, when they did not exceed two and three quarters tons. The export from Jersey is more than double. The cultivation in Jersey is on a scale which deserves to be called gigantic.

The white kinds of grape are declining in favour. Some are unprofitable for want of weight, and others, as the muscats, are objected to, as requiring artificial heat and separate houses. The muscadine or Chasselas varieties, are too thin-skinned to bear carriage, though they are easy to grow.

The number of vineries, both in Jersey and Guernsey, is extremely large, in proportion to the size of the islands. In Jersey, there is an enormous range of houses at Goose Green, between St. Helier and St. Aubin's. These houses alone are said to ripen annually for the market many tons weight of valu