WHAT THE COW FURNISHES US.

No other animal is so useful to us as the cow. We ought to be very grateful to our grandfathers who so long ago tamed the wild cattle.

If the cattle

had not been tamed they would all have been killed. How gentle the cow looks. She is not afraid of us and does not use her horns to hook us.

Let us see what the cow furnishes us. One of the most important things is milk. Milk contains everything which we need to keep us alive and make us grow.

From milk we get butter and cheese. When milk stands for several hours the cream rises to the top and forms a thin layer over the milk. The cream was at first scattered all through the milk in the form of tiny globules.

The cream is skimmed from the surface of the

milk and placed in a churn. There it is tumbled about until the little globules of cream have united to form the solid mass of yellow butter.

Do you know how cheese is made? The milk is first curdled by putting into it some liquid rennet. Rennet is the name given to a preparation made from the inner coating of the calf's stomach. The curd is separated from the watery part of the milk, which is called whey, and then pressed into solid cakes. The curd is then called cheese.

When cattle are killed nearly all the parts are used for some purpose. We eat the meat and think it very good. A part of the meat is eaten fresh, other parts are either preserved by being placed in salt water, called brine, or dried in the open air.

The skin is tanned and made into leather for our shoes. The hair which is taken off the skin is also saved. It is mixed in the mortar with which our houses are plastered. The hair helps to make the mortar stick upon the wails.

The bones are first burned and then ground to a fine powder. Bones contain substances which plants need for food. Where the soil does not contain enough of these substances the bone dust is scattered over it. Thus the plants are made to grow stronger and larger.

Even the hoofs are saved

They are boiled in

water and glue is made from them. The horns are not thrown away, but are made into a number of things the most important of which are combs.

among

QUESTIONS.

What uses are made of milk?

What other animals beside the cow give milk for our use?
What is curd?

Describe the hoof of the cow.

Tell about some of the different ways by which meat is preserved.
For what is glue used?

Mention some of the different uses of leather.
Why do the cows have horns?

MUZZLE

THE STORY OF THE SILKWORM.

A silkworm is not a real worm, but an insect. True worms remain worms during the whole of their life history. The common earthworm which you see upon the ground after a rain is a real worm.

The life history of an insect is not at all like that of a worm. Each of the eggs of an insect hatches into a little worm-like animal, or caterpillar. After living a number of days the caterpillar changes into a pupa or chrysalis. In this condition it has a hard case and is helpless. Now it undergoes a slow

change and after a time emerges as a perfect insect with wings.

Thus we see that the insect during a part of its life looks like a worm, but during another part like a very different creature.

The hairy little caterpillar which you one day watched crawling over the ground may

have been the same insect which, at a later time, as a pretty butterfly, you chased over the meadows.

Have you not seen the prettily marked cases, from one half to three fourths of an inch long, hanging from a board or limb? If you happen to find one at just the right time you will see the insect break the case and come out a perfect moth or butterfly.

In a short time its wings, which were tightly folded in the case, will be expanded, and it will fly away through the air.

This butterfly will lay eggs which will, in time, hatch into other caterpillars. Is not this a strange story?

The silkworm came from China. It has been known there for hundreds and perhaps thousands of years. It is now raised in many parts of the world where the weather is not too cold.

The larva or young insect is a little caterpillar.