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Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 908, 2 January 1872, Page 3

I The " London Milk Journal" says : —" That cows have memory, language, signs, and the means of enjoying pleasant association, combining for aggressive purposes, has been recognised, |;but scarcely to the extent the subject I merits. Travelling in Italy many I years ago, we visited some of the dairy [ | farms in the neighbourhood of Fertjrara. Interspersed among much of I the low-lying, unhealthy land, remarkI j able for the prevalence on it of very y fatal forms of antrax in the summer season, are fine undulating pasture lands, and the fields are of great extent. We happened to stop at a farm house one fine afternoon when the cosvs were about to be milked. A herd of over one hundred were grazing homewards. The women took their positions with stool and pail close to the house, and the cows approached, names were called out, which at first were, we thought, addressed to the milkmaids. Rosa, Florenza, Giulia, Sposa, and many names which were noted by us at the time, were called out by the overseer, or one of the women, and we were astonished to see cow after cow cease feeding or chewing the cud, and make direct, sometimes at a trot, for the woman who usually milked her. The practice, vro I found, was not confined to one farm ; all the cows on each farm knew their J respective names, and took up their | position; just as readily as the indi- ; vidual members of some large herds j in this country turning from the I fields to take up their places in the j sheds. An old bachelor recently gave the following toast:—"Woman—the mornmg star of infancy, the day star of manhood, the evening star of age. Bless our stars, and may they always he kept at telescope distance !" The quantity of land under flax in Ireland this year in less than for 20 ■ years past.