[To TEl EDITOR OF THE " ISPBCTATOI."
SIR,—Tbe illustration of the cow licking the stuffed skin of her dead calf is quoted in humorous vein by your reviewer, in the Spectator of Jane 5th, of Mr. Brewster'e article. In this part of Brazil it is a common happening. The cow will not allow herself to be milked unless she have her calf tethered to her fore-feet, to lick the while. There is some- times difficulty when the calf arrives at the unruly age, and refuses to be tied to his mother's apron-strings; there is always trouble if the calf dies. Like the farmer who was a "practical psychologist," we also have had to delude the cow by stretching the calf's akin, well rubbed in with salt, on a carpenter's bench, which bears no resemblance to the departed. But so long as the salt is rubbed in, even when the licking has reduced the skin to a mere connected series of holes, the cow continues to give milk, though she cannot eat as much of her child's " innards " Da did the cow of the story. The duration of the mother's milk for that season is usually determined by ourselves, when the skin has begun to smell anything but "right."
There is a curious friendship often seen here between a horse and a sheep, which will become inseparable companions day and night, the sheep following the horse even on long journeys, and bleating painfully if left at home. It will always be sold with the horse if the horse change hands. When grazing it is ever at the horse's fore-feet, nose to nose, and is supposed to warn him off poisonous weeds and grasses.—I am, Sir, &c., ETHEL N. BENSIISAN.
Ouro Preto Gold Mines, Minas Geraes, Brazil.
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