AGRICULTURAL MECHANICS AND RURAL ECONOMY. 61 



over three days, and stirred every day. After churning, the buttermilk should be worked 

 out as much as possible before salting. No -washing is required to make the butter keep well, 

 for it will retain its flavor better without. One ounce of salt to a pound of butter is sufficient. 

 It should be worked over the second or third day after churning." 



One more statement : " Our mode of making butter is as follows : Strain the milk into tin 

 pans, set it in a cool place to stand twenty-four to thirty-six hours, or until the milk is slightly 

 changed. Then take off the cream, set it in a cool cellar from two to three days in very warm 

 weather ; in cool weather, three to four days ; then churn, work out all the buttermilk that can 

 be, without softening the butter, before salting, then salt to suit the taste ; let it remain for 

 twenty-four hours, then work out all the remaining buttermilk, press it firmly into jars, or 

 make it into lumps, as the season or the market may require." 



Improved Churns. 



Although a very large number of patents for improvements in chums have been granted, 

 yet, in the opinion of inventors, perfection has not been attained to. A patent, recently 

 granted Ezekiel Gore, of Bennington, Vermont, affords some assurance for this assertion. 

 In the process of churning, it is desirable to have some means of producing a ceaseless agi- 

 tation among the oily butter-globules of the fluid ; also, of regulating at pleasure the resisting 

 surface presented to the cream. When the cream to be churned is thin, the resisting surface 

 within the churn should be greater than when it is of a thick consistency. Again, in gathering 

 the butter together after it has been separated from the other milky matters, very little agi- 

 tation is required. These results are obtained in the churn by making the dash-pins with 

 their lower ends flat, and so arranged that they can be set feather-edged, to present the 

 exact amount of resisting surface required. 



Spain's Atmospheric Chums. — The peculiar feature of this churn consists in the constant 

 admission of atmospheric air during the churning process, and the opening for the escape 

 of fetid gas, which is always generated at such times, and in ordinary churns is retained to 

 the great disadvantage of the butter, and loss of labor. 



Roe's Improved Cheese-Vat. 



The peculiarities of this improvement, by Mr. T. A. Roe, Ohio, are as follows :— 

 The outside or casing of the vat is composed of wood, inside of which is a metallic vat, 

 of nearly the same shape ; and between the vat and casing is a chamber to receive water, 

 that surrounds the vat on all sides. Under the vat, and attached, is a heater, in the form of 

 a cylinder, inside of which is another, so as to form an annular chamber between the two 

 cylinders for water. The inside cylinder forms the fireplace, and is provided with a door 

 and a pipe at the back end to carry off the smoke, &c. This heater is connected with the 

 water-chamber of the vat by three pipes, two of which pass from the top of the heater at 

 each end, and one from the bottom of the heater, extending to one end of the chamber. By 

 this direct connection, the heat from the heater is communicated to the water in the vat- 

 chamber. By this means, the milk or curd is subjected to a uniform temperature of any 

 degree required, which is not the case when steam is used for heating as the curd, at the 

 place where the steam issues into the chamber, becomes overheated, and other parts, by the 

 condensation of the steam, are too cold to coagulate well, and thus the quality of the cheese 

 is injured, and some part of the cheese wasted. 



The vat is provided with gates to draw off the whey or water as may be required. 

 There are several other devices connected with the vat, as facilities to its use. 



Improved Ice-Cream Freezer. 



An improvement in ice-cream freezers has been recently patented by Thomas M. Powell, 

 of Baltimore, Md. The nature of the invention consists in constructing ice-cream freezers 

 with three cylindrical chambers, two of which, the centre and outer ones, serve for the 



