186 NORTH KENNEBEC SOCIETY. 



Durhams, and lie feeds with bay, corn fodder and straw, and 

 sometimes a few roots. In summer his pasture being short, he 

 gives corn fodder; thinks clover is the best grass, and hard 

 water to drink, to make first rate butter. " I find, when my 

 cows get nothing to drink but soft water, though they may have 

 the same feed, the butter is softer and of an oily nature." The 

 milk is set in tin pans, and stands forty-eight hours before 

 being skimmed. He makes his butter with cold water, half an 

 ounce of salt to a pound of butter is added, and it is then 

 allowed to stand twenty-four hours, when it is well worked 

 ■with paddles, and packed. Produce about six pounds of butter 

 per week per cow. 



William L. Leslie manufactures butter and cheese, on the 

 last of which he obtained the second premium. His dairy con- 

 sisted of three cows. In winter gives roots and grain in addi- 

 tion to hay, and in the summer they were in a pasture. He 

 finds that clover makes butter of a richer and sweeter flavor 

 than any other feed ; churns his cream at sixty degrees of 

 Fahrenheit, as being the best temperature. He salts the 

 cream when taken from the milk, and the butter as soon as it 

 is churned ; makes five pounds of butter per week per cow. 

 In making cheese, he sets the milk for curd as soon as taken 

 from the cow ; drains the curd thoroughly and presses forty- 

 eight hours. When taken from the press, he covers the whole 

 cheese with a thin cotton cloth dipped in butter or lard, and 

 dresses them with butter daily till fit for market. 



Crops. 



The Secretary says : 



" There has been the present season a smaller competition 

 than we have had for some years. Everything has conspired 

 to limit the interest of our farmers in this department. Crops 

 have generally been short except the hay crop, and the season 

 for harvesting that was decidedly unfavorable. The corn crop, 

 though not large, is good, and the only crop that makes the 

 the farmers reconciled to their season's operations. Large 

 outlays were made for wheat, and also for the potato crop, 

 and both have signally failed j and, as a class, our farmers are 



