SOLON ROBINSON, 1841 205 



I do not wonder that so many object to washing butter, 

 for it is a lamentable fact, that there is a great antipathy- 

 existing against the use of cold water, either as a bever- 

 age, or for ablution. 



Tea and Coffee. — Will somebody tell me what is the 

 value of these articles, as diet? Will somebody tell me 

 whether the use of tea and coffee adds to our health or 

 happiness, or length of life, or whether we enjoy our 

 meals any better than we should do if we had always 

 been accustomed to drink water? 



Chess. — [See Dictionary signification.] — "A difficult 

 and abstruse game." "Abstruse — hidden, obscure, diffi- 

 cult." 



Now, if we did not know that the lexicographer in- 

 tended to explain the meaning of the game of chess, the 

 readers of the agricultural papers for a year or two past 

 would suppose that he had intended it to allude to the 

 abstruse game of disputation, that has been carried on 

 about chess, and upon which, I presume, that a majority 

 of the readers have come to the conclusion, that the sub- 

 ject is a very abstruse one. 



Curing and Pressing Cheese. — A neighbor of mine 

 has been in the habit for several years of stacking his 

 cheese in a hay stack. He takes them as soon as they 

 become firm, and making the stack some three or four 

 feet from the ground, as smooth and level as it can be, 

 puts on a course of cheeses, being careful that they do 

 not touch each other, or come too near the edge, and then 

 builds on the hay two or three feet, and then another 

 course of cheeses. In this situation they finish curing, 

 and are preserved from frost until spring. The plan is 

 new to me, but perhaps not so to your readers. At all 

 events, it is worth trying. I would recommend any per- 

 son, however, to try it only on a small lot at first, until 

 he satisfied himself personally that the plan is a good one. 



Shearing Lambs. — I have satisfied myself by experi- 

 ence, that it is not profitable to shear lambs. 



