THE FARMER AT HOME. 79 



Charcoal may be applied with advantage, in the powdered state, 

 in the form of a top dressing. About forty bushels to the acre, sown 

 over grass lands, or among young plants, as turnips, it has been found 

 will produce an increased yield. Wherever an increased supply of 

 ammonia, escaping from the air, the earth, or any putrescent matter 

 is desirable to be caught and retained, charcoal will always do good. 

 But the best, and perhaps the only advisable mode of using charcoal 

 is, to compost the powder with night soil, urine, blood, and other pu- 

 trescent bodies, either liquid or solid. By this method, it tends to 

 absorb or dry up these fluids, and retain the ammonia formed during 

 their decomposition or decay. Such composts, when added to the soil, 

 retain the virtue of these bodies much longer than when they are 

 used alone. 



KENDALLL'S CHEESE PRESS. 



CHEESE. In rural economy, is composed of coagulated milk, 

 which has undergone a chemical process, combined with the mechani- 

 cal operation of a powerful press, usually employed to expel the serum 

 or whey, which would otherwise retain it in a nearly fluid state, and 

 as such produce decomposition. The quality, and as such the value, 

 of cheese generally depends on. the nature of the milk employed, 

 which varies considerably in different places. There is likewise a 

 Kind of medicated cheese made by intimately mixing the express 

 fuice of certain herbs, as sage or mint, with the curd, before it is formed 



