114 THE FARMER AT HOME. 



establishments. The cheese factors purchase the green curd at the 

 rate of from three to four cents per pound, of the farmers, and call at 

 their doors regularly every week-day morning for it, and thus much 

 labor and responsibility is got rid of in curing and marketing the ar- 

 ticle, and the business, on the whole, is better done than if each far- 

 mer pressed and cured the product of his own dairy. A single factor 

 finds no difficulty in manufacturing the curd produced by a thousand 

 cows, and in prosecuting the business to this extent, is warranted in 

 investing a suitable amount of means in the erection of appropriate 

 buildings, and in the purchase of economical appliances for its profit- 

 able prosecution. Both, farmer and factor appear satisfied that a high- 

 er character is given to the cheese in the market, and better prices 

 are obtained for it, than if the old system was practised. It imparts 

 a uniformity to the appearance and quality of the cheese, throughout 

 a large district of country, that no other plan could have so thorough- 

 ly accomplished ; and on the whole, the system may safely be adop- 

 ted in any part of the republic suitable to the production of cheese, 

 where an abundant supply of curd can be obtained at a fair price. 



DAISY, in Botany. The name is derived from day and eye, al- 

 luding to the eye-like form of the flower, and its expansion in the day, 

 and in bright weather only, when it presents its front to the sun, fol- 

 lowing his course till the afternoon, when the flower closes, but opens 

 again for many successive mornings. There is a variety of the daisy 

 called whiteweed, and if once permitted to get well rooted on a farm 

 is destructive to everything else, and is eradicated with the greatest 

 difficulty. It grows so thick as to preclude the appearance of the 

 grasses, or exterminates them if they already exist. This plant is 

 readily known by its white blossom, and its unfortunate prevalence. 

 Thorough cultivation is the only remedy where it is found, but the 

 farmer will find if he destroy the plant effectually on its first appear- 

 ance, even if requiring considerable labor, the time and exertion for 

 it are well expended. The appearance of this weed denotes bad hus- 

 bandry. 



DAMASK. A silk stuff, with a raised pattern, so that the right 

 side of the damask is that which has the flowers raised above the 

 ground. Damasks should be of dressed silk, both in warp and woof. 

 Those made in France are half an ell in breadth. Damask is also a 

 kind of wrought linen, made chiefly in Flanders ; so called, because 

 its large flowers resemble those of damasks. It is chiefly used for 

 tables. 



DAMPS. The permanently elastic fluids which are extricated 

 in mines, arid are destructive to animal life, are called damps by the 

 miners. The chief distinctions made by the miners are, choak-damp, 

 which extinguishes their candles, hovers about the bottom of the 

 mine, and consists for the most part of carbonic acid gas ; and the 

 fire-damp, or hydrogen gas, which occupies the superior spaces, and 



