FARMERS' REGISTER— RUST IN WHEAT. 



561 



except for butter. It is a practice in all the dairies 

 witli which I am acquainted to get all the cream 

 they can, and make all the butter they can, and 

 get as good i)rice as they can; but I sec their mis- 

 lake. Put a quantity of the second skimming of 

 cream to that milk from which the first cream is 

 taken, and it will make about as good cheese as 

 four meal cheese; and I think by not trying to 

 make so mucli butter, but a better quality, and a 

 better quality of skim milk cheese, I saved enough 

 the lasl year to pay my labor on my farm. You can- 

 not expect so nice butter at this season as when we 

 Iiave fi'csh feed, yet you can see how httle variation 

 there is in my butter by that which I now offer lor ex- 

 hibition according to the Nos. beginning at the firsi. 

 The butter in boxes was made by hay, and some 

 of it of an ordmary quality, as I could not get at 

 my best hay. 



The management of cows is also an essential 

 requisite for making good butter. The cows must 

 be kept so as to be clean for milking, or the butter 

 cannot be nice. Cleanliness and prompt attention 

 to every thing arc the indisjiensable requisites for 

 making good butter. 



I.UTHER CIIAIMBERLAIN. 



Extract from the report of the Committee. 



The committee, aflcr a careful examination, 

 awarded the first premium to JMr. William Ba- 

 chop, of Barnet, Vt. It was with some dilTiculty 

 they decided between this lot and one offered by 

 Lulher Chtimberlain, both of which were very 

 prime. They based their final decision on the fact 

 that INIr. Bachop's butter was equal, at least, to 

 Mr. Chamberlain's, and, from the manner it was 

 put down, appeared more likely to keep. — Hisdairy 

 is supplied from twenty-one cows, kept in the usual 

 manner, on grass in summer, and hay and grain 

 in winter — the milk kept in tin pans, and churned 

 .every morning if the weather is warm — the but- 

 ter-milk is removed by frequent Avashings in wa- 

 ter, and four pounds salt and one pound sugar 

 used for each hundred weight of butter — packed 

 in wooden vessels, and set in a cool place. 



The committee found no dilFiculty in awarding 

 tlie second premium of .^50 to Luther Chamber- 

 lain, of Westborough. The butter from this dairy 

 has long been celebrated. Mr. C. seems to enter 

 into the true object of this exhibition b}^ furnishing 

 a particular description of the manner in which it 

 is manufactured. His letter, though long, is inter- 

 esting, as coming from a practical man, and the 

 committee think they need not apologize for in- 

 serting it entire. 



The committee have inserted Mr. Chamberlain's 

 letter at length, as a valuable exposition of the 

 manner in Avhich he makes butter, and as an ex- 

 ample for others to follow. That he pursues the 

 best course in its manufacture they can have but 

 httle doubt, and they feel certain that in attending 

 as he does to ([uality, rather than to quantity, he se- 

 cures at once both reputation and profit. No 

 Btronger proof can be given of this than the fact 

 that his butter which took the second premium 

 sold at auction for a higher price than that to which 

 the committee awarded the first, which could only 

 be accounted for by the iiict that purchasers felt 

 certain that in taking Mr. C.'s butter they obtained 

 a first rate article, as he suffered none that was in- 

 ferior to come from his) dairv. 



ON THE CAUSES TO AVIIICH THE RUST IN 

 AVHEAT IS ASCUICEI). 



Brool field, (Henrico) Sth Dec, 1834. 

 To the Editor of the Farmers' Register.^ 



In the number of the Register for this month, 

 is an article over llie signature of "Medico Agricul- 

 turist," in which he has endeavored to point out 

 the cause which produces the eflect of" rust on 

 wheat and other plants. The many diseases 

 which afii?ct wheat and other grains, have engaged 

 much of the attention of p.raclical farmers and sci 

 entific men; and notwithstanding the diversity of 

 opinion which has hitherto, and probably yet ex- 

 ists, as to the causes producing these diseases, it 

 did not appear to me, until very lately, that the 

 true causes have been discovered. In saying so, I 

 would beg to refer "Medico" and your other rea- 

 ders, to an article in the October number of your 

 Register for this year, copied from the Penny Mag- 

 azine, entitled "Diseases of wheat," describing a 

 number of highly interesting and scientific experi- 

 ments by Francis Bauer, Esq., "on the smut balls 

 or pepper brand," and "smut or dust brand," &c. 

 The highly satisfactory nature of the result of 

 the.=e experiments, mu.st, in my opinion, set aside 

 all future doubts, as to the true causes of these dis- 

 eases. Other writers on this important branch of 

 vegetable pathology, have attributed the perfected 

 disease, to'^a mass of parasitic fungi; but with- 

 out tracing their origin. Amongst these I might 

 mention Wildenow. Mr. Bauer himself, if I am 

 not much mistaken, v/asatone time opposed to the 

 theory which his own subsequent philosophic expe- 

 riments, have so satisfactorily jiroved to be true; 

 although, no mention is made in these experiments 

 of the particular disease termed rust — (a disease 

 which to my knowledge exists both in England 

 and Scotland to as great, if not greater extent than 

 it does in this country, at least so far as my obser- 

 vation has led me.) I am of" the decided opinion, 

 that this disease is also produced by a similar cause 

 as in the above mentioned diseases — and that the 

 appearance on wheat and other grains termed rust, 

 is a collection of extremely minute fungi, whose 

 seeds are propelled by the rising sap in vhe same 

 way as are the seeds of the "uredo fcetida" and 

 "uredo segetum," as described by Mr. Bauer. But 

 should the true cau.se of rust be the flow of juices, 

 as maintained by "Medico," I am inclined to be- 

 lieve that the effect is produced, not by an over- 

 abundance of sap in the "supplying organs," but 

 by a very opposite extreme. By a careful exam- 

 ination of a stalk of wheat on which tliere is rust, 

 it will be found that the root is diseased: hence I 

 am led to conclude, that the vital jn-inci|ile, or pro- 

 j:)elling power is weakened, and that the plant, in 

 consequence of the diseased stale of the root, is 

 unable to absorb a sufficient quantity of sap to 

 give the necessary vigor to the propelling power; 

 and that after the return of the cambium or pro- 

 per juices from the elaborating organs, there is not 

 sufficient power to propel it into the finer organs 

 of the parts of fructification— at which part of the 

 plant, an accumulation of" the cambium takes place, 

 and by shortly getting in a morbid state, it infects 

 the internal parts of the stalk, and subsequently 

 penetrates the epidermis, and causes the flow of 

 juices, which by induration and exposure to the 

 air might assume the appearance of ruist. 



