6D BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



preferred for most crops the application of decomposed manures. 

 For corn, green manure may decompose rapidly enough during 

 the " sixty days of hot corn weather." He reminded farmers 

 that composting- manures is not necessarily decomposing them ; 

 and urged them to bear in mind the distinction. "Whether in 

 the soil or out of it, manure requires the action of the air to 

 decompose properly. 



In the evening, S, L. Goodale, Secretary of the Maine Board 

 of Agriculture, read a valuable paper on dairying. His paper 

 was devoted to cheese making. He said that a milch cow fur- 

 nished the best and cheapest method of getting human food. 

 The feed necessary to make a pound of meat will make at least 

 twenty-five pounds of milk. Eight and a half pounds of milk 

 on an average make a pound of cheese. In Herkimer County, 

 N. Y., the cows average 400 pounds of cheese per annum. A 

 cow that will make less than her dressed weight of cheese in 

 Scotland is sent to the butcher. England is our great cheese 

 market, for the English eat more cheese than we ; 200,000 cows 

 are kept in the single county of Cheshire. Herkimer County, 

 N. Y., first taught the English to use American clieese, and we 

 now ship there more than 40,000,000 pounds a year. Cheese 

 factories are modern, but labor-saving inventions. They require 

 the milk of at least five hundred cows to make them profitable, 

 and a force of five or six persons to do the work. There are 

 more than thirty such factories in Oneida county, N. Y., and 

 the cheese commands a higher price than that made in families. 

 Carrying milk from one to five miles in a wagon improves it for 

 cheese as much as it hurts it for butter. There is little differ- 

 ence in the labor for a pound of cheese or a pound of butter, and 

 the milk necessary for a pound of the latter will make two 

 and a half pounds of the former. Hay cheese is less valuable 

 than that made from grass. 



Mr. Flint also read a paper on milk and butter makings. 



GRAPE CULTURE. 



The meeting of the third day was organized by the choice of 

 Hon. Joseph White, as Chairman. 



The subject of grape culture was announced as the topic for 

 discussion, and the time was mainly occupied by Hon. E.W. Bull, 

 of Concord, whose skill and perseverance have placed him 



