ESSEX SOCIETY. 17 



from the churn is in ordinary cases sufficient. Butter designed 

 to be kept in a warm cellar will require more salt than if kept 

 in an ice-house or cold cellar. Weighing will not preclude 

 the necessity of exercising judgment ; it is only an assistant. 

 If the butter-maker should err in salting, let it be on the safe 

 side, for we know of no apology to offer for a deficiency in 

 salting or working butter. It soon becomes rancid, and is as 

 revolting to the taste, as the scolding epithets or angry looks of 

 the fair manufacturer would be to the eye or ear. 



Fifteen samples of butter were presented for premium. The 

 statement accompanying three of the samples was not such as 

 the rules of the society require. 



DAVID S. CALDWELL, Chairman, 



Sub-Soil Ploughing. 



The appointment of a committee, by the trustees, "on sub-soil 

 ploughing and its effects," clearly indicates, on their part, a de- 

 sire to acquire information on this interesting subject, rather 

 than a confidence in their ability to communicate it. 



Perhaps there is no branch of agricultural labor, about which 

 so little is experimentally known among us. Our oldest experts 

 have scarcely had five years experience ; — and very few, more 

 than one or two years. 



We could readily select from English publications what is 

 there said in relation to sub-soil ploughing, where it seems to be 

 deemed almost indispensable to improved cultivation; but this 

 is not the kind of information sought in our reports. We want 

 the actual results on our own soil ; we want our practical farmers 

 so far to try the experiments themselves, as to determine whether 

 or not it will be for their advantage, to continue the use of this 

 instrument. 



This has not yet been done by the farmers of Essex. Their 



sub-soil ploughs, like their go-to-meeting clothes, are kept for 



special occasions. They are not yet naturalized. They have 



not yet secured the entire confidence of their owners. There is 



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