THE GENESEE FAEMEE. 



ing under* a crop of clover benefits the wheat crop ? No addition of minerals are supplied 

 to the soil, and yot the wheat crop is greatly increased. The answer is simple and obvi- 

 ous — our wheat fields need a more liberal supply of ammonia, which the clover supplies. 

 If our wheat fields needed nothing else than the ash constituents of wheat, to keep 

 them in a high state of fertility, and if there was no destruction of ammonia in the 

 growth of cereals, wheat-raising on such scientific principles would be attended with 

 much larger profits than most farmers obtain at present ; and all who believe such a 

 doctrine, should, to be consistent, rush into the business, and make their fortune by 

 high farming. A crop of wheat of 40 bushels per acre, would take from the soil in the 

 grain about 40 lbs. of ash. The constituents of this ash can be returned to the soil in 

 wood a.shes, salt, and animal charcoal, for less than one dollar ; so that all we have to 

 do to keep land yielding 40 bushels of wheat per acre, is to apply about a dollar's 

 worth of mineral ingredients. If such a doctrine is true, high farming would be the 

 most profitable business in the world. But this is not the case ; and it is the necessity 

 for, and high price of ai7imonia, that renders the production of large crops of wheat, at 

 the present relative prifes of ammonia and wheat, of doubtfnl economy. Are we wrong, 

 then, in urging on our readers the importance of accumulating ammonia in every possi- 

 ble way on their farms, as being the only known way of increasing the average yield of 

 wheat, corn, &c., &c. We place ammonia most prominent, because of all fertilizers it 

 is most necessary ; and we know of no way of accumulating ammonia on the farm, 

 without at the same time increasing the indispensable inorganic constituents of plants. 



BUTTER AND CHEESE MAKING. 



In the May number, page 143, we gave an article on this subject, which has called forth 

 a letter from a correspondent of the Ohio Farmer, in which the writer says he differs in 

 a few things from the opinions stated in our article. 



First, it is his opinion that the cause of rennet curdling milk, is the gastric juice it 

 contains, and not, as we stated, to the addition of a soluble highly nitrogenous ferment, 

 such as is formed by the aremacausis, or transformation of the stomach of animals 

 during the process of making rennet. 



We v.'ill admit that gastric juice is generally supposed to be the efficient agent of ren- 

 net, and that milk is immediately curdled in the stomach of animals — as every one who 

 has been blessed with a babe must have observed — and that the stomach of animals 

 makes better rennet than any other substance. Milk will curdle without the addition 

 of any substance, merely by the transformation of its "sugar of milk" into lactic acid, 

 which invariably takes place at the proper fermenting temperature, and in the presence 

 of a nitrogenous substance, such as casein or curd. The addition of any animal mem- 

 brane or meat, will accelerate this transformation or curdling of milk. Many vegetable 

 substances will also do the same. The Jews, who were forbidden by the Mosaic law to 

 mix meat with milk, make their cheeses with Ladies' Bed-straw, (^Galium verum.) In 

 some parts of Holland, muriatic acid is used as rennet. If gastric juice is acid at all, 

 which is somewhat doubtful, it most certainly is a very weak acid ; and therefore, if it 

 is the acid of gastric juice that is the efficient agent, large quantities would be required 

 to neutralize the soda of milk, and precipitate the curd. But in rennet, as commonly 

 used, there could not possibly be but a very small amount of gastric juice left. If, too, 

 rennet acted from the acid of gastric juice, its effect would be instantaneous, or at least 

 the precipitation of the curd would be much quicker than it is found to be in practice. 

 Our critic offers no reasons for his opinion, we have therefore none to refute ; neither 

 does he offer any evidence against the correctness of the one we advocate. 



^ 



^ 



