238 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



Feb. 13, 1829. 



the more elev.-itcd parts of tlie Coiililloi;is. Tlje 

 only cliaiigu it undergoes is sitiiilar to that of tlie 

 cow, — London IVtckly Review. 



FRENCH METHOD OF TRANSPLANT- 

 ING. 



During dry weather, the gardeners of I'uris do 

 not wait for rain as ours generally do ; but, as 

 soon as their crops require removing, it is done in 

 the following manner : Having chosen the spot, 

 they well water the top, and immediately dig it 

 under, and afterwards water the fresh surface, and 

 as soon as it is dry enough, it is raked, and the 

 plants put in without any regard to the mid-day 

 sun ; they continue to water the bed three or four 

 times a day, until the jjlants have taken root. It 

 is surprising how soon lettuces, cabbages, etc. will 

 be well rooted by such treatment, and with what 

 vigor they grow after the first shower of rain. — 

 What would have been the state of such plants 

 liad they remained in the seed bed ? They would 

 have drawn each other ; their first leaves would 

 have dropped off, and general debility would have 

 followed, not easy to be removed : but, by the 

 French treatment, not a leaf will be lost. Now, 

 if we consider the principle, it is simply this : that 

 every plant placed in the sun in water will in no 

 way flag, and the continued wet stale of the bed 

 for the first few days is similar to it ; besides, the 

 presence of the sun contributes powerfully to the 

 rooting of the [ilants. — Eng. pa. 



NEW JITS GI. AND FARMER. 

 BOSTON, FRIDAY, FEB. 1.3, 1829. 



ADVANTAGES OF TREES. 



Cattle thrive much belter in fields even hut 

 moderately sheltered with trees than they do m 

 an open exposed country. An Italian (Gautieri) 

 has enumerated and illustrated the advantages in 

 point of climate which tracts of country derive 

 from woods and forests. " These" he says " are 

 arresting the progress of impetuous and dangerous 

 winds; maintaining the temperature of the air ; 

 regulating the seasons ; ls.;seniiig intense cohl ; op- 

 posing ihe formation and increase of ice ; mod- 

 erating intense heats ; producing abundance of 

 water in the rivers ; discharging the electricity of 

 the atmosphere; opposing a barrier to washing 

 away or undermining banks; preserving from inun- 

 dations ; preserving the soil on hills and moun- 

 tains." 



neck, and arms, profusely in cold water every 

 morning ; and it is a fact, which may be relied on, 

 that since the ado])tion of this antidote, she has 

 not experienced any cold whatever !" 



BEECH-TREE LIABLE TO LIGHTNING. 



It has been asserted that lightning never struck 

 a beech-tree. But a farmer in the state of Ohio 

 contradicts this report, and states that a beech- 

 tree, on his farm was struck with lightning the last 

 summer. 



CULTURE OF HEMP. 



Mr James Rogers, who carries letters of intro- 

 duction from several gentlemen of distinction in 

 New York, is on a tour in the State of fliaine for 

 the purpose of engaging the farmers in the culti- 

 vation of hemp. He proposes to supply them with 

 seed, sow it for them, and take a share in the croj) 

 for his compensation. 



CALVES. 



Young's Annals state the following as a remedy 

 for the scorning of calves : Powdered chalk and 

 wheat meal moistened with gin and worked into 

 a ball shoidd be given the animals. 



COLD WATER LOTIONS. 



The Vermont Chronicle says, that "a lady of 

 feeble habits, who has been subject to heavy colds 

 for a long couise of years, has agreeably to the 

 reconmieiidation of a pby>iiian, for the two last 

 years, adoi)ted a custom of uuilbrmly bathing face, 



We perceive by a communication in the Pitts- 

 burgh Gazette, that the machinery for spinning 

 flax by steam power, is now in complete operation 

 in that city, and on such a scale as to create an 

 immediate demand for flax. This will give new 

 and prohtable activity to the farmers in that vicin- 



j«y- 



RURAL ECONOMY OF SWITZERLAND. 



Extracts from jVons. Kasthofer''s Travels in the 

 Cantons, and among the Rhetian Alps. 

 farmers' stock, Sac. 



Cows, goats and sheep constitute the principal 

 means of support and wealth of the Swiss farm- 

 ers; or to discriminate more acciu-ately, the goats, 

 in a great measure, support the poorer class ; and 

 the ewes supply the cheese from which the richer 

 derive their little wealth. The extent of a pasture 

 is estimated by the number of cows it maintains ; 

 six or eight goats are deemed equal a cow ; four 

 calves the same, four sheep, or four hogs ; but a 

 horse is reckoned as five or six cows; because he 

 roots up the grass, [that is, destroys it by biting 

 too close.] Throughout the high Alps, they are of 

 ojiinion that sheep are destructive to the pastures, 

 in pro|)ortion to their elevation, because tlie herb- 

 age, which they eat down to the roots, cannot, in 

 such a cold climate, regain its strengtfi and luxu- 

 riance. The mountain pastures are rented at so 

 much for cow's feed from the 15th of May to the 

 18th of October; and the cows are hired from the 

 peasants ibr the same period ; at the end of it both 

 are returned to their owners. In other pans 

 the prcprietors of the pastures hire their cows ; 

 or the proprietors of the cows rent the land. 

 The proceeds of a cow are estimated at 3/., or 

 3/. 10«. viz. 25*. in summer, and duritig the 

 time they are kept in the valleys or in the lioiise, at 

 ■M. Tiie Grindalwald Alps feed three thousand 

 cows and as many sheep and goats. The cattle 

 are attended on the mountains by herdsmen ; 

 wiien the weather is tempestuous, they are up all 

 night, calling to them, otherwise they woidd take 

 tiight and run into danger. Chalets are built for 

 the use of the herdsmen : these are log houses of 

 the rudest construction, without any chimney, and 

 a pit or tiench ibr the fire dug round by way of a 

 seat. Those chalets the j)erson^ whose enjploy- 

 ment it is to milk the c j'.vs, and to make cheese 

 and butter, ascend in the summer time. When 

 they go out to milk the cows, a portable seat with 

 a suigle leg is strapped to their backs ; at the 

 hour of mdking, the cows are attracted home from 

 the nasi distant jiastures by a handful of salt, 

 whiih the shepherd takes from a leathern jjouch 

 liangiug over his shoulder. During the milking, 

 the Hanz dez f'aches is frequently sung. 



The Swiss cows yield more milk than those of 

 Loii]har<)y, where they are in great demand ; but 

 i.fter the third generation the milk falls oft". In 

 jome pans of Switzerland they yielii, on an aver- 

 aije, twelve English quarts a day ; and with forty 



cows a cheese of foi-tyfive pounds can be made 

 daily. On the high pastures of Scoria, a cow 

 during the best-season, supplies nearly sixty pounds 

 of skim-milk cheese, and forty pounds of liiitter. 

 Reckoning twenty pounds of njilk, observes our 

 aullior, e(iuivalent to one of butter, the produce 

 in milk will be eight hundred pounds for ninety 

 days, or less than nine pounds a day. This .-mall 

 supply he ascribes to the great elevation of the 

 paslm-es, and the bad keep of the cows in llie 

 winter. 



CHEESE. 



Great variety of cheese is made in the districts 

 of Switzerland ; the most celebrated in the Schab- 

 zieger. To make this, the dairy is built near a 

 stream of water ; the vessels containing the milk 

 are placed on gravel or stone in the dairy, and the 

 water conducted into it in such a manner as to 

 reach their brim. The milk is exposed to this 

 temperature about six degrees of Reaumur (forty- 

 six jFahr.) for five or six day?, and in that time 

 the cream is completely formed. After this is 

 skimmed off, the caseous particles are separated by 

 the addition of some sour milk, and not by rennet. 

 The curd thus obtained is pressed strongly in 

 baifs, on which stones are laid ; when sufhciently 

 pressed and dried, it is ground to powder in au- 

 tunjn, salted and mixed with either the pressed 

 flowers or the bruised seeds of the Mtlilotus Offi- 

 citiaiis (melilot, a species of irefbil.) The entire 

 separation of the cream or unctuous portion of the 

 milk is indispensable to the manufacture of Schab- 

 zieger. The unprepared ciud never sells for 

 more, than three half pence a jiound ; whereas, 

 prepared as Schabzieger, it sells for sixpence or 

 scvcnpence. Our author is, therefore, surprised 

 that other cantons do not follow the examples of 

 Claris ; and he advises other aromatic herbs to be 

 used, and thus a variety of such cheeses manufac- 

 tured. 



The Bergamese make cheese with one measure 

 of ewe milk added to three measures of cow milk ; 

 they use little rennet, and no acid, because, ac- 

 cording to them the mixture of the two kinds of 

 milk is of itself sufficient. It is to this manage- 

 ment that our author ascribes the greater delicacy 

 of flavor possessed by the ewe-milk cheese of the 

 Bergamese over that made in the Oberland. 



The celebrated cheese of Roquefort, in France, 

 is made of a mixture of pwe and goat milk ; the 

 cheese of Sassenage and Dauphiny, of ewe and 

 cow milk ; it is said that a mixture of all the three, 

 cow, ewe, and goat, makes the best cheese. 



SHEEP 



Are not a favorite stock in many parts of 

 Switzerland ; the difficulty of procuring food for 

 them in winter is one cause. M. Kasihofer, how- 

 ever, mentions a fact, which if uniformly the case 

 would, in a great measure, do away this ground 

 of objection to sheep. He was assured that sheep 

 suffered to remain on the mountains, during win- 

 ter, procure food for themselves sufficient, not 

 merely to support life, but to keep or render them 

 f;it, and he adds that, in Norway, when winter 

 fodder fails, the sheep are turned out, and by 

 scraping away the snow forage for themselves J 

 the same is the case in Iceland. 



FORESTS 



In Switzerland ai'e of great use and impor- 

 tance ; they suppi)' the principal winter food for 

 cattle &c. The author observes that the native 

 trees of any district are not of course, the most 



