VOL. XIX. NO. 53. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER, 



From the New Geneseo Farmer. 



CHEESE MAKING. 

 Messrs Editors— Coniimiiiications arc occti- 

 sionaily madu through your paper, giving the bi'st 

 method of making cheese from [iraclicil experi- 

 ments. As your Journal is designed for a medium 

 through which farmers can exchange their views 

 upon the varioua subjects connected with their high 

 calling, I submit the following, if you think it 

 worthy of occupying a corner of your Farmer. 



The plan generally proposed by your correspon- 

 dents, is to strain the milk in the tub over niglit, 

 and warm it in the morning, carefully stirring in 

 the cream. Mr A. F. Bill, in the Octobor number 

 of the New Genesee Farmer, says, — " In the morn- 

 ing take off the cream with a skimmer, and put it 

 in a vessel by itself; then warm the milk, or a 

 part of it, over a slow fire till about blood heat ; 

 then pour in the cream, and stir it moderately till 

 there are no particles to be seen floating upon the 

 surface." 



It seems to me evident, that when the cream is 

 once separated from the milk, it can never be so 

 thoroughly incorporated with it again, ns to set the 

 milk as soon as taken from the cow. 



Our method is this: — Immediately after the cows 

 are milked at night, (and the quicker the operation 

 is performed the better,) we strain it into the 

 cheese tub and put in the rennet — as the milk 

 when it first comes from the cow is in precisely 

 the right temperature to set. If the lennet is 

 good, and properly prepared, a large table spoon- 

 ful is sufficient for a pailful of milk. The tub 

 should then be covered with a cloth, and allowed 

 to stand undisturbed : in about forty minutes it will 

 coagulate. It is then carefully cut, the tub again 

 covered and left t'' stani till morninr-. Whf^ii the 

 tub is wanted for the morning's milk, the night's 

 curd is dipped into the cheese basket, or cheese 

 sink, to drain, and the morning's milk strained into 

 the same tub. 'J he rennet is then put on, going 

 through the same proce.ss as with tlie night's milk. 

 When sufficiently drained, the two curds are ready 

 to be put together, scalded and salted according to 

 the discretion of the maker. 



Those who have had the least experience in the 

 management of milk, must know that warming it 

 after it has once cooled, gives it a tendency to 

 sour the quicker. Any person who will take the 

 trouble to try the experiment, will find that curd 

 made from milk warm from the cow, will keep 

 tweet much longer than that which has been warm- 

 ed over the fire; and, besides this, it saves the 

 time and trouble of skimming and warming. Noth- 

 ing will make a good cheese maker assume a bel- 

 ligerent attitude so quick, as to see the skimmer 

 flourished over the cheese tub. 



From a long experience in a modern sized dairy, 

 I am persuaded that in no way can so much, or 

 cheese of so good quality be made, as to set the 

 imlk while warm from the cow. 



Yours, E. BISHOP. 



Mixta, Genesee Co. April, 1841. 

 P. S. — While upon a subject connected with 

 cows, let me suggest to your correspondents who 

 occasionally send you the quantity of milk given 

 by a particularcow, to give it in pounds,an<i not in 

 quarts. It can be done much easier, and with 

 greater accuracy; and not only so, but in the lat- 

 ter case it is too often guessed at, or measured, 

 froth and all, in bruised and batter«d quart meas- 

 ures. 



GOOD CULTIVATION. 

 In nothing does the reward correspond more ex- 

 actly witli tlie deserts, than the amount and perfec- 

 tion of crops do with the labor.i of the cultivator. 

 Men you may cheat, by obtaining advantages of 

 them in trade ; but old mother Earth you cannot 

 cheat. She wilt reward you according to your 

 works. And if you would obtain large and sound 

 crops, you must deserve them by skill and labor — 

 otiierwise you will fail in ciilculatiou.s. 



Good husbandry is as much a scicmce, as any 

 thing else— a science which, emphatically, " prac- 

 tice makes perfect." Not only are the great things, 

 b»t the little things to be attended to, and at pro- 

 per times. For good crops, first, the land must be 

 enriched — it should have as inuch manure, annual- 

 ly, as it can digest and convert into the fruits which 

 you propose to gatlier from it. We say " as much," 

 but it should not have more. A superabundance 

 will over-stimulate the soil, and leave a mass of 

 inert matter, that will do more harm than good 

 ne.xt year. The soil should be fed annually, as a 

 man is fed daily. The idea of giving the earth 

 manure enough to last several years, on cultivated 

 ground, is like making a man eat in one day enough 

 to last him a week. When the soil is well ma- 

 nured, the next thing is to pulverize it with the 

 plow or spade. It is not enough to turn it over, 

 but it must be pulverized. All the lumps should 

 be broken up till they are crumbled into powder. 



In planting, care should be taken to procure 

 good seed of the best sort. Unhealthy and vitia- 

 ted parents, in the vegetable, as well as the animal 

 world, are pretty sure to produce inferior offspring. 



The seed should be dropped or sowed suantly 



Every hill, and if possible, every kernel, should 

 have an equal space of ground allotted for its 

 yrowth. Then there will bu no soil wiiated, ami 

 no plants pinched for want of room. Machines for 

 planting are valuable, not only as saving labor, but 

 also because they divide the land equally and give 

 each hill or plant an equal chance. This is real 

 economy. 



The seed being planted at the right season — 

 neither too early or too late — (and earliness and 

 lateness relate to the condition of the earth and 

 skies, rather than to the day of the month) — the 

 next thing is to hoe the ground well as soon as the 

 plants are high enough to work amongst. The 

 sooner this is done the better, as it will not only 

 kill the tender weeds before they get much root, 

 but will prevent the coming up of many other 

 weeds, the seeds of which are deeper in the earth, 

 or slower of vegetation. Many a weed is killed 

 by hoeing before it is out of the ground. But in 

 hoeing corn, potatoes or beds of vegetables the 

 first time, be careful and be faithful. Once well 

 done is worth all ofybiir times half done. Let the 

 fingers be used about the plants, to pull up the 

 weeds by the roots — not to break them off — and to 

 loosen the soil about the plants. Let not an inch 

 of the ground be untouched by the hoe, and stir it 

 as deeply as you can with that instrument. \ 

 soft soil, that will admit the air and light, is indis- 

 pensable to the young roots of the plants, which 

 wish to run down and along the surface. 



Be sure and kill all the weeds. Every one that 

 grows exhausts the soil just so much as is neces- 

 sary for its support, and robs your crop of its food, 

 besides shading and crowding it to its injury. — 

 Weeds are poor things in a garden or cultivated 

 field. If the first weeding and hoeing are done 

 thoroughly, the great effort of the season is over. 



There will be but few weeds after that. But it is 

 best to hoe in a dry time. 



Some gardeners and cultivators with whom we 

 are ac(|iiainted, think that as soon as a shower of 

 rain is over, they must seize the hoe and run out 

 to kill the weeds. This is bad husbandry in two 

 respects. First, if the ground is stirred when it is 

 wot, the earth is adhesive and it will dry in hard 

 lumps and make a bad matter worse; secondly, 

 hoeing at such a time will inevitably but transplant 



the weeds, ami they will soon shoot up a^ain 



Let the top of the soil be dry when you hoe. This 

 is important, not only to destroy the weeds, but 

 the crop will suffer less from dry weather, if hoed 

 in such a lime, than if stirred at a different time. 

 One of the best ways in the world to prevent the 

 effects of a drought, is to stir the land when it is 

 dry. It is a mistake to suppose that the porous 

 condition of the surface which is left by hoeing, 

 allows the moisture to escape more rapidly. It 

 will not escape so fast, as if it was not hoed. There 

 is a greater circulation between the earth and the 

 air, and in a dry lime a greater amount of dew falls 

 upon the plants in the night, when the earth is 

 loose at the surface, than when it is compact and 

 hard. The oftener you hoe the ground, when it is 

 properly dry, the surer and larger will be the crop. 

 If this could be done every day, without cutting 

 the lateral roots, your plants would be thankful for it. 

 Some of our neighbors, who have visited our 

 garden — it is a large one — marvel how it is that 

 there never appear to be any weeds in it. For 

 themselves, when the plants in their bods are up 

 and large enough to be hoed, they are immersed 

 and overtopped in weeds, and it is a dreadful job 

 to pick them nil out and leave the plants to the 

 sole occupancy of the soil. But before ours are 

 hood, thoy see but a very few weeds in the beds ; 

 the rows of plants are all distinct and free, and ap- 

 pear as if they had already been hoed clean. We 

 will tell tliern how this is done. In the first place, 

 we never allow a single weed to go to seed in the 

 garden. Of course then, there will be no seeds 

 from this cause to come up the next spring — only 

 such as have been borne upon the premises by the 

 winds from adjacent grounds. We take as much 

 care to kill the infant weeds, all summer and in 

 autumn, as we do in spring. Then again, we nev- 

 er put on land weedy manure. They who make 

 their beds of new stable manure, which is filled 

 with the seeds of grass, clover, sorrel, pig weeds, 

 &c., Inu^t expect that those seeds will come up as 

 soon as their beets, onions, carrots, &c., and being 

 more numerous, they will cover the ground very 

 early. We are careful to dress the soil only with 

 manure that has undergone the fermentation of at 

 least one season, which has killed the wheat seeds. 

 Then we plant and sow as soon as the land is ma- 

 nured and pulverized, so as to give the seed we 

 sow ns fair a chance in time, as the seeds of weeds 

 that may chance to be in the manure. As soon as 

 weeds do appear, and we can distinguish our plants, 

 we go at them in earnest — not allowing them to 

 get the mastery. By such timely care, we are 

 troubled with weeds but little through the whole 

 season. 



Rich soil, kept soft by frequent hoeing, and free 

 from weeds, will in ordinary seasons, produce per- 

 fect crops. A carelessness in either of these re- 

 spects is fatal to a large harvest Maine Cult. 



The proudest man on earth is but a pauper, fed 

 and clothed by the bounty of Heaven. 



\ 



