DACTYLIS. 



of the most interesting trees in the United ; 

 States for the varied utility of its wood. It 

 grows only in wet grounds. In New Jersey, | 

 Maryland, and Virginia, it nearly fills the ex- 

 tensive marshes which lie adjacent to the salt 

 meadows, and are exposed in high tides to be 

 overflown by the sea. Farther south, it is 

 mingled with the cypress, by which it is at 

 length entirely supplanted. The white cedar 

 is not to be mistaken for the white cypress, a 

 variety of the bald cypress. In lower Jersey 

 and Maryland, the swamps in which the whke 

 cedar grows, are only accessible during the 

 dryest periods of summer, and whilst frozen 

 in winter. The trees stand so thick in these 

 swamps that the light can hardly penetrate the 

 foliage. The white cedar grows seventy or 

 eighty feet high, and rarely more than three 

 feet in diameter, unless perhaps in the Great 

 Dismal Swamp, near Norfolk, where it flou- 

 rishes in company with the bald or black cy- 

 press. When the white cedars are close and 

 compressed, the straight and perpendicular 

 trunks are free from branches to the height of 

 fifty or sixty feet. They are observed to choose 

 the centre of the swamps, and the cypresses 

 the outside. 



The foliage is evergreen, each leaf consisting 

 of a little branch numerously subdivided, and 

 the flowers, which are scarcely visible, produce 

 very small rough cones of a greenish tint, 

 which changes to bluish towards the fall, 

 when they open to release the fine seeds. 



The wood is light, soft, fine-grained, and 

 easily worked. When perfectly seasoned and 

 exposed some time to the light, it is of a rosy 

 hue. It preserves its aromatic odour for a 

 very long time, when kept dry, and resists the 

 destructive tendencies of alternate moisture 

 and dryness longer than any other wood, for 

 which quality shingles made of it are prefer- 

 red in Baltimore and Philadelphia to those of 

 the bald cypress. In the first named city they 

 are generally called juniper shingles. They 

 will last on a roof for thirty or thirty-five 

 years. The great domestic consumption and 

 exportation has raised the price of cypress 

 shingles from four and five dollars per thousand 

 in 1808, to thirty or forty dollars per thousand 

 in 1842. Swamps producing white cedar, so 

 useful for fence timber and other important 

 purposes, constitute a valuable species of pro- 

 perty. (Michaux.) 



D 



DACTYLIS. A genus of grasses which, 

 with one exception, are of but little value for 

 cultivation. See COCK'S-FOOT GRASS. 



DAIRY. The place where milk is kept, and 

 butter and cheese prepared and preserved. 

 The proper construction and management of 

 a dairy are questions of considerable import- 

 ance to the farmer. It should be situated, if 

 possible, on a dry porous soil. The room 

 should be made of brick or stone, with a floor 

 of the same materials, for the sake of its being 

 more readily and frequently washed with cold 

 \ater, not only on the score of cleanliness, but 

 that the temperature of the place may in sum- 

 384 



DAIRY. 



mer be kept down to the most advantageous 

 degree. And to this end, the dairy is com- 

 monly placed on the northern side of the 

 house, where it may be readily shaded from 

 the sun by other more elevated buildings, or 

 by trees. A temperature between 50 and 60 

 is the best, and the less occasion there is to 

 reduce the temperature of the dairy by wash- 

 ing the floor with cold water the better, since, 

 amongst other disadvantages, the damp air 

 thus produced is not so advantageous as a dry 

 atmosphere for the retention of sweetness 

 in milk and cream, and, therefore, the dairy- 

 house in England is generally covered with 

 thatch, and can hardly be too well ventilated. 

 It should be far removed from stagnant ponds 

 and offensive drains; and furnished with wire 

 gauze windows, by which insects are readily 

 excluded without impairing the necessary ven- 

 tilation. Adjoining to it should be placed a 

 wash-house, furnished with a chimney, a large 

 copper kettle to heat the water, or in cheese 

 dairies the milk. This is commonly supported 

 by a crane. 



The wash-house should have an outer door, 

 near to which the dairy utensils maybe set on 

 benches, to be dried by the sun and air. In 

 Holland the dairy rooms are kept with the 

 greatest order, neatness, and comfort; so much 

 so, that the farmer's family often take their 

 meals in them. On the economy of the dairy 

 the following excellent direction, abridged from 

 those drawn up by the Agricultural Society of 

 Aberdeenshire, may be studied by the farmer 

 with advantage. They refer chiefly to salted 

 butter : 



1. The milk-house or dairy should have no in- 

 ternal communication with any other building. 

 It must be kept free from smoke, well aired, 

 and clean, and no potatoes, fish, onions, 

 cheese, or any thing likely to impart a strong 

 or bad smell, should be kept therein ; in short, 

 nothing but the dairy utensils, which must 

 also be kept sweet and clean. 2. The milk, 

 when brought in from the cows, should be 

 strained through a fine hair searce or drainer, 

 and when cool put into sweet, well-seasoned 

 oaken kegs, keelers, or milk pans, the latter to 

 be preferred. A tin skimmer with holes in it 

 is the best for taking off the cream, which 

 should always be churned while the cream is 

 fresh. 3. The churn, whether plunge or barrel, 

 should be made of the best well-seasoned white 

 oak, and as cleanliness is of the first import- 

 ance, great attention should be paid to the 

 washing, drying, and airing of the churns im- 

 mediately after use, otherwise they are sure to 

 contract a sour and unwholesome smell, which 

 must injure the quality of the butter. 4. The 

 butter immediately after being churned should be 

 thrown into fresh spring water, where it should 

 remain one hour at least, that it may grow/rw. 

 5. The butter should be immediately salted. 6. It 

 is a very injurious practice to keep a mak- 

 ing of butter uncured till the next churning, 

 for the purpose of mixing the two together. It 

 invariably injures the flavour of the whole, and 

 renders it of too soft a quality ever afterwards 

 to get firm. 7. The milk of new-calved cows 

 should never be set for butter, until at least 

 four days after calving, as a small quantity of 



