20 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JULY 31, 1833. 



Extracts from " Transactions of the Essex Agricvltural So- 

 ciety for 1832." 

 DAIRY. 



The Committee on the Dairy, report — that 

 there was presented to their notice, on the day of 

 the Exhibition at Newbury, but one parcel of 

 Cheese, and five parcels of Butter. The cheese 

 was offered by Moses Newhal] of West Newbury, 

 and for which they award the Society's second 

 premium of ten dollars. 



They regret exceedingly, that in a county where 

 there are so many good farmers, that make good 

 cheese, there should be so few willing to exhibit it. 



But three of the parcels of butter exhibited came 

 within the rules prescribed for the premiums. — 

 These were offered by Mrs. Betsey Parker of An- 

 dover — Hector Coffin of Newbury, and Ralph H. 

 Chandler of Andovcr. The butter exhibited was 

 of good quality. 



They have awarded to 



Mrs. Betsey Parker, 1st premium, 12 dollars. 

 Hector Coffin, 2d " 10 " 



As the condition on which some of the premi- 

 ums on butter were offered, did not admit of their 

 closing their Report on the day of the Exhibition, 

 they have waited until this could be done with 

 propriety. 



There was but one claim entered, for the pre- 

 miums offered for the best produce of butter, in 

 the six months next following the 20th of May, 

 &c. — this by Hector Coffin, Esq. of Rock Farm, 

 Newbury. 



Mr. Coffin's statement, which is hereunto an- 

 nexed, was satisfactory to the Committee ; and the 

 specimens of butter exhibited by him were of 

 good quality ; and his entire management of his 

 Dairy affords an example worthy of imitation — 

 and the committee award to him the Society's 

 first premium, of twenty dollars. 



All of which is submitted by Justin Smith, 



Daniel Foster, 



Dec. 1, 1832. Jesse Putnam, 



Hector Coffin's Statement. 



Gentlemen — I offer you a sample of butter 

 for premium, made on Rock farm, of exceeding 

 one hundred weight, in view of both the premi- 

 ums offered by the Essex Agricultural Society. 



That of the June make, is in two stone pots ; and 

 that of subsequent manufacture in a tub, consist- 

 ing of balls stamped. 



The June butter was made from five Cows, all 

 native bred, viz : — 



Pink, 8 years old, calve March 20th,") 

 Violet, 11 " " " " 2Sth, I 



Daisy, 12 " " " » 29th, V 5 Cows. 



Strady, 12 " » " April 17th, | 



Flora, 12 " " « " 17th, j 



All of which had their calves disposed of before 

 the first of June ; and on the 15th I added to their 

 number a three years old heifer just deprived of her 

 first calf; which animal I called Rose, in lieu of 

 one by that name I sold in April. From these 

 five cows and heifer, within the prescribed limited 

 time, 181 lbs, butter was made. The quantity 

 made during the season thus far is near 500 lbs., 

 and will be stated exactly at the expiration of the 

 six months after the 20th of May last. 



To the five above cows we added, as above sta- 

 ted, heifer 



Rose, 3 years old, calved in May 

 Flirt, 3 " " " May 26th 



Fanny, 2 » " " June 3d 



From the above five cows and three heifers, 

 about 800 lbs. of different kinds of cheese have 

 been made. 



The above cows and heifers are all from native 

 breed. Their keeping in the summer is common 

 pasturing; and in the winter they are fed with 

 fresh meadow hay and salt hay mixed, and never 

 have grain or provender of any kind, except after 

 calving in the spring, when they have a quart of 

 meal mixed with water per day, and some better 

 hay. 



For butter, the milk is strained into earthen and 

 tin pans, also zinc (but the women prefer the earth- 

 en); then set on the brick floor of a very cold dai- 

 ry cellar and skimmed before turning sour; churn- 

 ing as often as recpiisite, twice or three times 

 per week in Gait's patent churn, keeping the 

 cream as cold as possible. As soon as the butter is 

 gathered, the butter milk is immediately drawn 

 off; the churn is immediately filled with cold 

 water from the well, and the butter well washed 

 by churning a few minutes; then taken out, after 

 standing to cool, and passed through the operation 

 of salting and first working, when it is put in pans 

 on the dairy cellar floor for the day and night, and 

 next morning thoroughly and completely worked, 

 and packed down into stone pots, or made into 

 balls for stamping; when cool, stamped ; and if to 

 be kept, put down in pickle. 



N. B. The best pickle is made of washed 

 Turks Island salt, and saltpetre, with a proper pro- 

 portion of loaf sugar. 



I am very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

 Hector Coffin. 



Newbury Rock Farm, Sept. 27, 1832. 



N. B. The pans are washed after use, and then 

 boiled in a cauldron (of pure water) and cooled (in 

 the shade) before milk is again strained into them. 



The churn is filled with cold water over night, 

 before use ; and washed with boiling water after 

 churning. 



. ) Three 

 j ' I Heifers. 



Newbury Rock Farm, Nov. 20, 1832. 



Gentlemen, — Agreeably to the foregoing dupli- 

 cate of statement placed before you the day of the 

 cattle show, I now subjoin the required statement 

 necessary to obtain the premium on butter made 

 the'next six months after the 20th May, ending this 

 day; together with a continuation of the system 

 in making butter in cold weather. The whole 

 quantity of cheese is no more than before stated, 

 and butter to this day as weighed and accounted 

 for by my dairy woman, as churned, is seven hun- 

 dred and seventy one pounds. 



Our average family through the season has been 

 equal to ten persons, for whom milk has been 

 used as required, without limit. 



Since cold weather, the system of butter making 

 has been altered. The first of October the milk 

 was set on shelves in a room above ground, and 

 the same process of making the butter continued 

 as long as the warm weather lasted ; after which, 

 before churning, the cream in stone pots was set 

 near a cooking stove for a day or two and made 

 sufficiently warm to sour, when it is immediately 

 churned, and the before mentioned process pursu- 

 ed. The souring of the cream, and churning it 

 while in this state and warm, causes it to come 

 quicker and to continue the yellow hue of summer, 

 together with the flavor being much richer, and 

 keeps longer sweet and sound. While the cream 

 is near the fire, to be soured, it should be occasion- 

 ally stirred, 



My dairy woman in former seasons, where she 

 has not had the advantage of the strong heat of a 

 stove, has soured the cream by gently heating an 

 oven, in which she has put the cream in tin pails, 

 and continued an equalized heat by putting in 

 fresh coals as occasion required till effected. 



I am, gentlemen, very respectfully, your obe- 

 dient servant, Hector Coffin. 



N. B. The salt used, consists of one third clean 

 washed Turks Island, and two thirds Liverpool 

 blown salt ; to every pound of which three quarters 

 of an ounce of Saltpetre is added, and the whole 

 mass finely pulverized and passed through a fine 

 sieve; and one ounce of this mixture is used to 

 every pound of butter in summer and nearly an 

 ounce in cold weather. 



From the Dublin Penny Journal. 

 AGRICULTURE. 



If agriculturists are sometimes too hasty in 

 adopting new and foreign ways, so on the other 

 hand old farmer Jogtrot is a most provoking fellow. 

 Thus have I known one of these wiseacres steadi- 

 ly adhere to the determination of never putting a 

 scythe to his meadows till the first day of old July ; 

 another never reaps his corn until the harvest 

 moon has attained a certain age, no matter wheth- 

 er the corn was shaking in the wind or not. It 

 was in consequence of this principle, that an act 

 of parliament was obliged to be enacted to hin- 

 der the Irish from making their ploughing cattle 

 draw by the tail ; and even in improved England, 

 though certainly the instances are not so barbar- 

 ous or mischievous, Good-man Steady still sends 

 out his team of six monstrous horses, to plough a 

 little sandy soil, three inches deep, thus wasting 

 three times as much horse labor as he need, at an 

 unwarrantable expense, what the Scotchman will 

 do much better with a single pair of cattle. 



In nothing is this adherence to old and bad cus- 

 toms so evident, as in the neglect of farmers in nei- 

 ther changing or steeping their seed corn, especial- 

 ly wheat. It is a well ascertained fact, that Irish 

 wheat, as it is the worst sample, so it bears the 

 worst price in the English market. Perhaps the 

 dampness and coldness of our climate in com- 

 mon years is a great cause of deficiency in the 

 quality of our bread corn ; but certainly the fault is 

 attributed to the want of attention in the change of 

 seed — in the keeping of seed unmingled and 

 unadulterated from seeds of weeds and from 

 smut. I have seen in some of the southern coun- 

 ties of Ireland, especially Tipperary and Lime- 

 rick, wheat that was grown on the sharp limestone 

 soils that border on the Shannon, and the corn 

 in itself was a beautiful and plump sample, but it 

 was so mixed with smut and ribbery, as the seeds 

 of the darnel or lolliuin, are there called, that it was 

 almost unsaleable. I remember once calling on a 

 tenant for his rent — which he had no just excuse 

 for withholding, as the season was plentiful, and 

 a fair market price for grain : — ' Well, Tim, why 

 don't you come in with your rent? You know I 

 must do what is unpleasant if you do not settle, and 

 that soon.' 



' Why then, plase your honor, it is I that am 

 willing to pay the rent, and why should'ut I ! but 

 Master agra there's no price.' 



' How, no price,' exclaimed I, ' I got the other 

 day at Greyford mill, £1 18s. a barrel.' 



' Oh the theiven rogue,' rejoined Tim Flannery, 

 ' and amn't I after coining from the same miller^ 

 and by all the books in Father Kennedy's house, 

 all h'ed offer was two-and-twenty.' 



