]\EW engi^a:^d farmer. 



PUBLISHED BY J. B. RUSSELL, NO. 52, NORTti MARKET STREET, (at the Agricui.tur/vi. VVarkhouse.) — T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



VOL,. X. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JUNE 6, 1832. 



NO. 47. 



Rural Economy, 



MAKING CHEESE. 



The Massachusetts Agricultural Repository 

 gives the followiug directions for this process : — 

 " Breaking the curd is done with the hand and 

 dish. The (iner the curd is broken, the better, 

 particularly in thick cheeses. The best color of 

 this kind of cheese is that of bees' wax, which is 

 produced by Arnotta, rubbed into the milk after it 

 is wanned. The dairy woman is to judge the 

 quality by the color of the milk, as it differs much 

 in strength. 



" Setting the milk too hot inchnes the cheese to 

 heave, and cooling it with cold water produces a 

 similar effect. The degree of heat varies with the 

 weather. The curd when formed is broken with 

 what is called a treple cheese knife. The use of 

 this is to keep the fat in the cheese ; it is drawn 

 the depth of the curd two or three times across the 

 tub, to give the whey an opportunity to run off 

 clear ; after a few minutes the knife is more freely 

 used, and the curd is cut into small pieces like 

 chequers, and is broken fine in the whey with the 

 hand and a wooden dish. The curd being allow- 

 ed about half an hour to settle, the whey is laded 

 off with the dish, after it is pretty well separated 

 from the curd. 



" It is almost an invariable practice to scald the 

 curd. The mass is first broken very fine, and 

 then the scalding whey is added and stirred a few 

 minutes ; some make use of hot water in prefer- 

 ence to whe}', and in both cases heated according 

 to the nature of the curd ; if it is soft, the whey or 

 water is used near boiling ; but if hard it is only 

 used a little hotter than the hand. After the curd 

 is thoroughly mixed with the hot stuff, it is suffer- 

 ed to stand a few minutes to settle, and is then 

 separated as at the first operation. After the 

 scalding liquor is separated, a vat or what is often 

 called a cheese hoop, is laid across the cheese 

 ladder over the tub, and the curd is crumbled into 

 it with the hands and pressed into the val, to 

 squeeze out the whey. The vat being filled as 

 full and as firmly as the hand alone can fill it, and 

 rounded up in the middle, a cheese cloth is spread 

 over it and the curd is turned out of the hoop into 

 the cloth ; the vat is then washed and the inverted 

 mass of curds, with the cloth under it, is returned 

 into the vat and put into the press ; after standing 

 two or three hours in the press, the vat is taken 

 out and the cloth is taken off, washed and put 

 round the cheese, and it is replaced in the vat and 

 in the press. In about seven or eight hours it is 

 taken out of the press and salted, the cheese is 

 placed on a board and a handful of salt is rubbed 

 all over it, and the edges are jiared oft' if necessary ; 

 another handl'ul of salt is strewed on the upper 

 side, and as much left as will stick to it ; after- 

 wards it is turned into the bare vat without a cloth, 

 and an equal quantity of salt is added to it, and the 

 cheese is returned into the press ; here it contin- 

 ues one night ; and the next morning it is turned 

 into the vat, and continues till the succeeding 

 morning, and the curd is taken out and placed on 

 the dairy shelf; here they are turned every day 

 or every other day, as the weather may be. II' it 

 is hot and dry, the windows and doors are kept 



shut, but if wet or moist the <loors and « indovvs 

 arc kept open night and day. 



" Cleaning the cheese. — The cheeses having re- 

 mained about ten days after leaving the press, arc 

 to be washed and scraped in the following man- 

 ner : A large tub of cold sweet whey is placed 

 on the floor, the cheeses are inimergedin it, where 

 they continue an hour, or longer if necessary, to 

 soften the rind. They are then taken out and 

 scraped with a common case-knife, with great 

 care, so as not to injure the tender rind, till every 

 part of thecheese is smooth ; they are after the last 

 operation rinsed in the whey and wiped clean 

 with a coarse cloth, and placed in an airy situation 

 to dry, after which they are placed in the cheese 

 room. The floor of the cheese room is generally 

 prepared by rubbing it witKbeau or potato tops, or 

 any succulent herb, till it appears of a black wet 

 color ; on this floor the cheeses are placed and 

 turned twice a week, their edges are wiped hard 

 with a cloth once a week, and the floor is cleaned 

 and rubbed with fresh herbs once a fortnight. 

 They must not lie too long or they will stick to 

 the floor. This preparation of the floor gives the 

 cheese a blue coat, which is considered of great 

 consequence." 



From the Tablets of Rural Economy. 



PINUS CEMBRA. 



This elegant and valuable species of ornamental 

 evergreens, has not yet, as far as we are informed, 

 been cultivated in this country, although it may 

 be had, we presume, at some of our principal nur- 

 series, as we observe its name in the catalogue of 

 the Messrs Prince, of Long Island. It deserves 

 attention, not oidy on account of its majestic ap- 

 pearance upon bleak and barren mountains, but 

 likewise from the excellence of its timber, and 

 from the circumstance of the kernels in the cone, 

 being eatable, in which point it resembles the Ital- 

 ian stone pine. 



The tiivial name applied to it is Aphernousli, or 

 Arvenusli, incorrectly however, we should think, 

 as in a note to a description of this tree, lying be- 

 fore IIS, it is said to be derived from the German 

 word Apher, a pine, and nousli, a small nut. — 

 These are not German words, but the words in 

 that language which in sound come nearest to this 

 appellation, would be Alpen Niisslein, the little 

 Alpine nut. 



It grows on the coldest and most mountainous 

 jjarts of the following countries : Switzerland, 

 Piedmont, Savoy, Dauphiny, Tartary and Siberia. 



The Aphernousli pine, according to' Mr Ilarte, 

 (see Harte's Essays in Husbandry,) is of an healthy 

 vigorous nature, grows very tall, and will bear re- 

 moving when it is young, even in warm, dry weath- 

 er, but I do not, he adds, recommend the practice. 

 We italicise the last sentence in order to connect 

 it with the following remarks. The proper time 

 for transplanting evergeens seems not to have been 

 determined. They differ so much in habit and 

 constitution from our other trees, and fail so gen- 

 erally when removed in the spring and fall, that it 

 is apparent these are not the fitting seasons for the 

 operation. It may be done in winter by digging 

 around and taking up a ball of frozen earth with 



the plant, but- this method is expensive and will 

 not answer where they are to be transported to 

 any considerable distance. We recollect hearing 

 August mentioned as the best time, but have made 

 no experiment to test if. Tlie Rhododendron 

 maxima we have transplanted at various seasons, 

 and without success in every instance, but where 

 it was done in June when the new leaf buds were 

 just expanding. In tliis state we have brought 

 them in an open wagon a distance jof fifty mile!", 

 and not a leaf has shrivelled. There are some 

 herbaceous plants, also, which arc best removc<l 

 when in full flower, as many species of the Orchi- 

 deous family, such as the Cyprida^dium pubesccns. 

 Orchis spectabile and fimbriata. But to return to ■ 

 the Pinus Cembra. 



" Its timber is large and has many uses within 

 doors or under cover; its grain is finer and more 

 beautifully variegated than deal, and the smell is"' 

 more agreeable; it is useful for wainscotting, floor- 

 ing, and other joiner's work, and the wood makes 

 excellent firing for stoves, ovens, and kilns. The 

 leasants of Tyrol, where this tree abounds, make 

 various sorts of carved works with the wood, 

 which they dispose of in Switzerland among the 

 common people, who are fond of the resinous 

 smell which it exhales. The bark of the trunk of 

 the tree is of a whitish cast and the branches re- 

 semble those of the spruce fir. They are long, 

 smooth, and are produced by fives." 



"The cones are of a purplish color, shaded with 

 black, about three inches long, the same in cir- 

 cumference, and grow erect ; a dozen weigh fif- 

 teen ounces, or about one ounce and a quarter 

 each ; under each scale there are two kernels, and 

 from a hundred to a hundred and fifty in each 

 cone." 



The husks, or sort of a shell which incloses the 

 kernels, is easily cracked, and the kernels are cov- 

 ered with a brown skin which peels off; they are 

 about as large as a common pea, triangular like 

 buckwheat, and white and soft as a blanched al- 

 mond, of an oily agreeable taste, but leaving in 

 the mouth that small degree of asperity which is 

 peculiar to wild fruits and not unpleasing. These 

 kernels make a pait sometimes in a Swiss dessert, 

 and supply the place of mushroom buttons in ra- 

 gouts, and on account of their balsamic oil, are re- 

 commended in consumptive cases. A writer says 

 it ought to be distinguished as the king of all for- 

 est plants, as its fruit is not only a nourisher of 

 health but a promoter of population ; and we arc 

 informed by a traveller, that he has seen trees of 

 this species ninety feet high and near ten feet in 

 circumfei'ence at their bases. 



From the Salem Mercury. 



WANTON DESTRUCTION OF BIRDS. 



Messrs Editors — At this season, during the 

 vacation of the difl'erent schools, there is a class of 

 boys who are in the habit of treading down the 



ass of our fields and pastures, and injuring the 

 branches of the fruit trees, in the wicked and wan- 

 ton habit of shooting birds. The insectivorous 

 kinds, viz. the swallows, martins, redstarts, king 

 birds, &c, which, previous to the wet weather of 

 the last fortnig'ht were abundant, have many of 



