1819. 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



205 



and the milk is brought home in boats: but this is 

 not thought so good Cor the butter, which is then 

 always churned from the whole milk without taking 

 the cream rise. The finesl and beBl flavored butter 

 is always made from the cream as fresh as possible; 

 and to make it rise well, the milk should be sel as 

 soon as drawn, and agitated as little as possible 

 The greatest quantity is seldom obtained whore the 



quality is finest. Where great attention is paid to 

 the quality, the milk is skimmed about six hours 

 alter it is set, and the cream then taken off is 

 churned by itself. The next skimming makes infe- 

 rior butter. It is in fact essential that the dairy 

 house should be as near as possible to the cow house. 

 In Holland the milk is carried in brass vessels, 

 exquisitely clean. 



The subjoined plans will convey a clear idea of the 

 Dutch cow house and dairy above described : 



DAIRY HOUSE. 



Side View. 



A. A. A. Passage through the cow house and 

 dairy 10 feet wide, paved with brick set on edge. 

 The food is brought along this passage in a small 

 cart, and distributed to the cows. B. part of the 

 passage above mentioned, closed in with doors, and 

 forming a vestibule to the dairy; C. the dairy room 

 in which only milk, cream and butter are kept: it is 

 sunk three feet under the level of the cow house, and 



covered with a brick 

 arch; it has one lat- 

 ticed window, and 

 several ventilators, 

 on a level with the 

 place on which the 

 milk vessels are set. 

 D. the room where 

 the utensils are 

 Section of Cow House. scalded, and where 



cheese is made; in one corner is a fire place, with a 

 large kettle or a copper set. E. stairs to go up to 

 cheese room M., and the loft N. P. Calf pens, in 

 which the calves are tied up to fatten, so that they 

 cannot turn to lick themselves; there is a small 

 trough with pounded chalk and salt in each pen. 

 G. the place for the cows 

 without partitions, each 

 cow being tied to two 

 posts by small chains and 

 rings which run on the 

 'posts; the chains are fast- 

 tened to a broad leathern 

 strap, which is buckled 

 round the neck of each 

 cow. H. H. two sinks 

 or drains, with iron grat- 

 Section of Dairy. ings'over them, to catcli 



the fluid refuse from the gutters I, I, which run along 

 each side of the cow house; K. the tank for the refuse, 

 vaulted over with a door L, to clear it out, and a 



pump to pump up the liquid manure; 0. O. in this 

 section are places where the green food or rool 



deposited tor the day's consumption. 



With n • pi . t to the 

 fluid manure, of which 

 the Muti h and Flemish 

 are so careful, it i ■ g< n- 

 erally wasted bj the 



dairy farmer of Eng- 

 land — and almost with- 

 out exception by the 

 dairy farmers of New 



i "< ork. Yd as a manure 



—J for gardens, Uc, if is 

 very valuable : and in 

 Belgium would n turn 

 by contract, an average 

 oi JL/J(ori§8.88porcow) 

 by the year. Four hun- 

 dred cows would thus 

 produce £800 ($3,552) 

 per annum in this manure alone — good interest for 

 the outlay of constructing the vaulted tanks lor its 

 reception !" 



Growth of Plants in Confined Air. — It is now well 

 known that a plant nourishes as well or better when grown 

 in soil in a transparent vessel with the external nir excludi d, 

 than when exposed to its' influence. Mr. Leeds, druggist, 

 cornerof Atlantic amK'ourt streets, Brooklyn, baa a monthly 

 rose in a large glass jar, planted in the usual soil. This jar 

 is hermetically scaled, and yet the plant lias nourished, its 

 leaves being of a healthy green, and it grows faster and 

 blossoms earlier than any similar plant exposed to die atmos- 

 phere. It has been kept more than two years in tins state, 

 having been opened only twice to clean out the gr iss, "which 

 grows, also, more rapidly from the pots exposed. — Mr. 

 Patridge. 



If the above is correct in all its statements, the 

 experiments, reasons and theories of vegetable phy- 

 siologists are blown to the winds. It has ever been 

 held, and such we still believe to be true, that plants 

 inhale and exhale the gases composing the atmos- 

 phere. Some plants arc capable of drawing their 

 whole nutriment from the air, as the Japan Air-plant, 

 and others in a great degree. We should like to 

 learn the advantages of the plowing in of the green 

 crop to enrich soils, if they only derived their con- 

 tents from the earth. It would be only returning the 

 same materials back, that had just been taken from 

 it, without any gain or addition. There must be 

 some error in the experiment. We should like to 

 know what Mr. Patridge calls " hermetically sealed.'' 

 We suppose he won't pretend that the jar was melted 

 and the glass joined together like the stem of a ther- 

 mometer. Nothing short of that is hermetical seal- 

 ing, or will exclude the air. We presume the jar 

 was closed with a cork, and waxed, which, as to ex- 

 cluding the air, would be an entire fallacy. We 

 should like to be informed, also, how they admitted 

 water for its subsistence during its two year*' im- 

 prisonment, without admitting air; and where the 

 oxygen was procured to convert the humus of the soil 

 into carbon, for the leaf, woody fibre and flower. * 



Effects of Certain Manures on Plants. — 

 As a general rule, nitrogenous manures force the 

 green leaf and stalk ; the phosphates dispose to seed : 

 the sulphates and salt to solidity ; and potash to 

 healthy and vigorous growth. 



