NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



DUNCAN McNAUOHTON'S STATEMENT. 



To the Committee on Dairy. 



The sample presented is one wood box, of twenty- 

 five pounds, made in June, 1849. Milked five cows ; 

 made one hundred and twenty-one pounds in all. 

 The cows were three natives and two Durhams, kept 

 in a very ordinary pasture. 



Method of Makinj. — The milk was strained into tin 

 pails, and kept in a dairy cellar made for the purpose. 

 The milk stands three days before it is skimmed, and 

 the cream stands three days, (stirrinj^ it every day,) 

 in a stone jar, before it is churned. Churn every 

 third day. The butter is taken from the buttermilk, 

 and worked through three waters, taken cool from 

 the spring, until the buttermilk is entirely removed ; 

 then it is well salted, and remains one day, when it is 

 ■worked over again, working out all the extra salt, and 

 made into pound lumps. The churn is soaked and 

 cooled with cold water fi'om the spring before the 

 cream is put into it. 



Lot No. 2. — The sample is twenty-five pounds 

 made tliis present month. Milked six cows, and 

 made seventy-nine pounds from the 1st to the '22d of 

 this month. The cows were three native and three 

 Durham, kept principally in the same ordinary pas- 

 ture, with a feed of corn fodder every evening. The 

 care of the milk, the method of making the butter, 

 is the same as No. 1, except that now the milk stands 

 four days before it is skimmed, and the cream stands 

 four days in the jar before it is churned. Churn 

 every fouith day. 



DUNCAN McNAUGHTON. 



Byfield, Sept. 26, 1849. 



Remarks. — This statement is not in exact con- 

 formity with the conditions on which the premiums 

 are offered. One remark we would make is, inas- 

 miich as Mr. M. appears to have been free in the 

 apjilication of cold water to his butter, its quality 

 v;as not improved thereby. From all we can learn, 

 our impression is very strong that such application is 

 not beneficial. If any one entertains a different 

 opinion, we hope next year they will exhibit a parcel 

 of June butter, purified with water, that shall bo 

 worthy of the first premium. Until this is done, we 

 think the chances will be in favor of the butter to 

 which no water is applied. 



JOHN PRESTON'S STATEMENT. 



To the Committee on Dairy. 



Gentlemen: I offer for your inspection one jar 

 of June butter, containing twenty-six one h^lf pounds, 

 it being a sample of one hundred and seventy-one 

 pounds, made between the 20th day of May and the 

 9th day of July, and of three hundred and sixty- 

 five and three fourths pouiids made between the 

 20th day of May and the 2lth day of September. 



I have milked four cows, all of native breed — one 

 nine years old, two four years old, and one three 

 y.ears old. I have used in the family about fom- 

 quarts of milk per day. 



Their keeping has been, common pasture, with corn 

 fodder once a day since the middle of August. 



J'rocefm of Making. — The milk is strained into tin 

 pans, and set on the bottom of a cool cellar, where 

 it remains from twenty-four to thirty-six hours. The 

 cream is put in stone pots. A\'e churn once a week. 

 The buttermilk is thoroughly worked out, and the 

 butter Ls salted with one ounce of rock salt to the 

 pound. JOHN PRESTON. 



Nouxii Danvers, Sejit. 27, 1849. 



nAviD ciioate's statement. 

 To the Committee on Dairy. 



Gentlemen ; I offer, for your inspection, sixtj'- 

 •ix and one half pounds of new millt cheese, being 



a sample of eight hundred pounds made between the 

 1st day of June and the 1st of August last. We had 

 seven cows in milk during that time. After the 10th 

 of August we milk nine. 



The whole produce of the dairy has been as fol- 

 lows, viz. : eight hundred pounds of new milk cheese, 

 as above, and forty-four pounds of four meal do., 

 with a small quantity of an inferior kind ; also, 

 two hundred and nineteen pounds of butter. The 

 butter has been chiefly made since the 1st of 

 August. 



The farm is situated upon Hog Island, so called, in 

 this town, and has suffered from drought and from 

 grasshoppers beyond any former year. The cows 

 had no feed beside what they found in the pasture, 

 untU about the 10th of September, after which time 

 they were occasionally let into the mowing grounds 

 a few hours in the day. All the cows arc of native 

 breed, except one of the two which Ave began to milk 

 about the 10th of August. This cow has had a 

 quart of meal a day for ten or twelve days past 

 only. 



The whole number of new milk cheeses made is 

 fifty-five. In making the first twenty-three, the 

 night's mUk was made blood wann, after taking off 

 the cream' in the morning ; after which, the milk of 

 both night and morning, with the cream of the night 

 milk, was put together, and the rennet put in as 

 usual, at the rate of half a pint to eight pails of 

 milk. The other thirty-two cheeses were managed 

 somewhat differently. A curd was made of the 

 night's milk immediately after drawing it. This 

 was left to drain through the night, and was mLxed 

 with the curd of the next morning. The quan- 

 tity of rennet was the same as before, and the 

 salt in both cases was a tea-cup fidl of the ground 

 rock salt to a cheese of about fifteen pounds weight. 

 We press from twenty-four to thirty hours. Milk 

 has been used freely in the family through the sum- 

 mer, say about five quarts a dav. 



DAVID CHOATE. 



Essex, Sept. 26, 1849. 



[to be concluded in next number.] 



LONG VITALITY OF SEEDS. 



So completelj- is the gro\md impregnated with 

 seeds, that if earth is brought to the surface from the 

 lowest depths at which it is found, some vegetable 

 matter will spring from it. I have always considered 

 this fact as one of the many surprising instances of 

 the power and bounty of Almighty God, who has 

 thus literally filled the earth with his goodness, by 

 storing up a deposit of useful seeds in its depths, 

 where they must liave lain tlu-ough a succession of 

 ages, only requiring the energies of man to bring 

 them into action. In boring for water lately, at a 

 spot near Kingston on the Thames, some earth was 

 brought up from a depth of three hundred and sixty 

 feet ; this earth was carefully covered over with a 

 hand glass, to i)revont the possibility of any other 

 seeds being deposited upon it ; yet in a short time 

 plants vegetated from it. If quicklime be put upon 

 land which from time immemorial has produced 

 nothing but heather, the heather will be killed, and 

 white clover spring up in its ])lace. A curious fact 

 was communicated to me respecting some land wliich 

 surrounded an old castle, formerly belonging to the 

 Regent Murry, near Moffat. On removing the peat, 

 which is about six or eight inches in thickness, a 

 stratum of soil appears, Avhich is sujiposcd to have 

 been a cultivated garden in the time of the regent, 

 and from which a variety of flowers and plantu 

 spring some of them little known even at this tim« 

 in Scotland. 



