NO. 12 



THE farmers' cabinet. 



191 



Pkuning Gooseberries. — A very suitable] 

 season for performing this operation is in 

 winter, and it may be done whenever mild 

 or open weatlier will permit. Gooseberries, 

 in order to produce good fruit, should be 

 kept thin of branches; all the irregular and 

 crooked ones, and old worn out bearers, 

 should be cut out, leavincr the most thrifty 

 and siraightest shoots, which would be at 

 nearly e(iual distance asunder. As the ad- 

 mission of air and light is essential to the 

 perfection of the fruit, it will generally be 

 necessary to prune olf al' superabundant 

 shoots of l"St year's growth, and the lateral 

 shouts on the larger branches, always cut- 

 ting- closely, so as to leave no stumps. A 

 good terminal shoot should always be left to 

 each branch except it be unusually long, 

 when it should be removed and a g^ood lateral 

 one left in its place — Yankee Farmer. 



^Viiiter BuJtcr, 



If milch cow^s were fed with roots, butter 

 might be made during winter. Some dairy 

 women, however, complain that it is almost 

 mpossible to churn their cream into butter, 

 n cold weather. Mr. Van Emburg [See N. 

 p. Farmer, vol. ii. p. 124, 1'25] directs to I 

 keep the milk till it begins to change, and 

 hen to churn it. He advises to mix the 

 light's milk with that of the next morning, 

 md " in summer tins change generally takes 

 Dlace about ten o'clock; in cold weather it 

 equires to be kept longer for the purpose, 

 iay spring and autumn, the milk of the first 

 mess may be kept till the day following, and 

 hen requires the addition of warm water to 

 he milk to brinij it to the right temperature 

 "or churning." Others advise in cold weath- 

 if to pour as much boiling water into the 

 ream as will bring it to about the tempera- 

 'ure of milk just from the cow. It is said 

 hat cream managed in that way will require 

 )ut very little churning, and is attended with 

 10 disadvantaije except that the butter will 

 (16 white a day or two. 



It is said in Hunter's Georgical Essays 

 hat good butter may be made from cows 

 ed on turneps as follows. 



"Let the vessels which receive the milk 

 1)6 kept constantly clean, and well scalded 

 jvith boiling w^ater. When the milk is 

 Drought from the dairy, with every eight 

 Quarts mix one quart of boiling water, and 

 ihen put it up to stand for cream." This it 

 Is asserted will destroy the taste of the tur- 

 ep, and perhaps may facilitate the process 

 f churning. 

 Dr. Deane's N. England Farmer states 

 at " a strong rancid flavor will be given to 

 e butter if we churn so near the fire as to 

 eart the wood in the winter season. In 



churning for butter always have an orifice 

 sufficient for the air to have access to the 

 cream. Hutter is produced by the union of 

 oxygen w ith the cream, and more butter will 

 be produced, and of a finer flavor, if the 

 churn is sufHciently open. 



It is recommended by some writers to 

 shorten the ojieration of churning by mixing 

 a little distilled vinegar with the cream in 

 the churn. A table-spoonful or two to a 

 gallon of cream is advised, and the acid may 

 be carried off by washing the butter in two 

 or three changes of water. 



In Scotland dairy women give their butter 

 a fine yellow color by grating some ornage 

 carrots, straining ihejuii-eand mixing it with 

 the cream previous to churning. Butter thus 

 made acquires not only a beautiful yellow 

 color, but a flavor which adds greatly to its 

 value. The quantity of carrot juice to be 

 used must be ascertained by experiment and 

 the judgment of the manufacturer. 



Another Method. Moderate winter weather 

 is unfavorable to butter making; the cream 

 being so long in rising that the butter ac- 

 quires a bitter taste. The method pursued 

 in my family is, to wartn the bason into 

 which the milk is strained, and theti imme- 

 diately set it where it will freeze moderately 

 hard as soon as possible, i he act of conge- 

 lation causes all the cream to rise ; which is, 

 in a tin basin, often near three fourths of an 

 inch thick. With one of Spain's churns, 

 (sold by H. Huxley and Co. New York,) 

 butter is generally obtained in ten to twenty- 

 five minutes. By feeding the cows partly 

 on turneps, the butter is as yellow, and pos- 

 sesses a flavor no ways inferior to that made 

 in summer. — N. E. Farmer. 



Beet Sugar in Ohio. 



In Dayton, Ohio, the manufacture of beet 

 sugar has been tried on a very minute scale. 

 A Mr. Clark made two pounds and a half of 

 good brown sugar from twenty-nine pounds 

 and a half of the mangel wurtzel. He de- 

 scribes the process thus : 



"I bruised the roots with the head of an 

 axe, and poured upon the pulp scalding wa- 

 ter, and ])ut the whole into a coarse bag, and 

 wrung out by hand all that I could obtain. I 

 then put it over the fire in a brass kettle, add- 

 ing milk to raise the scum — after which I 

 added a little blood, while the syrup was 

 warm, which caused the sediment to settle 

 at the bottom of the kettle, when the whole 

 stood an hour. I poured off the syrup as 

 carefully as 1 could — placed it over the fire 

 again gave it a slow heat, and testing it as 

 they do syrup of inapel, molasses, began to 

 stir with a wooden spatula ofT from the fire, 

 till it was grained off' very handsome, and 

 was much admired by those who saw it," 



