1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



137 



upon cobs with no other preparation than 

 merely boiling them soft, the cow giving milk 

 all the tame. He said the cow was in full as 

 good condition as any one of his with the usual 

 keeping. 



AMERICAN" DAIKYMEN'S ASSOCIA- 

 TION. 



The Third Annual Convention of this Asso- 

 ciation was held at Utica, N. Y., Jan. 8 and 

 9. The attendance was large, there being 

 delegates from the West, Canada, New Eng- 

 land and the Middle States. 



The President, the Hon. George Williams, 

 of Rome, N. Y., called the Convention to or- 

 der. He reviewed the history of the Associa- 

 tion since its formation, four years ago. He saw 

 great cause for congratulation in the fact that 

 so many advantages and benefits had accrued 

 to the cheese-making interest fiom the organ- 

 ized efFoi-ts toward improvement in the means 

 of manufacturing. In the localities in New 

 York State where the drought has been the 

 most severe, the estimated crop of cheese has 

 been 50 per cent, below the average of ordi- 

 nary seasons. Since the last Convention, or- 

 ganizations have been formed in Wisconsin, 

 Illinois and Canada. The President pointed 

 out a few dangers that are imminent in the 

 cheese business at present. One is the large 

 amount of stock already in the market. The 

 amoimt now on band in New York is estimated 

 at from 300,000 to 400,000 boxes. The Eng- 

 lish, by throwing large quantities of home- 

 made cheese upon the market, and submitting 

 to low prices, had the effect to nearly stop ex- 

 portations at this time. Another danger is the 

 discovery that its manufacture is not necessa- 

 rily confined to the Middle States. At the 

 AVest and in the South, farmers are laying by 

 the plough and taking up the milk pail and the 

 cheese vat. He thought that at present but- 

 ter-making was more profitable than cheese- 

 making. 



The usual committees were appointed, and 

 after some remarks by Gov. Alvord, of Onon- 

 daga, on the advantages of association, a re- 

 cess was taken. 



In the afternoon the following subjects were 

 reported for discussson : — 



1. Purity of flavor in cheese — how secured, how 

 lost ? 



2. Pressing cheese two or more days — what ef- 

 fect has this upon the texture and quality of cheese. 



3. Curd mills — is their use beneficial to the cheese, 

 and is their introduction into general use advisable ? 



4. Salt — are there impurities or ingredients in 

 the Onondaga salt, that render its use injurious 

 to the quality and flavor of butter and cheese ? 



5. Butter-making from whey — can it be profita- 

 bly done at cheese factories ? 



6. Dairying in America — has it not been over 

 done ? Is it likely to lead to a production exceed- 

 ing the demand ? 



7. Is it not desirable that the Association take 

 measures to inaugurate some practical and efli- 



cient plan by which members may be put in 

 possession of all necessary information from all 

 dairy districts, respecting the quantity of cheese 

 made, with sales and quality of product, &c., at 

 frequent intervals during the season of cheese- 

 making ? 



On the first subject, purity of flavor, Mr. 

 Weeks of Oneida, read a long and highly in- 

 teresting paper. He enumerated, as reported 

 in the Tribune, as causes for impurity in 

 cheese, tmclean milk, diseased milk, the eating 

 of noxious weeds by the cows, undue exer- 

 cise of the animals, while being driven to or 

 from the pasture, by being chased by dogs, 

 rude boys, careless, and irritable help, and 

 impatient milkers, the failure to remove the 

 natural heat from the milk before proceeding 

 to make, impure annato, bad rennet, exposing 

 the cheese to too high a temperature while 

 curing, and other minor causes, which were 

 fully brought out. A discussion followed 

 by several gentlemen, among whom Pro- 

 fessor Brewer of Yale College, considered the 

 chemical properties of sweet and sour milk, 

 and the detrimental inlluence the least particle 

 of sour milk or any impure matter has, where 

 it comes in contact with sweet milk. In the 

 course of the discussion, Mr. Foster, of Onei- 

 da, brought out one point which may not be 

 universally understood by dairymen, and that 

 is, that no carrion must be permitted to lie un- 

 buried anywhere on the premises of a dairy 

 farm. He had learned from sad experience 

 that cheese will partake of the. nauseating 

 smell of carrion if cows come in contact with 

 it iu th§. pasture, 



The subject of "Curdmills," was taken up 

 and fully discussed. The use of the mill did not 

 find favor with a large number of cheese-mak- 

 ers, yet it was shown that the disfavor arises 

 more from a want of correct usage than from 

 any direct fault of the machine. 



The next cjuestion was upon the qualities of 

 Onondaga salt for cheese purposes. Lieut. 

 Gov. Alvord said the qualities of the Onon- 

 daga solar salt had been tested officially by U. 

 S. Government officers, and it was found to 

 be fully equal to Turk's Island salt. Since 

 that time the Government has ordered its 

 meats for the army and navy to be salted with 

 either the Onondaga or Turk's Island salt. 



When the present Salt Company was formed, 

 they set about experiments for eradicating the 

 chlorides of calcium and magnesium, the in- 

 gredients found to a greater or less extent in 

 all salt brine, and by a chemical process these 

 had been taken out, and chemical analysis now 

 shows that the Onondaga salt is purer than 

 Ashton. The cry had arisen some time since 

 that badly flavored butter came of using Onon- 

 daga salt, and experiments were tried by pack- 

 ing butter, in alternate packages, with Ashton 

 and Onondaga salt. These packages were ex- 

 amined by a committee appomted by the New 

 York State Society, at its late fair at Buffalo, 

 and the result was, that 25 packages out of 30, 



