No. 8. Premiums of Agricultural Society. — Dairy Husbandry. 



23^ 



labour and expenses, in the increased value 

 of onr provender alone. The coming sea- 

 son I shall plant my corn on soils of various 

 degrees of fertility, and shall then test the 

 matter more fully. Pennepack, 



Lower Dublin, Pa., Dec. 19th, 1846. 



Prenniatns of Agricultural Society. 



At a stated meeting of the Philadelphia 

 Society for promoting Agriculture, held on 

 the 3rd inst., A. S. Roberts, President, in 

 the chair. After the minutes of the last 

 meeting were read, the committee appointed 

 at a former meeting to prepare a list of crops 

 for which premiums should be offered the 

 ensuing season, made the following report, 

 which was adopted, to wit: 



For the best field of wheat, not less than 

 three acres, SIO. 



For the best field of rye, not less than 

 three acres, 88. 



For the best field of oats, not less than 

 three acres, ^6. 



For the best field of corn, not less than 

 five acres, $10. 



For the best lot of potatoes, not less than 

 one acre, $10. 



For the best lot of sugar beets, not less 

 than half an acre, 86. 



For the best lot of ruta-baga, not less than 

 half an acre, $6. 



For the best lot of carrots, not less than 

 one-quarter of an acre, $6. 



For the best lot of parsnips, not less than 

 one-quarter of an acre, ^Q. 



For the best lot of field or flat turnips, not 

 less than half an acre, $6. 



For the second best crop of each of the 

 above, a copy of Colman's Journal will be 

 awarded. 



On motion of S. C. Ford, a committee 

 was appointed for the purpose of fixing the 

 time and place of holding the Society's an- 

 nual exhibition, and to report thereon at the 

 next stated meeting. Extract from the min- 

 utes. Aaron Clement, Rec. Sec. 



Philadelpliia, March 5ih, 1847. 



Dairy Husbandry. 



England has long been celebrated for its 

 dairy products, at least for the quality of its 

 cheese; and this is often of a superior de- 

 scription. 



1. Butter. — The butter in England is, 

 much of it, delicious, especially that which 

 is made in private families, where it is 

 churned from new and sweet cream every 

 morning, and brought fresh from the churn 

 to the breakfast table; and more particularly 



when the butter is made from the cream of 

 an Alderney cow. The common market 

 and shop butter, however, is of the same va- 

 rious character with that in our own mar- 

 kets, with no larger proportion of very ex- 

 cellent butter than is to be found in the 

 markets of Boston, New York, and Phila- 

 delphia. Indeed, much of the butter found 

 in the market of the last named city, for its 

 freshness and deliciousness, is nowhere sur- 

 passed. The butter in England is generally 

 sent to market fresii, and you are left to salt 

 it at your pleasure, ns you use it. The salted 

 butter, in tubs or firkins, is mostly imported 

 from Ireland, or the continent. Even this, 

 however, is not heavily salted. In most of 

 the markets a good deal of butter made from 

 the whey of cheese, is sold at a reduced 

 price. It is of inferior taste and quality, 

 and is bought by the poor, or to be used in 

 cooking, where, like a good many nameless 

 things, it may be thoroughly disguised, and 

 pass without detection. 



The Dorsetshire butter, which stands at 

 the head of the market, comes packed in 

 neat casks of about thirty pounds each; but 

 is very lightly salted, and of course will not 

 keep long. It is likewise sent up to London 

 in lumps, perfectly fresh for the table. Its 

 quality is excellent. The table butter like- 

 wise, from Epping, and especially Aylesbury, 

 is of the best description. 



The Devonshire butter is almost univer- 

 sally made by first heating the milk, just so 

 much as to cause the escape of the fixed air. 

 In twelve hours the cream is all brought to 

 the surface, and in a state of consistency to 

 be easily taken off. It is a disputed point, 

 whether as much butter is obtained in this 

 way as by the ordinary mode of letting it 

 stand, without being heated, a much longer 

 time. The butter is thought to acquire in 

 this way a peculiar taste, but it is by no 

 means unpleasant. The skimmed milk re- 

 maining is perfectly sweet, and appears the 

 richer for being heated. In this way is ob- 

 tained the famous clotted cream which is to 

 be found on the hospitable tables of Devon- 

 shire, and is a great luxury. 



Glass milk-pans, made of bottle glass, are 

 much approved, and with proper care, are 

 in no danger of being broken. They re- 

 commend themselves by their cleanliness 

 and incapacity of rust, or corrosion, or de- 

 composition. In some dairies I found shal- 

 low leaden troughs used for setting the milk, 

 with a tap at the bottom, so as to draw the 

 milk off and leave the cream. Some per- 

 sons maintain that, the more shallow the 

 p;in, the more cream in proportion will be 

 obtained ; but in a large dairy in Scotland, 

 the milk is always set in deep casks and 



