1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



sei 



portant than this in successful bee culture. The 

 second method is, care of your stocks; keeping 

 everything about the establishment nice and clean. 

 This is one reason v.hy I fancy those hives with an 

 arrangement for easily removing the bottom board 

 of the hive, in order to inspect the inside of the 

 hive if necessary, and for cleaning the same. It saves. 

 a vast amount of very hard work for the bees. The 

 gentleman of whom I first bought a swarm of bees 

 gave me a secret with the ,same for preventing the 

 moth : it was tobacco. And from one season's 

 trial with it, I am favorably impressed with its use. 

 Take common chewing tobacco, cut it in thin 

 slices, and introduce it at the entrance of the hive, 

 say three slices — two inches square. When its 

 odor is gone introduce more, and continue it through 

 the season. He paid ten dollars — you have it for 

 what it is worth — which is as cheap as I got it. At 

 this season of the year and so on through the sum- 

 mer months, the bottom board should be removed 

 and cleaned twice a week, and every stock visited 

 once a day ; ten or fifteen minutes is time enough 

 for as many hives. Care in this business, as in 

 every other, is one-half of the battle to success. 



STATE OF MAINE POTATO. 



I see by the last Farmer that one of your corres- 

 j,ondenls in the western part of t^e State "is in 

 love with this potato." I rejoice at this. It is 

 highly spoken of, praised, <S:c., by many ; and this 

 was the reason why I gave my experience with it; 

 if others are more successful audit suits their taste, 

 all right — only we differ — that's all. If I were going 

 into farming largely, I should now try any other 

 kind but the "State of Maine." I have this year 

 planted some dozen varieties, and shall report pro- 

 gress by-and-bye. One sure way of getting the 

 truth is for each to tell what he knows, and only 

 what he knows. Most farmers are intelligent 

 enough tn do this. Youi-s, NORFOLK. 



King Oak Hill, June, 1857. 



For the New England Farmer. 



CHEESE. 



Mr. Brown : — "A farmer's wife" wishes to know 

 "the whole operation of cheese-making, and the 

 best manner of taking care of cheese during the 

 summer." 



It is hardly to be expected that a beginner, as I 

 presume the one who makes the inquiry to be, will 

 meet with complete success in her first efforts in 

 this line — but I have found the following process, 

 which is nothing new, perhaps, to most of your 

 readers, attended with as little work and as satis- 

 factory results as any other which I have tried. 



The night's milk is strained into a tub standing 

 under a window which is left open during the night; 

 sufficient rennet is tlien added to bring the curd in 

 from thirty to fifty minutes — never less than thirty 

 minutes. It is then checked with a cheese slice and 

 allowed to remain during the night. In the morn- 

 ing the whey which has risen is taken away, and 

 the remainder dipped carefully into a cheese basket 

 to drain. The morning's milk is then strained into 

 the tub and rennet added as before. 



In the course of two or three hours the morning's 

 curd may be added to the night's, and when hoth 

 are thoroughly drained, (and by the way this 

 draining process should never be hurried, if you 

 would preserve the best qualities of the cheese,) 



water not quite heated to the boiling point should 

 be gently poured upon the curd, which has been 

 removed from the basket to a clean tub or jar. 

 This should remain at least five minutes; it should 

 then be returned to the basket and gently pressed 

 in the cloth til! quite dry and free from water, 

 when it should be cut fine and salted; a com- 

 mon teacupful of salt is sufficient for a cheese 

 weighing fifteen pounds. It should be jjrpssed two 

 days, and turnea twice while pressing. When re- 

 moved from the press it should be "swathed" with 

 a cotton bandage, turned and rubbed with butter 

 or bacon fat each day. 



If the cheese room is kept sweet, dry, cool and 

 not'too airy, cheese made in this way will never 

 "crack," and if they do not crack, the "Farmer's 

 Wife" need not fear a host of "cheese flies." 



If, however, with proper care and attention the 

 cheese should have the meanness to crack, just 

 cover the same with a piece of tissue paper, or very 

 thin cloth, and bestow upon it, as Mrs. K. said, 

 "your best epithets." ' e. f. g. 



May 31. 



IMPROVEMENT OF LAND BY 

 SOWING CLOVER. 

 L'Hommedieu remarks that he succeeded in 

 thoroughly improving a piece of poor land which 

 produced only moss, fern-finger and a few daisies, 

 by sowing upon it clover seed, four quarts to the 

 acre. "It gave a tolerable product and improved 

 the land." L'Hommedieu considers this method 

 preferable to sowing clover with grain, upon very 

 poor land, as the grain exhausts the fertility which 

 the soil possesses, and the clover is consequently 

 starved. This hint is worthy of observation It is 

 frequently found that in cases where clover and oth- 

 er grass seed is sowed with spring grain, the young 

 plants start vigorously, but afterwards wholly dis- 

 appear. This is to be attributed to the exhausting 

 and stifling eflect of the grain, which overtops the 

 plants, and deprives them not only of air, but of 

 the requisite amount of nourishment from the soil. 

 To obviate this, many farmers are in the practice 

 of sowing their grass seed without a crop of grain. 



Mr. French — Letter from England. — We 

 present, to-daj', the first of a series of Letters from 

 England, written by our Associate Editor, Mr. 

 French. The reader will not fail to observe the 

 closeness of his observation, or his familiarity with 

 the writings of British authors describing the sin- 

 gular beauties of that elder land. A blooming 

 daisy, the note of the skylark, or the voices of 

 children, arrest his attention, and fill him with emo- 

 tion, as well as the vale of Llangallen, the walls 

 and cathedrals of ancient Chester, or the banks of 

 Avon and the home of Shakespeare. 



Mr. French's robust health, his scholarly acquire- 

 ments, his love for agricultural pursuits, aided by 

 his ease and suavity of manner, will gain him trooj.s 

 of friends, and combine to render his letters of the 

 most interesting and instructive character. 



