No. 8. 



True Farming. — To Make Good Butter in Winter. 



239 



ties with which the farmer has to contend, 

 and the great diversity of opinion upon a 

 subject so familiar as farming. It was obvi- 

 ous from these discussion?, tl)at we could 

 find no substantial authority in regard to the 

 cultivation of corn, even among the farmers 

 themselves. He thought the subject of un 

 derstanding the character of the soil was 

 loo much overlooked, in all crops. Every 

 farmer ought to understand everything in 

 relation to the nature of his soil, and what 

 kinds of soil are best adapted to the differ 

 ent crops, and the best kinds of manures to 

 crops. The want of this knowledge was a 

 serious embarrassment to the farmer. The 

 best remedy for this deficiency in practical 

 knowledge, he thought to be the establ sh 

 ment of a model farm, when science might 

 be brought to the aid of agriculture, and ex 

 periments tested in such a manner as to 

 show their importance, and to furnish au- 

 thority upon which the young farmer, espe 

 cially, might rely. He thought that if those 

 farmers who had the means would contribute 

 the amount of money they lose in making 

 experiments tliemselves, to this object, much 

 more light would be obtained upon the sub- 

 ject. — Mass. Spy. 



True Farming—Great Farming on a 

 Small Farm. 



A. Macomber, of Spring Port, Cayuga 

 county, has a farm of only sixty acres, in- 

 cluding two public roads. It was originally 

 covered with oak and hickory trees; the soil 

 a clay loam, with limestone pebbles. He 

 keeps three horses, four cows, and thirty-five 

 sheep. His crop this year is 652 bushels 

 plump wheat; 150 bushels oats; five acres 

 corn, very stout ; four acres cloverseed ; be- 

 tween 30 and 40 tons hay, and more pasture 

 than can be found on any other farm of the 

 size in the county of Cayuga. 



He always sows his corn ground with 

 wheat; first haul off the corn, harrow, then 

 plough, then seed, then harrow again three 

 times, and sow plenty of cloverseed in the 

 spring. He makes all the straw into ma- 

 nure, and puts most of it on his corn ground. 

 The great secret of this man's sucress, is in 

 keeping'his ground covered either with grain 

 crops, or a heavy mat of clover and timothy 

 grass. He considers the exposure of a naked 

 fallow to the sun of July and August, a sort 

 of necessary evil ; that the soil, to be kept 

 strong, should be covered. 



In addition to barn-yard manure, Mr. Ma- 

 comber applies plaster, salt, and ashes broad- 

 Cast to his crops. He says he was induced 

 to take the Genesee Farmer many years 

 ago. Although no friend to too many expe- 

 riments or theories, he is a very decided ad- 



vocate for the union of science with agricul- 

 ture. 



Now I am aware that many farmers who 

 read the foregoing, will say that Macomber 

 must either hire a great deal of help, or 

 work very hard himself. Very true; but 

 has he not the product to pay for the labour. 

 He himself avers that the labour of harvest- 

 ing and securing his crops is the most formi- 

 dable part of his farm labour. How much 

 better thus to expend money to harvest and 

 secure crops, than waste money and labour 

 in a tardy, slovenly, ill-directed course of 

 farming, which gives no crops to the har- 

 vest, or very poor ones. 



Such men as A. Macomber are beforehand 

 and in season with all their work; their corn 

 leaves never bleach iu a wet season nor curl 

 in a dry one. They keep no old sward to 

 hybernate worms, the affliction of all lazy 

 farmers as well as of those who have too 

 many arable acres. They are the favourites 

 of fortune, because fortune delights to favour 

 those only who court her favours. It is in 

 the tact, intelligence, and good will with 

 which they apply their labours, rather than 

 in the labour itself, which enables them to 

 succeed so well ! Such men are strangers 

 to that hopeless egotism, which is the curse 

 of all progress — the nurse of self-willed ig- 

 norance and hoary error. — Genesee Farmer. 



To Make Good Butter in Winter. — 



We often hear the complaint that butter 

 made in winter is poor. Ours was so for 

 several seasons. It was very slow in coming, 

 and frothy, white, and sometimes bitter; 

 while butter made from the same kind of 

 milk in the warm season was good. I de- 

 vised many plans for improvement, such as 

 throwing in salt, warm milk, scalding cream, 

 &c., but to no purpose. At length I scalded 

 my milk when brought from the cow, after- 

 wards setting it in either a cold or a warm 

 place, as was most convenient. I mean, I 

 comn)unicated a sufficient heat to destroy 

 the effect which frosty feed has in autumn, 

 or dry feed in winter upon it. Since which 

 time we have made, with 15 minutes churn- 

 ing, purer, sweeter, and more yellow butter 

 than we ever made in summer — and some- 

 times from the frozen cream gradually warm- 

 ed. And were it not that the increase of 

 manufactures, the pursuit of fashion, and 

 other causes combined, render helping hands 

 in a dairy room now-a-days very scarce, I 

 should be at the trouble of scalding my milk 

 before setting it during the summer, as well 

 ;is in the winter; for surely, butter made in 

 this way, possesses a delicious ricliness and 

 Iryness which cannot be found in any other. 

 — Cultivator. 



