^^ERlCAN HERD-BOOX 



DEVOTED TO 

 AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



Perfect Agriculture is the true foundation of all trade and industry.— Liebio. 



Vol. VIII.— No. C. 



1st mo. (Jauuary) 15th, 1844. 



[Whole No. 108. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY, 



BY J O S I A H T A T U M, 



EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 

 PHILADELPHIA. 



Price one dollar per year. — For conditions see last pajre. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 On Churning Butter, «fcc. 



To THE EniTOR, — The production of ofooti 

 butter — and bj^ this, I do not mean that which 

 is only second rate — is an art which it is the 

 ambition of every enterprising dairyman to 

 attain. There is much excellent butter made 

 in the vicinity of this city, and daily brought 

 to our market: there is also, beyond dispute, 

 abundance of a very different character — 

 much that does not deserve the rank even 

 of second rate, and which must necessarily 

 be sold at a price far below the top of the 

 market. This appears to me a serious loss 

 to the maker, which it can surely not be ne- 

 cessary for bun to submit to. There is, I am 

 aware, a difiereuce in the pastures of differ- 

 ent neighbourhoods, and even of different 

 farms in the same neighbourhood, that may 

 give a somewhat different flavour to ihe but- 

 ter of the respective dairies ; but still I am 

 greatly inclined to the opinion, that there isj 

 too widely operating among our dairymen — • 

 I would for obvious reasons, rather not write! 

 dairy women — an inattention to the art of 



Cab.— Vol. VIII.— No. 6. 



butter making — an indifference to the pro- 

 duction of a first late article, that is in itself 

 inexcusable — that operates directly to the 

 prejudice of the dairyman's interest, and 

 compels too many of our housewives to use 

 an article, which to say the least of it, it is 

 impossible to praise. 



Individual dairymen, or particular neigh- 

 bourhoods, go on from year to year, to follow 

 their own methods, which were pursued a 

 generation or two ago, without ever dream- 

 ing that there may possibly be improvements, 

 even in the art of making butter, or that 

 their own method and that of their fiithers, 

 may possibly not indicate that tliey have at- 

 tained perfection in the art. Butter, like 

 honey, is a very delicate thing, and ex- 

 jtremely sensitive to any extraneous sub- 

 'stance with which it may be injudiciously 

 (brought in contact. I look occasionally into 

 faoricultural papers, and if it were not more 

 like flattery than is pleasant, I would ac- 

 ;knowledge I read none with so much inte- 

 [rest as the Cabinet: I find in it, from time 

 jto time, many hints thrown out in relation 

 to our subject, which it seems to me, might 

 ibe very profitably practised upon, by cur 

 good ft-iends who supply our tables with 

 butter. 



! In confirmation of an idea expressed above, 

 I might refer to John Ballantine, of Edin- 

 burgh, who has been an extensive dealer in 

 Scotch butter, for five and twenty, or thirty 

 years, and who declares it as his opinion, in 

 the Transactions of the Highland and Agri- 



(169) 



