48 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



EXTRACTS, REPLISS, &0. 



Eggs and Butter. 



D. G. Hitchcock, Augusta, Ga., inquires : — 

 " What is the best method of preserving eggs 1 

 How should butter be put up to keep it sweetl 

 and what will restore it to its natural taste when 

 it has become strong or rancid?" 



Eggs packed in fine salt, always with the small 

 end down, will keep in this climate, for several 

 months, sweet and sound. We have kept them 

 for half a year without perceiving the least change 

 in their flavor, by packing them tightly in a cask, 

 and pouring over them lime water, about the con- 

 sistency of whitewash, or a little thinner. The 

 lime water acts upon the shells, so that if they are 

 immersed several months, the shells will be 

 found somewhat thinner than when put in. 



Butter made properly h very easily preserved. 

 The cream should be churned ivhile it is sweet, the 

 buttermilk thoroughly worked out, — not washed 

 out with cold water, — about an ounce of salt ap- 

 plied to a pound, packed away in the tub closely, 

 and kept as much as possible from the air. This 

 is the whole operation of making and keeping 

 good butter. It is not the pure butter, which is 

 an oil, that becomes rancid, but the buttermilk 

 that is with it. We have seen a statement from 

 a French paper, that the bad taste and smell of 

 butter may be entirely removed by working it over 

 in water mixed with chloride of lime. The dis- 

 covery was made by a Brussels farmer whose prac- 

 tice has been to take a sufficient quantity of water 

 to work it in, and put in it from 25 to 30 drops of 

 chloride of lime for every 10 pounds of butter. 

 When it has been worked until the whole has been 

 brought into contact with the water, it should be 

 worked again in pure water, when it will be found 

 sweet. This plan may easily be tested, and we 

 should think it worth while for those dealing in 

 butter to try it. 



The Yellow Locust. 



Information is desired as to the best method of 

 cultivating the Yellow Locust, {a.) How is the 

 seed to be prepared, where to obtain it, and price ; 

 (b.) the .'proper season for planting, — how deep 

 and how far distant for Forest tvood? If you or 

 any of your correspondents will answer the above 

 questions you will obigle many 



Wi7idsor, Vt., Dec. 3, 1853. A Subscriber. 



Remarks. — (a.) The seeds of the Yellow Locust 

 should be sown in a rich, free loam, an inch or 

 two apart every way, and covered with light soil 

 from a quarter to half an inch deep. The seeds 

 may be sown in the autumn or spring, and under 

 favorable circumstances, the plants will be from 

 2 ft. to 4 ft. high the following autumn; the lar- 

 gest may then be removed to where they are to 

 remain, and the others transplanted into nursery 

 lines. If the seeds are not sown in the autumn 

 it would be better to keep them in the pods until 

 spring, but in a dry state. 



(h.) CoBBETT recommends steeping the seeds in 

 hot water, but we should not approve it. If it is 

 particularly desired to sow the seed at a late day 

 in the spring, in order to save one season, it would 

 be well to steep the seeds for a few hours in warm 

 water just before sowing. The seeds may be ob- 

 tained at Ruggles, Nourse & Masons, at a price 

 ranging from 50 to 75 cents a pound. We will 

 refer to the subject again, and speak of the locust 

 more at length. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 COAIi ASHES. 



Increased attention is now being accorded to 

 this article as a manure. Men of science have as- 

 certained that it possesses intrinsic value, and 

 practical farmers are testing the correctness of 

 scientific dedutions, by experiment. The editor of 

 the Germantown Te/e^rffjuA — T. R. Freas, Esq., 

 says : 



" It is our opinion that these ashes are more or 

 less valuable as amanm-e, according to the char- 

 acter of the soil to which they are applied. To 

 hard land, and an unfriable soil, or where clay 

 predominates, wo believe anthracite coal ashes 

 will prove of much value, as our limited experience 

 would confirm, having used the ashes as a manure, 

 for ten or twelve years, in a limited degree, and 

 firmly believe it to possess nutritious properties, 

 to a desirable extent." 



Professor Norton, whose position in the scien- 

 tific world entitles his opinions to high respect, ex- 

 presses himself in much the same way, and at the 

 late scientific convention, Mr. J. B. Bunce, a 

 chemist attached to the Yale Laboratory, presented 

 a communication on the subject of the soluble in- 

 gredients of anthracite coal ashes, and the appli- 

 cability of the latter to manurial purposes. Mr. 

 Bunce finds that water "dissolves between 3 and 

 4 per cent, of both red and white ashes, while 

 acid from 17 to 18f per cent. The soluble matters 

 consist principally of alumina, iron, lime, and 

 magnesia ; but their is also some soda and some 

 potash — together, from 1.8 to 3.3 per cent. — 

 nearly 2 per cent, of phosphoric acid, and from 3 

 to eight per cent, of sulphuric acid." 



The presence of these acids, in connection with 

 the alkalies, the lime and magnesia, give a value 

 to these ashes, and in the opinion of Mr. Bunce, 

 "would justify their extensive use for agricultural 

 purposes." h. d. w. 



Fluctuations in Flour. — The Baltimore Ameri- 

 can contains an interesting table on the fluctua- 

 tions in the wholesale price of flour in the three first 

 months of the year from 170G to the present time. 

 fn March, 1706, the price was $15 per barrel ; in 

 Jan., 1800,- $11 per barrel; in March, 1805, S13; 

 during the war 1812-15 the highest price paid was 

 $11 ; in 1817, $14,25 was paid ; in_ March, 1821 

 it was as low as $3,75 ; from that time to 1828 it 

 did not go above $7; inl820 it was as hioh as S8,50; 

 the next year as low as $4,50; in 1837, $11, (the 

 time of the flour riots in New York) ; in 1838-9, 

 " ' ; in 1841 it was down to $4,50 ; in 1843 to 



,87 ; in 1844, $4,25 ; in 1845, $4 ; and _ from 

 that time to the present did not go alwve $6 in the 

 months named. In the early part of 1853; flour 

 was as low as $5,25 per barrel ; now it is much 

 higher. 



