72 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



The Indian com (Zeamays) is a monoecious plant, 

 that is, the staminate and pistillate blossoms oc- 

 cupy different positions on the same plant. The, 

 tassel, as it is commonly called, is the staminate 

 blossom, and furnishes the pollen l)y which the 

 silk is im})regnatcd, and the new kernel is pro- 

 duced. The cob which bears the silk or pis- 

 tillate l)lossoms, is in process of elongation after 

 the poUon or dust has disappeared from the tassel. 

 Just at the point wliere more pollen is needed to 

 impregnate the silk at the end of the cob, the 

 suckers and abortion stalks supply it, thus filling 

 out the cob with kernels to the very tip or end. 

 Where the suckers have been pulled off, it will be 

 found that one or two inches of the cob is barren, 

 thus causing quite a diminution of the crop. What 

 amount of diminution the crop may suffer, 1 am 

 not able to say definitely, but give it as my opin- 

 ion at least, from a twelfth to a fifteenth part. 

 If these suggestions appear of any value, you are 

 at liberty to publish them, hoping they may be 

 remembered until another year comes around. 



Yours, &c., W. H. Scr.\m, Sand Lake Academy 

 — Albany Cultivator. 



BUTTER AND CHEESE. 



We give below a portion of the Report of the 

 Committee of the "Rhode Island Society for the 

 encouragement of Domestic Industry, on the sub- 

 ject of Butter and Cheese. We are under obliga- 

 tions to Stefuen H. Smith, Esq., the Secretary, 

 for copies of the Transactions of that Society. 



From these experiments it is shown that to ob- 

 tain the best of sweet butter that will keep for a 

 greater length of time than any other without be- 

 ing rancid, we must churn sweet cream — that if 

 the butter-milk is valuable in market, and the 

 butter can be disposed of soon after it is made, 

 there will be the greatest gain by churning the 

 sour milk and cream together — that by scalding 

 the milk and then taking off the cream, the milk 

 is best for market — although the yield of butter is 

 greatest, and the flavor good, it must be put in 

 market direct from the churn and consumed with- 

 out delay or it becomes rancid and worthless ; — 

 that in proportion to the quantity of butter pro- 

 duced from the cream of a given measure of milk, 

 reference being had to the length of time the cream 

 is suffered to remain upon it, will be its liability 

 to become soonest rancid ; — that the excess of 

 weight as exhibited aliove is to be attributed in a 

 great measure to the absorption and combination 

 of caseine (curd) with the oleaginous (oily) por- 

 tions of the cream ; — that the prevalence of civ- 

 eeine, although it is not objectionable by impart- 

 ing any unpleasant flavor while new, renders the 

 butter of less value, as it soon grows rancid ; and 

 for the further reason that it is used, necessiirily, 

 more profusely than new butter, which has less 

 curd in it. It has been fully proved that milk 

 contains on an average only one per cent, more 

 curd than butter. 



Dumas saj's, "that the facility with which but- 

 ter becomes rancid, depends on the presence of ca- 

 seine, (curd) from which it is necessary it sliould 

 be separated in order to its preservation." 



This can be effected by fusion (melting) . For 

 exportation to hot climates, or for the purpose of 

 preserving early-made butter sweet through the 



heat of summer for winter's use, it should be 

 clarified before salting or much working. For 

 this purpose it is put into a lipped vessel and placed 

 in another of water, whicli is to be gradually 

 heated, till tlie butter is melted. Care must be 

 taken not to over-heat it ; it must be kept melted 

 until the curd and Imtter-milk have settled ; the 

 clear melted butter is then poured off from the 

 sediment into small white kegs, containing from 

 twenty to thirty poundseach, orinto majile canni- 

 pails, of Shaker manufacture, for family use. 

 When sufficiently cooled, and before it hardens, it 

 may be salted with less than half an ounce of fine 

 rock salt to the pound, but as it is difficult to in- 

 corporate the salt well, the salt may be omitted 

 and tlie butter will keep perfectly sweet. What 

 butter remains in the vessel will rise to the top, 

 and harden like tallow; when taken off the amount 

 of curd and butter-milk will apjiear. You will 

 then have the pure article, equal to the best of ta- 

 ble butter for all the purposes to which sweet oil 

 (as we get it) or drawn butter is applied — it is 

 perfect for shortening — melt it in milk instead of 

 water. It is not suitable to spx'ead cold on bread. 



One of your committee in the warm season last 

 year, took seventeen pounds of sweet salted lump 

 butter and proceeded as above directed. What 

 settled at the bottom after melting, was composed 

 of two ounces of limpid whey, two ounces of fine 

 salt, and twelve ounces of curd, in all one pound. 

 Had this curd not been extracted, the whole long 

 before this (2d of Feb.) would probably have 

 been rancid. The experiment proved perfectly 

 satisfactory, and is recommended to the public. 

 Store-keepers back in the country who take in but- 

 ter, would find it to their account by putting it in 

 practice, thereby diminishing the amount of 

 "grease-butter" sent to market. 



Adulteration of Milk, fi'om Boiuman^s Medical 

 Chemistry, as published in the Providence Journal, 

 some time since ; — "We have no chemical means 

 of ascertaining whether water has been fraudu- 

 lently added to milk ; the only effect being to di- 

 lute it and render it of poorer quality. A know- 

 ledge of the specific gravity cannot here be made 

 available, since the abstraction of cream, which 

 has a lower specific gravity than milk, may be 

 made to neutralize the effect produced by the ad- 

 dition of water, — the tendency of the removal of 

 the cream being to raise the specific gravity, or 

 weight of the milk, and that of the addition of 

 water to lower it. A specimen of milk, therefore, 

 which has been impoverished by the abstraction of 

 cream, and still further weakened by the addition 

 of water, may be made to possess the same specific 

 gravity, or weight, as it had when taken from the 

 can." 



The average product of cow's 'milk is 15 per 

 cent, of cream by the lactometer. 



It is of quite as much importance to ascertain 

 the average product of curd ; but this can only 

 be done by actual experiment, as no instiumeut 

 will show it, Liebig says the nutriment in milk 

 depends on the amount of curd it contains ; and 

 not on the amount of butter. An experiment was 

 tried by feeding a dog with Ijutter only ; he became 

 very ftxt, his hair was sivturated with grease and he 

 died at the end of thirty days. Those who were 

 opjiosed to this view of tfie subject repeated the 

 experiment and the dog survived, but this result 

 was attributed "to the great amount of casiene 

 (curd) contained in the butter. 



