204 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mat 



only a very sligiit milky tinge, as when a drop of 

 milk is iuided to :i wine glass of water, the foreign 

 contaminations ai(! not in such quantity us to ma- 

 terially injure the s;ilt. These tests are easily ajv- 

 plied,inexpfnsive,aiul pulHciently decisive for prac- 

 tical purposes. The carbonate of soda and chloi'ide 

 of barium can be procured of any scientific apoth 

 ecary. 



We commend the essay alluded to above to 

 those who are engaged in butter making. Copies 

 ciin be obtained of the Secretary of the Rhode Is- 

 land Society for t!ie Encouragement of Domestic 

 Industry. 



Fraud in Bitter Making. — The recent expo 

 sures that have been made of the adulteration and 

 rnamifacture of milk in New York, are so disgust 

 ing in their details, that we should suppose an in- 

 habitant of that city could hardly look at a milk 

 pot without a sensation of nausea. It would seem, 

 from the following article, that similar practices are 

 resorted to in the making of butter, l)ut we defy 

 the most ingenious rascality to make, of whatever 

 material8,a worse article than is now often sold in 

 the market : 



"The Boston Herald, in an article on this sub- 

 ject, says unprincipled speculators have been, and 

 are still at work adulterating butter prepared for 

 the market — though the blame is generally thrown 

 on the dairies. From evidence that has come to 

 our knowledge, says the Boston Herald, we are 

 persuaded that this adulteration is extensively 

 practised. A correspondent who has purchased 

 and tested the base article, writes as follows : — 'A 

 new fraud appears to have been discovered in but- 

 ter-making. The fraud is this : The butter-maker 

 adds a substance which appears to be of a vegeta- 

 ble natui-e to the i-eal butter. A dealer of whom 

 I purchased a few lumps, told me that the express- 

 man who delivered the butter to him from Green- 

 field, acknowledged that when they churn the 

 cream, it is now an almost universal custom to 

 put rennet into the butter milk, to turn it to a 

 cheese, and so work it with the butter for market, 

 increasing the quantity about thirty per cent. I 

 discovered the fraud by melting the butter in the 

 oven, and found that a substance equal to one-third 

 the original weight was left. The person of whom 

 I purchiised tlio Initter says that this fraud is very 

 extensively })ractised, especially for the New York 

 market.' " — Providence Journal. 



For the New Enf^land Farmer. 



LEGISLATIVE AGRICULTURAL MEET- 

 INGS. 



Fkiknd Brown : — I perceive this series of meet- 

 ings wound uj), a little before the subjects assigned 

 for discusHion had been exhausted. The last of 

 these, if I remember right, was, "In what manner 

 can the State. l)est advance the interests of the far- 

 mer?" . This is a toi)ic, peculiarly appropriate for 

 8uch an assembly, provided you can get them 

 there. But if they won't come in, it must be met 

 in some other form. 



In all the reports of tho discussions, the last 

 winter, little or nothing has been said about the 

 education of the farmer, or the establishment of 

 sohools for this purpose. Is this idea to be aban- 

 doned'' Or is it deferred only to some more con- 

 venient season ? 



It is gratifying to learn thatsomething is about 

 to be done, by way of experiment, on the State 

 farm at Westboro'. This, in my judgment, is the 

 liej^t thing that has been started tiy the Board of Ag- 

 riculture ; both in illustrating what can Ikj done, in 

 the application of tlic principles of science to cul- 

 ture ; and in the preparation of a numerous classof 

 laborers to superintend tliis culture. One hundred 

 young men will annually leave this institution, 

 and come upon the community under the necessity 

 of earning their livelihood, llow important is it, 

 that they shall be well fitted to do this. When I 

 took my pen in hand, I thought of speaking in 

 detail how this could best be done. But on the 

 whole, I think it is most prudent to leave it in the 

 care of those, on whom it devolves, by order o-f 

 the Legislature. 



April 8, 1854. 



PREPARING SEED CORN. 



Many farmers who pride themselves excecsively 

 on their practical wisdom, denounce the idea, 

 DOW very prevalent among the more intelligent 

 part of the community, that the corn plant can 

 in any way be benefited by preparing the seed, 

 before planting it. They cite nature tosubstanti- 

 ate their sceptiesm, forgetting that where nature 

 proceeds exclusively upon her own original system , 

 she very rarely has to contend with obstacles 

 which operate so fiitally against the artistic oper- 

 ation of her laws in the care of human enterprise 

 and eifect. In the natural propagation of fruits 

 and vegetables, an excess of seed is invariably dis- 

 seminated, so that if a large portion should perish, 

 or be destroyed, enough, and more than enough, 

 would be left to realize the design originally in- 

 tended. But man adopts a diiferent system. He 

 intends to sow and plant only enough "to grow ;" 

 consequently it is of the utmost consequence that 

 it should grow. Hence he very often finds it ad- 

 visable to assist the efforts of nature by the power 

 of art. In regard to preparing seed corn, a vei'y 

 successful experiment was made some years sinee 

 byMr. Laxsi^ Wetmore, of Pennsylvania, and 

 which has been repeated by several cultivators of 

 intelligence and veracity, in other sections of the 

 Union, with equally fortunate results. The jno- 

 dus operandi is reported by Mr. Wetmore, in hi& 

 published account, to have been as follows : 



"At noon of the day ]>efore planting, 18th of 

 May, I put my seed corn to soak in a strong de- 

 coction of copperas water, say two pounds of cop- 

 peras to warm, soft water sufficient to cover a 

 bushel of corn. The next morning took out a 

 peck, added a pint or more of soft soap, stirred it 

 thoroughly, then put on plaster enough to make 

 it convenient for j)lanting, m,y one quart. The 

 whole field wasplanted with the seed thus prepared, 

 with thecxception of four rows, which were planted 

 with seed without preparation. The afterculture 

 of the whole was alike, — passing tlirough each 

 way with the cultivator twice. The four rows 

 last mentioned were cut up, harvested, and the 

 corn weighed and measured by itself; also, four 

 rows next adjoining, the seed of which had been 



