164 



Butter. — Gypsum as Manure. 



Vol. IX. 



orbits, and Ihe nostrils were unusually di- 

 lated. When she stood still her back was 

 bowed, but presently she would stretch her- 

 self out and bound away over the field. 

 Her paunch began speedily to swell, and 

 she moaned dreadfully and could not be still 

 for a moment. 



The practitioner not having a trocar, 

 punctured tiie rumen with a bistoury. A 

 great quantity of gas rushed violently out; 

 the enlargement of the abdomen subsided, 

 and she appeared to be entirely at her ease ; 

 but presently the efibrts to vomit recom- 

 menced, and the aperture into the paunch 

 being accidentally closed, she began rapidly 

 to swell again. The practitioner now sus- 

 pected that the cause of all this mischief 

 was concealed somewhere in the gullet, or 

 the entrance into the first stomach. He 

 carefully examined along the whole extent 

 of gullet in the neck, but could not detect 

 any obstruction. He then opened the mouth 

 and raised the head, in order to introduce a 

 flexible osier rod into the gullet, when the 

 animal again making a sudden and more 

 violent effort to vomit, he saw the tail of a 

 snake in the posterior part of the mouth. 

 He seized it immediately with his right 

 hand, and steadying himself by laying firm 

 hold of the horn with his left hand, he drew 

 it out: it was dead, and measured three feet 

 eleven inches in length. There was no ap- 

 pearance of bite or wound upon it, but it 

 was covered with a greenish spume. The 

 effijrts to vomit immediately ceased, the 

 hoove disappeared, and the cow began to 

 ruminate, and steadily regained her appetite 

 and spirits. — Youatt on Cattle. 



Butter. 



Ths Committee on Butler, of the Worcester Countj' 

 Cattle Show, Mass., make the following very judicious 

 remarks in relation to this subject. It may be re- 

 marked in passing, that tliere were twenty seven pairs 

 of working oxen entered for premium. — Ed. 



The quantity of butter presented for ex- 

 hibition this year was unusually small, there 

 being only about half the number of lots 

 exhibited that there have been in former 

 years. The committee, while they are 

 gratified to be able to state that all the but- 

 ter exhibited was of a superior quality, 

 greatly regret this diminution in quantity, 

 for which they are not aware of any particu- 

 lar cause, but they trust that it was the re- 

 sult of accident, and that it will be only ne- 

 cessary to call the attention of the farmers 

 to the tact, in order to have the exhibition 

 of next not only equal, but surpass that of 

 all former years. 



The farmers of this county, the great ao-- 

 ricultural county of the State, should feel a 

 just pride in exhibiting the products of their 



dailies; no source of pride can be more pro- 

 per than this; one cannot look upon the 

 beautiful yellow butter as it is presented in 

 its neatly shaped cakes, v>'ithout the least 

 drop of buttermilk oozing through, and with 

 the preserving salt so ingrained as to be un- 

 distinguishable, without thinking of the va- 

 rious stages it has passed through, and call- 

 ing to mind the numerous other valuable 

 acquisitions which must necessarily be con- 

 nected with it. 



Good butter bespeaks first a good cow, and 

 a good cow a good pasture, and both together 

 imply an intelligent farmer; and not less re- 

 quisite, is a good churner, and for a good 

 churner give us a good farmer's daughter, 

 one who never looks more blooming and 

 bright than after the healthful exercise at 

 the churn. No occupation is more befitting, 

 none more honourable. No accomplishment 

 should be more acceptable to the young hus- 

 bandman, seeking a partner, than that the 

 woman of his choice is well qualified to take 

 the charge of his dairy, and excels in the 

 difficult art of making good butter. 



Gypsnm as Manure. 



The follovvins; statement made by J. H. Slioppard, 

 of London, are taken from the New England Farmer. 

 —Ed. 



Gypsum, or the real sulphate of lime, is 

 considered by all scientific chemists and ag- 

 riculturists a most powerful agent as ma- 

 nure. I beg to qnote an extraordinary in- 

 stance of its effects, on its first introduction 

 into Norfolk, in 181G. When I was attend- 

 ing Mr. Coke's sheop-.shearing, at' Holkham 

 House, and conversing with him in the park, 

 he complained to me that a portion of his 

 estate, near Wells, about six miles distant, 

 was a very light sandy land; and, although 

 he treated it in every respect like the rest 

 of his farm, with plenty of manure, he was 

 unable to produce more than six or eight 

 bushels of grain per acre. I recommended 

 him to apply gypsum, and he desired me to 

 forward him ten tons, for a trial. Wh?n I 

 again called on him, three years after, he 

 said the land before mentioned, by the appli- 

 cation of gypsum, instead of producing six 

 to eight bushels of grain per acre, averaged 

 32 bushels of American barley, 36 of Cheva- 

 lier barley, and 20 of wheat, per statute acre. 



I beg fiirther to observe, that gypsum, ap- 

 plied upon light or blow-away sands, in lib- 

 eral quantities two or three times, turning 

 over the soil and harrowing in, causes a 

 body, and consequent adjierence in the soil, 

 which foruis a basis or ground-work, so that 

 it will ultimately retain manures bestowed 

 upon it, whicli previously were washed into 

 the bowels of the earth, without the least 

 possible benefit to the crops. I can only re- 



