VOL. X^t. XO. -IS 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



357 



From llic rarmcr'sCaliinct. 



JOINT STOCK COMPANIES. 

 I remember the rnije for ji)int-stock companies, 

 which swept through lOngland about llie year 1825, 

 and am templed to copy froiii a record of itie lime, 

 an account of " I he ('aledonian Dairy Company," 

 for tlio amusement of your readers. Itsi purpose 

 was to supply the inhabitants of Edinburgli witli 

 pure milk. The land was purchased for Jt;8,('00, 

 and £14,000 more were expended in the erection 

 of a building, which is thus described : 



" In tho front of the edifice is a semicircular 

 projection, in tin; centre of which is the principal 

 entrance, having a column on either side for the 

 support of a handsome pediment. The interior of 

 this projection contains a saloon, correspondent 

 with It in form, and through which the visitor 

 passes into the great Byre, which is supported by 

 two rows of cast-iron pillars ; tiie stalls being di- 

 vided by tho same metal, and capable of contain- 

 ing 200 cows under one roof. It is 30 feet high, 

 and from the centre of it rises a large dome, for 

 the purpose of light and ventilation: it is also 

 lighted, and air admitted ut both ends and on one 

 of the sides ; and from a gallery over the principal 

 door, the visitor has a pleasing view of the whole. 

 The troughs are of stono, and each is supplied 

 with a pipe, by means of which it can readily be 

 cleansed, or water admitted for the common drink 

 of the animals. Arched vaults extend below, 

 through the whole length of the Byre, (cow house,) 

 into which the urine passes and tlio dung is con- 

 veyed, from whence the contents are removed 

 through a tunnel opening on the main road. 



" Over the saloon is a room fir the nirectnrs, 

 and one above that for the servants. The other 

 part of the building, that parallel with the Byre, 

 contains the manager's house, counting house, 

 churning house, engine house, to churn the cream, 

 stores for potatoes, lofts for hay, steaming house, 

 stables for horses, a shed for the bull, and every 

 thing that can be required in such a place ; the 

 land next the road being tastefully laid out as a 

 lawn and shrubbery, with an ice-house for the milk 

 in summer. But like all other speculations of the 

 kind, it did not answer. There were never more 

 than 100 or 170 cows in the Byre, and these rapid- 

 ly diminished in number, until the magnificent 

 concern was so plainly a losing one, that it was 

 abandoned by the company." 



Now, with this enormous outlay for buildings, 

 land, stock, &c., the wages of manager, servants, 

 cost of food for cows, with wear-and-tear and cas- 

 ualties, what would be reasonable to calculate as 

 the iirobable income for the support of the con- 

 cern ? Why, supposing that each cow gave two 

 gallons of milk a day, the whole year — which is a 

 very large yield — he whole quantity for 200 cows 

 would be r4fi,000 gallons, which, at 16 cents per 

 gallon, first hand, would amount to .$23,300, about 

 one-half of which sum would go for rent of land 

 and buildings, at 10 per cent, on the cost of erec- 

 tion ; so that each cow would have to pay about 

 $50 per annum, for rent of stall ; leaving the other 

 half to pay interest for stock, manager's and ser- 

 vant's wages, food, taxes, wear-and-tear and casual- 

 ties, and a hundred other expenses not easily cal- 

 culated. 



But the delusion was of short duration : but the 

 effects of the mania are still felt by hundreds of 

 weak-minded persons, who were so infatuated as 

 to believe that the time was come for every one to 



ilio were 

 o be a re- 



make a rapid fortune, without inqiiirin 

 to be the conlrlbulors, if every une wa 

 ffi'tttr. 



We are all apt to say such things will he a warn- 

 ing for the future; but has such been the effect ? 

 Witness the mulberry mania, where all proposed 

 to ho sitltrs of trees, and no buyers, none contem- 

 plating the making of silk, except on a very small 

 scale, to show how profitable it would be to pur- 

 chase his stock of trees — lo ketp lliein himself, be- 

 ing quite out of the question. 



But there is one spoculation in which we may 

 nil indulge with safety — it is, in hig.'ily manuring 

 and cultivating our lands. To be sure, we arc 

 promised no more than from -10 to ."iO per cent, in- 

 terest on the capital invested ; but until we can 

 do better, suppose that wo submit to do bn.-"incss 

 in this small way — depending upon it, however, 

 that a " Lo here I" will soon again be heard, and 

 another rush will take place, wiili the same fatal 

 tcrminaticm. 



I am here tempted to relate an anecdote, the 

 truth of which may be r-'lied upon. On the south 

 side of the Isle of Wight, England, there once 

 lived a plain, honest, hard-working country trades- 

 man, who had, by dint of industry, saved a conside- 

 rable sum of miMiey ; but he was tempted to join 

 a joint-stock company in the neighborhood, and 

 adventured his all in fitting out a vessel in the 

 fruit tr.ide, by which he was told he would double 

 his money the first voyage. But it ^o happened 

 that the vessel was wrecke 

 sage, almost at his very door 



strewed with nuts, almonds, oranges, raisins, &c. 

 The poor man thus lost his all, and was accustom- 

 ed to walk the shore in despondency, lamenting 

 his fate. While tlius engaged one very fine morn- 

 ing, he fancied that the little rippling waves which 

 ran up and embraced his feet, were wooing him to 

 make another spec, when he immediately drew 

 back, and exclaimed, " Deceitful sea ! thou wantest 

 more nuts and almonds, dost thou ?" 



JOHN TANEY. 



Jl'aten) Potatoes. — Watery potatoes, or those in 

 which carbon doi's not abound, are always deficient 

 in nutritive qualities, which depend on the presence 

 of carbon. The latter caimot exist in its just pro- 

 portion independently of proper light and heat. 

 Hence potatoes grown in an orchard are never 

 good ; the light and oxygen which should act upon 

 them, is intercepted by the leaves of the various 

 fruit trees ; the deleterious portion of t .e carbon 

 which the light and o.xygen would have carried ofi", 

 mixes with the watery particles of tho vegetable, 

 and it becomes not only deficient in nutriment, but 

 absolutely unwholesome. — Selected. 



MAKIN(; SOAI'. 

 A lady corresprmdcnl of the Tcnnessre Agri- 

 culiuri>t in a discourse to farmers' daughtcrR, has 

 the following remarks on soap ninkiiiL'. Tho fair 

 authoress, in our opinion, would nuike a most valu- 

 able contributor lo the ladies' monthly magazines. 

 Though tho practical, mnller-of-fact, cciminnn sense 

 character of her articlcH might not he deemed to 

 come within the legitimate range of belles tetlres, 

 they would have the mi'rit of being usifiil — and 

 that is more than can be said of two-thirds the stuff 

 which makes up the pages of most of onr popular 

 monthlies. A young lady — either a fanner's daugh- 

 ter or a merchant's daughter — who intends to be- 

 come a housewife, woiilil profit infinitely more from 

 a single essay upon the soft soap of domestic econ- 

 omy, than from whole toiiies of the "so// sodder" 

 of nauseating love. tales and " senliincnlal non- 

 sense." But hear the lady : 



" Among other things, let me tell you to learn 

 how to make soap. I do not know that I should 

 have thought of naming this, if my ignorance of 

 soap-making had not troubled me exceedingly. 

 At first I did not know the method, and depended 

 on the old woman who lived with mo, to make it. 

 I went to her when the soap keg was almost empty, 

 and told her we must have some made as quick as 

 possible. ' Why, lor ! Miss, now do n't you see it 

 ain't the right time of the moon ?' I tried to per- 

 suade her that snap-making and the moon were but 

 . i^ui ,.. ciu ..„|.f,v.,,v.u slif htiv connected, if the other part of the 



d on her homeward pas- *^'' ""o'"-'.' > 



., I , • business were wel conducted. It was, however, 



or; the sea-.ehore being ""=""='^ , , , --,,,,■ , .■ ■ 



\ ^ .„;.,;„„ .«,r to no purpose. I had to wait till the 'right time 



came round, before I could get my soap. After 

 this, when I had the superintendence of a large 

 fgniily, I was obliged to buy it by the barrel, be- 

 cause I did not well understand the manufacture of 

 the article, and I was really ashamed that such ex- 

 tra expense was caused by my ignorance. Some- 

 times there was too much lime with the ashes; 

 then again not enough : sometimes ic was too 

 greasy, and sometimes any thing but what it ought 

 to be. I tell you my experience in the matter, so 

 that you may learn from your mothers now, and 

 not have the trouble of /enr»ir»g, when you ought 

 to be making it. As I have given you so long a 

 talk on the subject, I will add a receipt I found a 

 short time since in the Cultivator, vol. v. page 124. 

 It may be of use to some of your mothers if not to 

 you. Mr Tomlinson writing to Judge Buel, says: 

 My wife has no trouble about soap. The grease 



Mr Wm. Putnam, of Methuen, tells us he soaks 

 his cabbage seed in brimstone and soot to keep 

 the worms from the roots. He says that he has 

 good cabbages when others have nothing but pork 

 for the boiler. He says any one can raise the 

 Early York, but it requires more attention to raise 

 the Drumhead. 



He recommends coal dust for vines of all kinds 



even cinders from the forge where sea-coal is 



burned. He spreads his coal dust on the surface, 

 covering the whole ground, and he says the squash 

 bug and the yellow bug are so much ofl'ended with 

 such proceedings, that they lly away. — Mass. Plow- 

 man. 



is put into a cask, and strong lye is added. Dur- 

 ing tho year as the fat increases, more lye is stirr- 

 ed in, and all occasionally stirred with a slick that 

 is kept in it. By the time the cask is full, the 

 soap is made ready for use. It is made hard liy 

 boiling and adding a quart of fine salt to three 

 gallons of soap. It is put into a tub to cool, and 

 the froth scraped off. It is afterwards melted to a 

 boiling heat, and a little rosin or turpentine given, 

 which improves the quality.' 



•' Some of you will think me a most unsentimen- 

 tal sort of a woman, when I advise you lo learn 

 how good bread, butter, coffee, pickles, puddings, 

 &c. are made ; but you will have to learn some 

 time, or do worse. Work with your own hands 

 loo, even if it should tarnish their whiteness a lit- 

 tle. A man does not consider the beauty of a soft 

 white hand a very strong recommendation, when 

 he finds it has been kept for show and not for use. 

 I think a young lady should be able to scour a ket- 

 tle and grace a diamond. LUCY. 



