264 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



it is the recollection of home. In the visioned fu- 

 ture, there is one bright star whose lustre never 

 fades; it is the hope of home — of a heavenly home. 

 — Musical Visiter. 



THE BNGLISH IDEA OP BUTTER. 



Mr. Stephens, in his book of the Farm, thus 

 dwells upon the philosophy and its application to 

 butter and butter making-: 



Butter assumes a texture according as it has 

 been treated. When burst in the churning it is 

 not only soft but frothy, and on being cut with a 

 knife, sticks to it, and seems as if it could be com- 

 pressed into much smaller bulk. When churned 

 too rapidly, particularly in warm weather, the but- 

 ter may not be agitated to the state of bursting, 

 but it will continue soft and never become firm, 

 though worked up with ever so much care, and in 

 the coolest manner, — and when a lump is drawn 

 asunder in two pieces, they each present a jagged 

 surface, and also sticks to the knife that cuts it. 

 Butter in either of these states of softness will not 

 keep long, whether salted or fresh. When over- 

 churned — that is, when the churning has been con- 

 tinued after the butter has been formed, the butter 

 becomes soft, not unlike the state when it is too 

 lapidly churned. When properly churned, both 

 in regard to time and temperature, butter becomes 

 firm with very little working, and is tenacious, — 

 but its most desirable state is that of wax, when it 

 is easily moulded into any shape, and may be drawn 

 out to a considerable length before breaking. It is 

 only in this state that butter possesses that rich nut- 

 ty flavor and sinell which impart so high a degree 

 of pleasure in eating it, and which enhance its val- 

 ue manifold. It is not necessary to taste butter on 

 judging of it; the smooth unctions feel, on rubbing 

 a little between tlie finger and thumb, expresses at 

 once its richness of quality; the nutty smell indi- 

 cates a similar taste; and the bright, glistening, 

 cream-coloied surface, shows its high state of clean- 

 liness. 



What I have stated in reference to the making 

 of butter, applies particularly to that obtained from 

 cream alone, and from cream in the usual state for 

 butter, namely, after it has become sour by keeping; 

 but butter can be obtained from sweet cream, though 

 churning renders its butter-milk as sour as that from 

 sour cream. To have butter in perfection from sweet 

 cream it should be churned every day; as adaily sup- 

 ply of cream must be small, a small churn must be 

 used, to have butter fresh made every day. The 

 table churn becomes useful for this purpose. I see 

 it alleged, in advertisements of table churns, that 

 butter inay be made in them from cream in ten or 

 twelve minutes. I have made several experiments 

 with such a table chum, in churning cream at dif- 

 ferent temperatures, and with ditferent volocities, 

 but never obtained good butter in less than thirty 

 minutes, and when forined so quickly as in fifteen 

 minutes the butter was soft and frothy. I have 

 heard it alleged that butter of the finest quality 

 cannot be obtained from sweet cream, but I know 

 from experience that butter of the richest quality, 

 flavor and appearance, can be made from sweet 

 cream. Were not such butter super-excellent, 

 would noblemen have it on their tables every morn- 

 ing ? I consider butter out of the churn and before 

 it is washed most delicious. It is true that sweet 

 cream requires longer churning than sour, still but- 

 ler is obtained from it in from thirty to forty minutes. 



For my own use, I would never desire better butter, 

 the year round, than that cliurned every morning in a 

 small churn from sweet cream. Such butter, on 

 cool new baked oat- cake, overlaid with flower vir- 

 gin honey, accompanied with a cup of hot strong 

 coffee, mollified with crystalized sugar and cream, 

 such as the butter has been made froin, is a break- 

 fast worth partaking of, but seldom to be obtained. 



Vegetable Poisons. — Mr. E. S. Fox, of Ath- 

 ens, N. York, publishes the following: "Almost 

 every farmer is more or less troubled with poison 

 ivy, sumach, parsnip, and the like, from which I 

 have suffered very much myself, and after trying a 

 great variety of remedies, have found out that a 

 poultice made of buckwheat flour and buttermilk, 

 with a piece of blue vitrol the size of a pea, pulver- 

 ized and dissolved, added to the mixture, has had 

 the happy effect of removing the trouble, and ef- 

 fecting a cure in a short time." 



How TO Make a Good Cup of Tea. — M. Soy- 

 er recommends that, before pouring in any water, 

 the teapot, with the tea in it, shall be placed in the 

 oven till hot, or heated by means of a spirit lamp, 

 or in front of the fire (not too close, of course,) 

 and the pot then filled with boiling water. The 

 result, he says, will be, in about a minute, a most 

 delicious cup of tea, much superior to that drawn 

 in the ordinary way. 



0^" Men of genius are often dull and inert in so- 

 ciety; as the blazing meteor, when it descends to 

 the earth, is only a stone. 



t;^ The silent eye is often a more powerful con- 

 queror than the noisy tongue. 



0° The New England Farmer is published every other 

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