284 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Dec. 



Matters in Central N. ¥.■ 



Cheese Making. 



Messrs. Editors : — I came from Buffalo to 

 Utica last week on the railroad, over as rough a 

 raod as any man would wish to travel on. The 

 timbers are decaying, and the iron is a flat rail, 

 and so light as to be frequently starting off" from 

 the bed pieces ; and it requires a man of some 

 nerve, who knows the danger, to ride with per- 

 fect composure. They are beginning to lay the 

 road anew with heavy T rail, which carries the 

 cars very smoothly, and on which they run with 

 more speed and safety. 



Tlie Legislature have passed an act requiring 

 the whole line of road from Buffalo to Albany to 

 be laid with the T rail, previous to the first of 

 January, 1849. 



They call the wheat crop in Western New 

 York, a fair crop ; but it looks very light on the 

 line of the railroad from Buffalo to Rochestei-, 

 and the oat crop is hardly worth cutting ; east 

 of Rochester to Utica the oat crop looks better, 

 and the corn bids fliir for a heavy yield. I nev- 

 er saw the trees so loaded with apples as they are 

 this year every where, but they are small sized. 



I called on one of your subscribers, who lives 

 near Utica, Mr. B. F. Jewett. His farm is cul- 

 tivated for hay mostly ; and every nook and cor- 

 ner, dry land and wet, is made productive. His 

 wet land he makes tillable, by digging ditches 

 from 2 to 3 feet deep, and laying two scantlings 

 in the bottom, 5 or 6 inches apart, and covering 

 them with a slab. He then throws the surface 

 dirt in the bottom, and levels up with the sub- 

 soil on the top. 



Herkimer county is the greatest cheese coun- 

 ty in the State, and probably in the United 

 States. Almost every man who has land enough 

 keeps cows and makes cheese. They have some 

 important improvements, that every mat? should 

 know who makes cheese to any extent any where. 

 One of the most useful articles I will undertake 

 to describe. Tt is a tin vat. The first one I 

 saw belongs to John Everett, Esq., of Litchfield. 

 It is made of tin, 2i feet wide, 6 feet long, and 

 19 inches deep. This vat sets inside of a wood- 

 en vat, 4 inches larger than the tin vat, which 

 leaves a space of 2 inches between the vats — so 

 that the tin can be surrounded with water. Mr. 

 Everett has 30 cows. At night he fills the out- 

 side vat with cold water ; this surrounds and 

 chills the tin vat ; the milk is then strained into 

 the tin vat, and is chilled and kept from souring 

 before morning. In the morning the milk is 

 strained in with the night's, and then with a 

 small boiler steam is introduced into the water 

 between the vats, until the milk is heated to about 

 84°, which is ascertained by a thermometer. — 

 They then put in the rennet, and as soon as the 

 *.urd has set they break it up, and then introduce 

 '\e steam as before to scald the curd, which they 

 ';^dit to 104° ; they then elevate one end of the 



vat a little and take a plug out of the lower end, 

 and set in a tin strainer; the whey then runs 

 otr, while they stir and break up the curd. The 

 whey is conducted from the vat to the cow barn, 

 in a small trough, and is then fed to the cows. 

 Most cows eat it greedily, and they think it is a 

 greater benefit to feed it to cows than to hogs. 

 The cheese from tliis dairy weigh from 60 to 90 

 pounds, and is marketed to be delivered on the 

 canal monthly, at 6^ cents. 



I also visited the dairy of Rodney Wilcox, in 

 the same neighborhood, who has 70 cows. He 

 pursues nearly the same method in making his 

 cheese, and says the labor of making a cheese 

 from his 70 cows, with his tin vat and steaming 

 apparatus, is not much more than it formerly was 

 to make a cheese from the milk of a dozen cows. 

 He advocates hard pressing, and says you can- 

 not press too hard, or get the whey out too quick ; 

 that he gets about all the whey out in 20 minutes, 

 but it stands in the press 24 hours. His cheese 

 weigh from 150 to 220 lbs. He has marketed 

 them to be delivered in the fall at 7 cents in 

 boxes. — Prairie Farmer. John Gage. 



Litchfield, N. Y., Sept., 1847. 



Browse for Sheep. — Browse of various kinds 

 is good for sheep in winter. They are very fond 

 of it, as it affords a change, being a green food. 

 The browse of oak, and other powerful astrin- 

 gents should be avoided. The browse of ever- 

 greens is used, not only as a wholesome food, 

 but for its medicinal qualities, particularly pine 

 and hemlock. And in some cases it is used to 

 considerable extent as a substitute for other fod- 

 der. Pine and hemlock are best, but spruce and 

 fir are also good. 



Some farmers have nearly supported their 

 sheep on browse for months, when hay was 

 scarce. J. Whitman, of Turner, Maine, has 

 used pine and hemlock for his sheep for more 

 than forty years, and he has known no injury 

 from them, but a benefit, and a saving of hay. — 

 He says that hemlock does not injure sheep with 

 lambs. He prefers pine and hemlock boughs to 

 spruce and fir. — CoWs Veterinarian. 



Income from Poultry. — It is stated in the 

 report of the committee on fowls, made at the 

 last Worcester (Mass.) Cattle Show, that Eben 

 Lincoln, of Grafton, from 27 fowls, in seven 

 months, obtained 199 doz. eggs, which sold for 

 $28 ; and 92 chickens sold lor $23 ; total, $51 

 — besides 29 dox. eggs used in his family. The 

 food of the fowls was, " some meat, some fish, all 

 kinds of grain, some lime, or pounded shells, 

 enough sand and water, a warm dwelling, and 

 good roosts." Reckoning the 29 doz. eggs 

 which were used in the family at 14 cents, per 

 dozen, (the price which those sold brought,) the 

 whole income from these 27 fowls in seven 

 months, would be a fraction over #55. — Cult. 



