1848. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



199 



tract about Irish rose butter which is prominent 

 in the proposals for contracts. Why was this so 

 drawn. Was it to prevent those who never heard 

 of Irish rose butter who might otherwise have 

 been inclined to offer proposals, not to do so, 

 being ignorant of how Irish rose butter was made? 

 It is presumed it must have been inserted through 

 inadvertence on the part of the persons preparing 

 the notices. But from whatever reason it was 

 inserted, its effect has been, beyond all question, 

 to prevent persons from offering proposals, who 

 otherwise might have done so. Inquiries have 

 been made at the rooms of the society for infor- 

 mation as to Irish rose butter, but no person in 

 this section of the state could give any information 

 on the subject, and from the correspondence 

 from Ireland, it seems equally difficult to give 

 any account of it in Ireland itself. A letter from 

 Cork, where the butter for the British navy is 

 purchased and inspected in open market, says : 

 "The term 'rose butter' we know not the deriva- 

 tion of." "There is only one description ship- 

 ped here, and all is brought in for inspection to 

 a public market in this city." 



A correspondence was opened with Brown, 

 Shipley & Co., of Liverpool, an extensive mercan- 

 tile house engaged in the American trade, and 

 letters have been received from them on the sub- 

 ject of Irish rose butler, and of the method of 

 manufacturing butter for the British navy. This 

 is manufactured chiefly in the counties of Cork, 

 Limerick, and Kerry, in Ireland. 



Extract of a letter received by the firm above 

 referred to, from Clonmel, Ireland, dated July, 

 1847, answering their inquiry about Irish butter : 

 "We are this morning in receipt of your favor 

 of 29th ult., and in reply, we give you all the 

 information we can, as to how butter is manufac- 

 tured in this neighborhood. Our best makers 

 have large, airy, cool dairies, and churn twice 

 or three times a week, which depends on the 

 heat of the weather. Caution must be used not 

 to allow the cream to be too long in the tubs and 

 pans, or until it gets sour, as the butter will then 

 be inferior and what is termed cheesy. The but- 

 termilk must be well washed out of the butter, 

 and when salted, be packed ^rwi into the firkins. 

 These, with great cleanliness, are the principal 

 things to be looked after in the manufacture, 

 otherwise your butter will not keep its quality. 

 The quantity of fine salt is 3 lbs. to the firkin, 

 containing about 65 lbs. The butter in this dis- 

 trict is made expressly for the London and north 

 of England markets; in the former, at certain 

 periods of the year, it takes precedence of the 

 Dutch. We never heard of rose butter, but we 

 know one of the Waterford houses brands the 

 best quality he ships with a rose. The navy is 

 supplied with butter exclusively from Cork, where 

 a larger quantity of salt is used in the manufac- 

 ture, and where it is made up expressly for for- 

 eign exportation." — Transactions, for 1847. 



Hints to Writers and Readers.— Under Draining. 



Messrs. Editors : — I am satisfied that the 

 generality of farmers are by no means as igno- 

 rant of their occupation and interest as they are 

 oflen represented to be ; and in my opinion they 

 have not that low, degraded opinion of their un- 

 derstanding or calling that is frequently attached 

 to them. That farmers, like every thing else 

 which belongs to earth, are imperfect, and need 

 improvement, is admitted ; and that there have 

 been some very important improvements in the 

 management of the farm, introduced within a 

 few years past, is also admitted — such as alterna- 

 tion of crops, sowing clover seed, under drain- 

 ing, &c. But it strikes me that great injury has 

 been done to the farming interest by the many 

 impositions that have been practised upon the 

 credulous farmers, by speculators, in selling ar- 

 ticle?- and animals at extravagant prices, many 

 of which have proved worse than useless. Now 

 telling us that we want instruction is not the 

 thing ; we want the instruction, or that which 

 will instruct us. And we desire a certain kind 

 of instruction, too. If a man informs us that, 

 by a certain process, we can raise five bushels 

 of wlieat more on an acre, we wish to know 

 whether that process will cost more than five 

 dollars per acre. If it does, we call it no im- 

 provement, &c. 



Now, as I think I know a few things as well 

 as others, and as I am as willing that others 

 should learn as myself, I will send you a little 

 of my practice on Under Draining. 



I find a great saving of labor in draining by 

 using the plow in the following manner : Strike 

 out a land about twelve feet wide, turn the fur- 

 row outward, and plow to the centre, where 

 will be a broad, open furrow. Then begin 

 again, just within the outside furrows, and plow 

 it over again. When you get to your open fur- 

 row this time, you will plow it six or eight 

 inches deeper. Then go over it again, begin- 

 ning a little nearer the centre, and so on. Three 

 plowings will settle it from fourteen to twenty 

 inches. If necessary run your plow a few 

 times along the center with your traces length- 

 ened, and your ring in the upper notch of the 

 clevis, and your drain is almost done. A man 

 then, having a round pointed shovel with a long 

 handle, and a square pointed pick, will finish off 

 from ten to twenty rods in a day. Where the 

 current of water is small, I stone up in the fol- 

 lowing manner : fling in from the wagon small 

 cobble stones, loosely in the bottom, and a flat 

 one on them, and finish off with fine stones, say 

 eight or ten inches in the whole, and cover with 

 straw and dirt. A. Calvert. 



Reading Center, N. Y., July, 1848. 



In dry weather, water vegetables and flowers 

 daily, just before sunset. 



