1848. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



215 



intended for long voyages. It gives it a peculiar 

 firmness and fineness of texture, and wax-like 

 appearance, when practiced, which butter made 

 by churning the cream seldom or never has. 

 There peculiarities can generally be detected 

 by the eye. There is also a cream-like flavor 

 to milk churned butter. 



I believe the highest price for dairies paid in 

 New York for several years past, has been paid 

 for several dairies from Chemung County. 

 Being at the table of a well known gourmand in 

 New York, in the spring of 1847, I remarked 

 upon the very fine quality of the butter. He 

 replied that such butter could not be made out of 

 Orange County. The conversation continued, 

 till finally the original firkin was brought up, 

 when I Ibund it was branded " John Holbert — 

 Premiimi.'" [Mr. Holbert resides in Che- 

 mung County, and took the first premium at the 

 State Fair at Saratoga, for the best butter made 

 in June.] The gentleman told me he had his 

 supply of butter of this dairy for several years, 

 at an extra price of 33 cents per pound, of a 

 particular grocer who alone sold it. 



The opinion of the gentleman who has the 

 charge of the butter department of the U. S. 

 Navy, " that no butter made out of Orange 

 County will resist the action of tropical climates," 

 I know to be erroneous. A dairy made in the 

 County of Broome has been sent abroad much 

 of the time for 10 years past. In 1839, it was 

 sold in St. Croix to the Governor, for 75 cents 

 per pound. In 1840 it was sold in New Bedford 

 and went a whaling voyage. I saw some of 

 it, after the expiration of nearly 4 years from 

 its manufacture, as sweet, and in as good con- 

 dition as when made. The same dairy has 

 since been sold in New Orleans, in Natches and 

 Mobile, a'jd there has never been any complaint 

 as to its quality. I shipped some butter that 

 was the product of this County to Canton in 

 1846, which, under very disadvantageous cir- 

 cumstances, opened as fresh as when made, and 

 proved so good that the shippers have each year 

 since applied to me for butter for cabin stores 

 for their ships. I broke up the original firkins, 

 and procured a quantity of small white oak kegs, 

 which would contain from 15 to 25 pounds eacii, 

 and repacked the butter, selecting the best from 

 a large quantity ; these kegs were placed in 

 very large hogsheads, and filled in the interstices 

 with rock salt, and placed in the hold of the vessel. 

 This butter was opened eighteen months after 

 its manufacture, in as good a condition as when 

 made. The small kegs were not used in refer- 

 ence to the preservation of the butter, but merely 

 for the convenience of retailing at Canton. 



The export of butter for the supply of the 

 different cities, that are along the Southern coast 

 of Asia, is probably destined to be a very con- 

 siderable business. The entire supply for the 



immense cities in the possession of the British 

 and East India Company being derived from 

 Europe, and mostly from Ireland — but some 

 little from Holland — and it is usually purchased 

 at home at a price which would fully pay an 

 American shipper at its destination. 



The relative proportion of our county that is 

 adapted to the production of the finer qualities 

 of butter is probably as small as any other ar- 

 ticle of general necsesity ; but much of the State 

 of New York will when properly cultivated, 

 produce the variety of grasses necessary to give 

 butter the peculiar flavor and aroma of Orange 

 County, when properly manufactured. 



The emigrants from Orange County before 

 alluded to, all agree in opinion that as good 

 butter can be made in these new localities as in 

 Orange County. Minisink is cited in the circu- 

 lar as being the locality producing the best but- 

 ter in Orange County. A Minisink dairy woman 

 in this vicinity who had for many years the repu- 

 tation of being one of the best in that town, 

 made her first dairy of about 60 firkins here 

 last season, and says it was the best she ever 

 made. All the Orange County Emigrants agree 

 in opinion (and many of them are persons of 

 much experience and close observation in their 

 business,) that in favorable situations they can 

 produce as much butter, and of as good quality, 

 as in Orange County. 



Another fact relative to the Potatoe 

 Disease. — At the late meeting of the Executive 

 Committee of the N. Y. State Agricultural Soci- 

 ety, held at Buffalo, Mr. F. J. Betts, of New- 

 burgh, communicated the following information 

 relative to the disease of the potato: — I have this 

 year planted potatoes in my forcing house, which 

 ripened some three weeks since, and upon dig- 

 ging them I found several entirely rotten. I 

 deem this fact of some importance in ascer- 

 taining the nature of the disease, as it cer- 

 tainly refutes some of the theories in respect 

 to it. The house is kept at as even a tempera- 

 ture as practicable, without the use of artificial 

 heat, and the ground is continually moist ; neither 

 sudden alterations of heat, therefore, nor sudden 

 changes from dry to wet, can be the cause of the 

 disease. The soil is made 3 1-2 feet deep, very 

 rich, from an admixture of well-rotted manure, 

 muck, and shell marl, and limed very heavily. 

 Such are the facts, and they may assist in arri- 

 ving at some just conclusions in respect to the 

 disease. 



Chimneys, to prevent their smoking, should 

 not, according to the antiquated idea, be carried 

 up zig-zag, nor made narrower at the top than 

 at the bottom ; but according to modern art, 

 must be built as nearly perpendicular as pos- 

 sible, be free from all roughness in the inside, 

 and be a little wider at the top, than at the base. 



