1848. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



245 



Preserving Butter. 



It is a valuable art to know how to make good 

 butter, and it is also a valuable art to know how 

 to preserve it when it is made. The last named 

 art must depend first on extracting every thing 

 that will ferment or become rancid by absorption 

 of the oxygen or acidifying principle of the air, 

 and on excluding air as much as possible from it. 



We will relate a method which was last year 

 adopted by Col. Daniel Craig of Readfield. 



The Colonel's lady makes excellent butter, to 

 begin with, and part of his success must be at- 

 tributed to that. 



The butter was packed down solidly and care- 

 fully in firkins, and a clean cloth fitted on the 

 top of each before the covers of the firkins were 

 shut on. He then took a clean hogshead,, or large 

 cask, and placed a layer of salt on its bottom. — 

 He then put in-one or more firkins, in such a 

 position as not to touch each other, and then 

 poured in salt until the firkins were covered. 

 In this way his butter kept as sweet and as sound 

 as a nut for several months, and when he came 

 to overhaul it for the purpose of selling it, he 

 found every thing as pure and nice as when it 

 was first packed away. This hint is worth fol- 

 lowing by traders and others who may wish to 

 preserve good butter any length of time. We 

 do not know that poor, half- made butter can be 

 kept from becoming rancid by being managed 

 in this manner, and it is no matter if it cannot, 

 for such butter is not worth the trouble. — Maine 

 Farmer. 



Preservation of Eggs. — This, after all the 

 receipts given, is no easy matter. One reason 

 is this : The egg contains, within itself, the ele- 

 ments of decomposition, and if the temperature 

 be not kept pretty uniform and at a low degree 

 — not so low as to freeze, however — these ele- 

 ments aro set to work, and the egg becomes 

 changed and injured if not spoiled. Some pack 

 them down in lime water, some in brine, some 

 in pulverized charcoal — all of which articles will 

 preserve them very well if kept cool ; but after 

 all, an egg kept this way six months or a year, 

 even if not tainted, will not be equal to a fresh, 

 new laid one. 



Some time ago a Mr. Jayne, of Yorkshire, 

 in England, adopted the following process for 

 preserving eggs, which he says kept them in a 

 good condition two years. He obtained a patent 

 for the mode in England, but that will not pre- 

 vent any one from using it in this country. 



Take one bushel of quick lime, thirty-two 

 ounces of salt, eight ounces of cream of tartar. 

 Mix the salt together with as much water as will 

 reduce the composition to a consistency that an 

 egg when put into it will swim. The eggs may 

 now be put into it, and be kept down by a board 

 with a gentle pressure upon it. — lb. 



Method of Hunting Wild Bees. 



The Canadians adopt an ingenious plan for 

 discovering the trees that are stored with honey. 

 They collect a number of bees off the flowers in 

 the forest, and confine them in a small box, at 

 the bottom of which is a piece of honeycomb, and 

 on the lid a square of glass large enough to ad- 

 mit the light into every part. When the bees 

 seem satiated with honey, two or three are al- 

 lowed to escape, and the direction in which they 

 fly is attentively observed until they become lost 

 in the distance. The bee hunter then proceeds 

 towards the spot where they disappeared, and 

 liberating one or two more of the little captives, 

 he also marks their course. This process is 

 repeated, until the other bees, instead of follow- 

 ing the same direction of their predecessors, take 

 the direct opposite course, by which the hunter 

 is convinced that he has overshot the obj-ect of 

 his pursuit ; for it is a well known fact, that if 

 you take a bee from a flower situated at any 

 given distance south of the tree to which the bee 

 belongs, and carry it in the closest confinement 

 to an equal distance on the north side of the tree, 

 he will, when liberated, fly in a circle for a mo- 

 ment, and then make his course direct to his 

 sweet home, without deviating in the least to the 

 right hand or to the left. The hunter is now 

 very soon able to detect the tree which contains 

 the honey, by placing on a heated brick a piece 

 of honeycomb, the odor of which, when melting, 

 is so strong and alluring as to entice the whole 

 colony lo come down from their citadel. When 

 the tree is cut down, the quantity of honey found 

 in its excavated trunk seldom fails to compensate 

 the hunter very amply for his perseverance. 



KiDiNEY Worms in Swine. — A farmer in Dela 

 ware co. Pa. lost a hog, after protracted disease ; 

 in the following year three died ; and in the suc- 

 ceeding year five more — the symptoms in all 

 being the same ; and all those which were at- 

 tacked with the disease or died were barrows, 

 or males. On a careful post mortem examina- 

 tion of those that died the last year, it was found 

 that they were afflicted with gravel, which was 

 discovered in the bladders and in the urethra, 

 obstructing the passage of the urine. In one 

 case, the bladder was found bursted, and its con- 

 tents discharged into the cavity of the belly or 

 abdomen. The vessels of the kidneys, and those 

 leading to the bladder, were distended by a par- 

 tially indurated secretion of matter, which, when 

 rubbed between the fingers, discovered particles 

 of a sandy character, presumed to be the same as 

 those obtained from the human subject. It is 

 worthy of remark, that although there was the 

 usual proportion of females in the stock of hogs, 

 none of these were visibly affected by the disease ; 

 in that respect following the same general law 

 noticed in the human family. 



