146 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



JUNI 



Cables' iDcpaitmcnt. 



Wk have promptly forwarded to all applicants the 

 "floral Bake,'" though we fear Bome of them will 

 never reach their destination, on account of the dis- 

 tance some of our friends reside from the regular 

 express routes. Though wisely making no attempts 

 at rhyme, many of our lady correspondents are truly 

 poetical : 



Kns. GKNKSEr Farheb : — That rake, if you pJRose, RJrs. 

 — shall " use it without gloves.' rccei\e it thankfully, ond 

 send you a boquet in return. Hoping the niiguionetie will 

 have a sweeter fragrance and the petunias a richer bloom 

 through iu agency, I ask you to send it soon, N. A, S, — 

 Ripley, BroioH Co., Ohio. 



Was it not for the advantage our near readers 

 would have over those more distant, we would offer 

 Doit'ning^s Flower Garden, Parsons on the Hose, 

 and other good hooks as a premium for the best 

 boquet sent to our office during the season. But as 

 we can not at present make this oflTer t'O as to be 

 available to our friends generally, we would urge the 

 formation of Horticultural Associations in every city 

 and village and county of our country ; and the tfier, 

 by such associations, of similar premiums. The 

 tabor will be light, the expense little ; and in return, 

 flowers will spring up where grow the thorn and 

 thistle — homes will be made more pleasant, eyes more 

 bright, and hearts more happy. The cheeks of loved 

 ones will catch the bloom of the rose, the sweetness 

 of the honeysuckle. True, flowers cannot furnish 

 food for the body ; hut, shall the body be fattened, and 

 the mind and the aflections starved ? Shall we work 

 for the body always, and never for that which distin- 

 guishes man, and makes him greater than the brute ? 

 Is it right that we should eat, work, and die, like the 

 ox ? \i it net as sinful to stultify and starve the 

 mind as the body f 



Few realize the injury they do, and actually sutler, 

 by depriving themselves and their children of the 

 pleasure afforded by the cultivation of flowers — these 

 children of the field. A farmer and his wife, in easy 

 circumstances, not a thousand miles from this, had 

 an only son, vvho, much to the sorrow of his parents, 

 had imbibed a desire '-to go to sea." He had read 

 of the raging billows — of strange people in strange 

 lands — of orange groves — of lands where the pine- 

 apple grows — of exciting scenes in capturing the 

 whale, — and his whole heart seemed set on seeing 

 foreign lands and living on the ocean wave. In vain 

 his parents endeavored to interest him in the opera- 

 tions of the farm. lie worked, to be sure, but his 

 heart was not in the work. It was a drudgery, and 

 he longed for the time when he could bid farewell to 

 parents and home, and sec the world for himself. 

 At that time a Horticultural Society was established 

 in the county, and at the first exhibition fruits and 

 flowers of the finest kinds were displayed, many of 

 them brought from a distance, and such as had never 

 been seen in the neighborhood before. Our young 

 friend attended this exhibition, and looked at the dis- 

 play with wonder and surprise. Nothing astonished 

 him more than the lively, joyous interest, those 

 engaged took in the arrangement of their several 

 collections. While he had looked upon everything 

 connected with the cultivation of the soil as a heart- 

 less drudgery, here even the ladies apjiearfd to engage 

 in it with a zeal and a ))leasure he ctuild not account 

 for. One class of flowers particularly attracted his 

 notice ; he procured a few plants — planted them and 



nursed and watched them, and wailed anxiously and 

 impatiently for the coming bloom. In due time his 

 plants blossomed, and their extraordinary beauty 

 repaid him for his toil. He carried off the prize at 

 the next show. Elated at his success, and the pleas- 

 ure it afilirded him, he increased his collection — for- 

 got all about the sea and strange lands — and became 

 one of the most enthusiastic and intelligent cultiva- 

 tors, and the most successful competitor for prizes at 

 the shows of the Horticultural Society. He now 

 takes hold of farming in earnest — aims at the finest 

 crops ; and the parents reap in the society, perhaps 

 the salvation of their son, and in the better manage- 

 ment of the farm, the happy influence of flowers on 

 the young mind, and Ihc benejits of Horticultural 

 Societies. 



BUTTER MAKOra. . 



As this is the seasos for making butter, I think it 

 not inappropriate to write a little on that subject. 

 Butter making is a business that justly occupies the 

 attention of the farmers of this cotmtry at present ; 

 and although each one that has published his process 

 has a somewhat different manner, yet they are all the 

 best — all get the premium. One churns the whole 

 milk, one skims sweet, another skims sour ; ami the 

 conclusion to he drawn from all this is, that in this 

 respect we are like all other nations that have a sur- 

 plus of butter. The Irish and Dutch have the repu- 

 tation of making the best butter ; yet they are as 

 unlike as they can be in their manufacture. Even 

 ill diflcrent parts of Ireland, their management is 

 wholly different : in one part they churn the whole 

 milk, in another they skim as soon as changed, say- 

 ing that if the milk turns thick before it is skimmed, 

 the cream will turn soft and c^nsetpiently the butter 

 will he soft and will not keep. I had in my employ 

 the past season, an Irish girl from the south of Ire- 

 land, who has worked in an extensive dairy in that 

 country. She says they use more salt in their butter 

 for transportation than they do for home consump- 

 tion, and that their butter is never worked after it is 

 salted, but is finished and packed in firkins. I intend 

 to pack a pot ne\t June, exactly after her directions ; 

 but I do not suppose it will be fit for anything but 

 soapgrease. In .Tohnston's Agricultural Chemistry, 

 I think the Dutch are mentioned as churning the 

 whole milk, hut let it stand until it is so thick that 

 it will hold a stick up, with which they stir it. A 

 Farmer's Wifs.— Saratoga Co., JV.Y., May, 1850. 



Exercise. — Throughout all nature, want of motion 

 indicates weakness, corruption, inanimation and 

 death. Trenck in his damp prison, leaped about 

 like a lion, in his fetters of seventy pounds weight, 

 in order to preserve his health; and an illustrious 

 physician observes: "I know not which is most 

 necessary for the support of the human frame — food 

 or motion." Were the e.vercise of the body attended 

 to in a corresponding degree with that of the mind, 

 not only would children suffer less from sicknes, and 

 their lives be less uncertain, hut men and women, 

 and particularly inen of learning, would he more 

 healtliy and vigoroii.s, more happy in their domestic 

 lives, and the better able to perform their duties. 

 In fine, with propriety it may be said that the highest 

 refinement of mind, without improvement of the 

 can never present anything more than half a human 

 being. 



:BJig=a j="a e r-j 



