THE GENESEE FARMER. 



65 



WHITE SPECKS IN BUTTER. 



In reading the November number of the Farmer^ 

 I see in your request for essays, one which will find 

 a response from the ladies, namely : " Wliat is the 

 cau-se o^ and best remedy for, white specks in 

 butter?" In answer, I will give ray opinion, from 

 an experience for many years in butter-making. I 

 have fjund whenever a current of air has come 

 directly upon the milk, that the cream would 

 become hardened in small specks on the surface, 

 which the process of churning would not break, 

 and they would become incorporated in the butter. 

 In windy weather, these particles are the most 

 quickly formed. 



My remedy for this defect, is not to allow a 

 draught of air direct upon the milk, nor to allow 

 the milk to stand so long that the action of the 

 atmosphere will harden the cream ; but to skim it 

 as soon as sour, and, if possible, before the milk 

 thickens. A tablespoonful of salt is thrown into a 

 jar, — which is kept in a cool place — into which the 

 cream is put, and briskly stirred, whenever cream 

 is put in, with a stick kept in the jar for that use, 

 till suflicient is accumulated for churning. The 

 cream is put into the churn, after it has been well 

 eoaked in warm or cold water, as the weather 

 admits ; adding to the cream a quart or two of new 

 or sweet milk, which, in cold weather, is heated 

 sufficiently to warm the cream. This obviates the 

 necessity of standing the churn in a warm corner 

 until the cream is at a proper temperature for 

 churning, and the addition of the milk thins the 

 eream. so that when the butter forms it will be 

 perfectly clear. Sometimes, when the buttermilk 

 begins to separate, water is thrown in, a little at a 

 time, but never when sufficient sweet milk has 

 been added before churning. The churning is 

 always done in a short time. Butter that is put 

 down for market, should have as little water used 

 about it as possible. 



When I observe these rules, I always have solid, 

 golden-colored butter, free from white specks^which, 

 when propevly packed, with all the buttermilk 

 worked out, m'\\\ keep sweet as long as you may 

 desire, and be it for the daintiest palate. 



WeslpoH, Essex G.. jv: Y. IIAKRIET B. NEWELL. 



VETCHES AND TARES. 



On the best method of mltivating and feedhig out Vetches or 

 Tares, and can they be prcfitably grown in this climate ? 



In cultivating tares, we look upon them as a 

 green or fallow crop, aid sow them in the same 

 field with our root and jreen crops. In preparing 

 land for the tares, we thnk the best method is to 

 manure the ground in tie fall, and plow it care- 

 fully down. If not jjlowtd in the fall, it ought to 

 be plowed early in the sjring. Then, as soon as 

 the ground is fit to work, Me go over it with a cul- 

 tivator, making a nice melVw seed bed, and then 

 sow the tares at the rate of about two bushels per 

 acre. Where the crop is sown for soiling, it is well 

 to sow earjf, and about half a bushel of oats mixed 

 with the tires. The oats will, in a measure, pre- 

 vent the tires from lodging, ind will consequently 

 keep their from dust and other impurities ; as when 

 the seasoi is damp, the tares are apt to lie down and 

 mildew. In that case, stock do not eat them as 

 well. Atop dressing of plaster ®r ashes, when 



the plants begin to make their appearance above 

 the ground, will promote an early growtli. If any 

 of the tares are intended for seed, the plaster had 

 better be omitted ; as on rich soils, they grow too 

 much to vines, if plastered. If wanted in large 

 quantities for soiling, they should be sown at inter- 

 vals -of from ten days to a fortnight, so that they 

 may be fed to stock when they are in their greatest 

 perfection — that is, from the time the blossoms be- 

 gin to ai^p-)ar till the seed is fully formed. 



The principal uses of tares are for soiling, feeding 

 in the house to working horses at noon during the 

 season of summer fallowing, or while working them 

 in mowing and reaping machines, drawing in grain, 

 or any busy season, when they have not time to 

 fill themselves on our short summer pastures. They 

 are also useful to feed to railch cows, causing them 

 to give abundance of rich milk, and consequently 

 the finesjt butter. Young calves do well on them ; 

 and even store pigs thrive on them, after the po^'.s 

 begin to fill. Tares are best cut as wanted ; or at 

 most, no more ought to be cut at once than can be 

 used in the course of the day. Every farmer should 

 sow a small portion of his farm with tares or vetches, 

 as a soiling and feeding crop ; as he would by this 

 means be provided, in the months of July and Au- 

 gust, with a most valuable stock of green proven- 

 der to feed bis cattle and horses, when, in all prob- 

 ability, the pasturage will be short, owing to the 

 influence of heat and drought. 



Tares seem to grow as well in this climate as in 

 Great Britain ; the only diflierence tliat we can see 

 is, that here, in most cases, they will only cut once, 

 unless the season proves wet — in which case we 

 have cut them a second time. There are many 

 varieties of tares ; that commonly cultivated liere 

 is named vicia sativa. In England, they sow a tall 

 or winter variety, which we have never tried here. 



Cobourg, C. W. W. K. 



WOOD LAND. 



" How much timber should be reserved on a fifty, seventy- five, 

 or one hundred acre farm for use V" 



Being a resident of one of the finest wooded 

 sections of country that I have ever seen, it has 

 been a source of sorrow and regret to me to see the 

 wanton destruction of a great deal of our valuable 

 timber; and if we continue our ja-esent wholesale 

 mode of destruction, timber will in a few years be 

 as scarce in Canada as in the middle of an Illinois 

 prairie, and we have no substitute to use for fuel 

 during our long winters. On mentioning the subject 

 to others who, in most other cases, are careful and 

 enlightened men, their answer has in general been, 

 " I have plenty to last me while I live." Others 

 have answered, " There is more timber in the coun- 

 try than we will ever use;" shutting their eyes, as 

 it were, to the fact that their own homesteads and 

 their immediate vicinity has been settled inside of 

 perhaps twenty years; and the timber is already so 

 scarce that they will perhaps have enough to last 

 out their lives, leaving bare fields and no timber, 

 for either fuel or fencing purposes, for tlieir posterity. 



As we are all possessed of one hundred acre lots 

 here, I have often viewed with regret the quantity 

 of timber-land which each man in his judgment 

 has left for the future ; some leaving ten, and some 

 fifteen acres, — which would not be so bad, but, not 



