312 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



three days. After it is churned and the buttermilk is worked 

 out, it is salted with about one ounce of salt to a pound of 

 butter. It is then set in the cellar where it remains until the 

 next day, when it is again well worked over and lumped for the 

 market. 



Statement of Franklin Nourse. 



Butter.— I offer for premium one box of September butter, 

 twenty-two pounds. 



The process of making is as follows : After the milk is drawn 

 from the cow, it is strained into tin pans and set in a well ven- 

 tilated milk-room — nothing else being allowed in it — upon slats 

 one foot apart, instead of board shelves. After setting about 

 thirty-six hours — varying according to temperature — the cream 

 is taken off and put into stone pots, and stirred once a day. I 

 churn with a rotary churn once a week ; after which, the butter 

 is taken out, worked and salted with one ounce to the pound, 

 and lumped the following day. At the last working is added 

 two ounces of sugar to twelve pounds of butter. 



FRUITS AND FLOWERS. 



ESSEX. 



From the Report of the Committee on Fruits. 

 Pears. — The pear tree is said to be a longer lived tree than 

 the apple. Notwithstanding this, most of our newly introduced 

 fruits show symptoms of decay, while many of the old varieties 

 which are scattered here and there throughout New England 

 are still in a bearing and healthy state. If it is admitted that 

 the natural life of this tree is from fifty to one hundred years, 

 it becomes of the highest importance to ascertain, if possible, 

 the causes of this premature decay. The old pear trees alluded 

 to, as far as we can ascertain, are growing upon the spot where 

 they came up from seed, or transplanted when young with their 

 tap root uninjured. Our cultivators at the present time invari- 

 ably cut off the tap root, in order that lateral roots may multi- 

 ply and the trees grow faster and more vigorously, as they 



