56 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[April 



of shad in that river, tlie nets lieing too weali 

 to resist so powerful a fish as the sturgeon. 



Tlie prominence of the turbot and sole 

 among the more expensive fishes of Europe 

 has suggested the idea of introducing them 

 into American waters; and at the request of 

 Mr. J. S. Kidder, of Boston, tlie United States 

 Fish Commissioner is now engaged in making 

 prejiarations for a sufficient uiunlier of young 

 fish from tlie British coast to that of Massa- 

 chusetts to make a satisfactory experiment, 

 the expenses to be borne Ly Mr. Kiddei". — Har- 

 per ^S Magazine. 



TREE LAWS. 



A few weeks ago we referred to an absurd 

 attempt to get Congress to pass a law in re- 

 gard to patents on new fruits. The agricul- 

 tural press has spoken emphatically against 

 it. We See now that another sclieme is before 

 the House in regard to tree laws, in which 

 the agricultural press has been as emphati- 

 cally against as in the patent plant matter. It 

 is really astonishing how easily ill-considered 

 matters like these can obtain a hearing, and 

 even approval, before a body so generally in- 

 telligent as are the men who compose the 

 American Congress. The project now is to 

 appoint a Commissioner of Forestry, to take 

 charge of American forests, with a view to 

 their preservation. This is, we believe, the 

 third year that the attempt has been made to 

 found this new department ; but though twice 

 defeated, it seems bound to rise again. 



We all know now that much that has been 

 said about this forest-tree subject is the veriest 

 trash, and has been kept before the public sys- 

 tematically, no doubt, for the interest of a few 

 who want to be constituted a Board of Com- 

 missioners. There is, so far as the practical 

 question is concerned, nothing for such a 

 commission to do that the agricultural press 

 of the country has not already done. We — 

 all of us — have pointed out that there is a 

 waste of timber going on, but tliis waste has 

 no bearing, or very little, on our future sup- 

 ply. Where timber is wasted, it is generally 

 in localities where it is really worth little be- 

 cause it is not near any place where it can be 

 marketed, nor would it be for many years ; 

 and therefore it is burned down and cut to 

 make way for farm crops. Wherever it is 

 near to any such market, or near to a pros- 

 pective market, it is seldom destroyed. It 

 needs no law for its preservation under such 

 circumstances. Americans can see questions 

 of profit and loss as quick as any one, and will 

 not wantonly destroy that which will make 

 them rich. As for timber outside of civiliza- 

 tion, people talk of jireserving it as if a tree 

 were rocks and stones and would last for ages. 

 Most of our great western forests have al- 

 ready reached mature age, and are on the 

 downward road. Many of these are between 

 one and two hundred years old. It is impos- 

 sible to preserve that which Nature has 

 doomed. How are ," Commissioners " to 

 "preserve" them V Even were they much 

 longer-lived than they are, the chief trouble 

 comes from forest fires much more than from 

 the woodman's axe. Can a Commissioner 

 prevent the sportsmen's wad or the spark 

 from the locomoti ve V 



What we really want is not so much the 

 " preservation " of the old forests in the far- 

 away parts of our great country as the encour- 

 ugment iif new plantations ! and this iilantiug 

 is not a work for the general government to 

 do, which does not propose to hold public 

 lands. 



But supposing that there was nothing more 

 in this proiwsition than the mere creation of 

 a new bureati with a new pack of office-hold- 

 ers, what is there in it more than ought prop- 

 erly to fall within the existing Department of 

 Agriculture ? Forestry has ever been re- 

 garded as an adjunct of agricidture, and there 

 is nothing proposed to be reached by this 

 Commission that might not just as well be ac- 

 complished by the Department of Agriculture 

 as it at present exists. Indeed, the present 

 Commissioner has paid considerable attention 



to the forest question, and could do more, if 

 encouraged by Congress or other influences to 

 do so. 



At any rate, nobody wants this Commission, 

 if we i-ead aright the feelings of our agricul- 

 tural exchanges. It is simply a "job," and 

 nothing more. — Gcrmantown Telegraph, 



THE DAIRY AND BUTTER MAKING. 



At a late meeting of the Eastern Experi- 

 mental Farm Club, at West Grove, Chester 

 county, Mr. Ileeder, of Bucks county, was in- 

 troduced and spoke mainly uijon the venlila- 

 ticm of dairy houses. He had been much 

 troubled in years past ; the spring-house would 

 overflow when heavy rains occurred, and in 

 the summer tlie milk would sour and thicken 

 before the cream would rise, and in winter it 

 was too cold to get the full value or benefit of 

 the milk; so he resolved three years ago to 

 build a house or aiiartnient for dairying purpo- 

 ses, and before d oing so visited some of the most 

 noted in New Jersey and'Cliester county. His 

 observations satisfied him that liy securing a 

 proper ventilation and temperature he could 

 have good butter at all seasons of the year, 

 and u])on philosophical principles he would 

 warm his house in the winter, and keep it 

 cool in summer. In the summer he would 

 have a large V shaped ice box located in one 

 portion of the room and regulate the tempera- 

 ture by ventilation, and in the winter he would 

 have artificial heat by a stove or furnace, and 

 regulate the temperature as in summer. He 

 took exceptions to Prof. Wilkinson's mode, 

 the Gulf Stream principle, as impracticable, 

 as well as expensive ; he liked the cool air 

 principle much better than the cold water 

 baths for milk ; and here Mr. R. explained his 

 ideas to the audience, as to what he esteemed 

 a model dairy house. 



After Mr. Keeder closed, Mr. Hardin, of 

 Ky., was introduced, and entertained the 

 club for more than an hour upon his practical 

 theory of butter making. He said he started 

 a butter dairy about four years ago, near 

 Louisville, Ky., where the climate was hot 

 and humid, and where animal substances de- 

 cayed rapidly ; where insects and parasites 

 were numerous, and to spread out milk in the 

 usual way ill pans was to invite the enemy, 

 which he was anxious to avoid. To overcome 

 these difficulties he began a series of experi- 

 ments by the use of shallow pans in open air, 

 and step by step he lowered the temperature 

 and increased the depth of the milk, until he 

 reached the Swedish plan of setting milk, im- 

 mersing in water at 40 degrees Fahrenheit, in 

 cans twenty inches deep and 8 inches in di- 

 ameter. As a matter of economy, he built a 

 box with double sides and a close-fitting double 

 door, and so arranged as to exclude the sur- 

 rounding atmosphere. He also inserted a 

 shelf ill the upper part of the Viox, for the re- 

 ception of ice, which is quite a desideratum 

 in warm climates. In this box he sets his 

 cans of strained milk with a tight cover, and 

 thus subjected to the cooling process, and left 

 in at the ordinary temperature, which, in such 

 cases, is about 4(j degrees, for the sjiace of 

 from thirty-six to seventy-two hours. AH this 

 time the milk is sweet, and the cream is also 

 sweet, and is churned in this condition. Mr. 

 H. contends that the points attained by his 

 process of cooling and butter making, are a 

 better flavor, uniformity in quality, better 

 grain or texture, as well as keeping quality ; 

 that the cost of the utensils and buildings are 

 trifling in comparison to the present method 

 of building siiring-houses with the jiatent ven- 

 tilators, and with much less laljor or care. In 

 this case, or with my method, the ice shelf is 

 filled once a day only, and the cans, which 

 hold from 30 to 35 pounds, are set in or taken 

 out, as desired, and a man can do nearly all 

 the work if required ; and with this economy 

 in labor there is a corresponding economy in 

 the cost of pans, which is about one to four in 

 favor of deep cans. He also argues in favor 

 of his operation as a matter of health, especi- 

 ally to the dairy women, as they are not at all 

 exposed to long attendance in the damp spring- 



houses or vanlts. Mr. Hardin gave satisfac- 

 tory evidence from actual experiments, not 

 only conducted by liimself, but by experienced 

 butter makers, and in eveiy instance he made 

 more butter from the same numlier of pomids 

 of milk than by the old method, with a flavor 

 e(iually as good if not better. The size of the 

 milk box or refrigerator for a dairy of 5 cows 

 is about 4 feet 2 inches high, 2 feet 2 inches 

 deep and same in length, and can be made or 

 sold for about S25. 



John I. Carter read an essay from Prof. 

 AVilkinson, of Baltimore, upon the subject of 

 butter making. It was expected that the 

 Professor would be here in person, but illness 

 prevented his being in attendance, and that 

 the members should not be wholly deprived of 

 his counsel, reported on ))aiier, as the next 

 best thing he could do. The Professor was 

 opposed to the sudden cooling of the milk ; 

 that in so doing the animal odor was retained 

 in the milk or cream. He claimed that gradual 

 cooling or artificial heat would assist in throw- 

 ing off the animal odor and thus produce a 

 fine quality as well as texture of butter. He 

 also stated that milk heated to 140 degrees or 

 1.50 degrees and then cooled would keep sweet 

 much longer than when cooled in the natural 

 way, and also contended that cream raised on 

 milk set in deep vessels will not make as good 

 butter, or of as good quality, as that set in 

 shallow pans. 



THE BEST COW FOR THE DAIRY. 



In treating of this subject we discard at 

 once the idea of combining every good quality 

 in a single animal — such as large size, nice 

 quality butter, deep milking, ease of fattening, 

 beef producing, &c. Such an animal never 

 lived, or never will live, for the reason that 

 some of these qualities are incompatible with 

 each other. AVliat the butcher requires is 

 heavy carcass — the very opposite of what the 

 dairy desires. The latter wants all the secret- 

 ing and assimilating organs to concentrate in 

 the udder for the production of milk, whilst 

 the butcher wants them to centre on the back 

 and ribs for the building up of flesh. For this 

 latter purpose, there seems to be no cattle 

 equal to the Durham or Holstein, and to that 

 end they have been bred for a century, just as 

 the Jersey has been bred for richness of milk 

 and the largest amount of high flavored butter. 



If the farmer desires a cow that will pro- 

 duce the finest article of the latter, and one 

 that will retain the largest money value for 

 the food required, then we should say by all 

 means take the Jersey. A discreet farmer, 

 even had he never seen a specimen of the kind, 

 would l)e very likely to describe as his prefer- 

 ence just the qualities she possesses. But if 

 bone and muscle, Durham or Holstein, would 

 fill the bill mucli lietter, whilst the amount of 

 food required to keep up their thrift and status 

 would be much greater. The smaller the size, 

 therefore, of a cow, so that slie unites there- 

 with the faculty of secreting the largest per- 

 centage of rich butyraceous matter, the better; 

 and such, unmistakably, is the province of the 

 Jersey. It is not so much the amount of food 

 ajipropriated and taken into the stomach that 

 constitutes her chief value for the dairy, as it 

 is in the use made of it when so appropriated. 

 The Jersey cow knows nothing of accumula- 

 ting fat on the back and ribs, nor is it required 

 of iier. She appropriates notliing in that direc- 

 tion, but possesses in an eminent degree the 

 marvelous faculty of assimilating and .secreting 

 from her food, a milk rich in oleaginous mat- 

 ter — the material of which the butter is 

 formed — and for which especial purpose she 

 seems to have been created. 



What the farmer or grazier wants is a cow 

 small in stature, with the least amount of bone 

 and oftiil, and somewhat wedge shaped — wide 

 behind and tapering to the front, with hips 

 sufliciently broad to sustain the weight of the 

 bag when filled, a small head, prominent eye, 

 yellow and soft skin, a capacious iiauncli, a 

 flat instead of a round rib, a thin tail, a tajier- 

 ing muzzle, prominent milk veins, a thrifty 

 constitution, and with allagentle disposition; 



I 



