56 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[April, 



grandchildren of the chiefs who fought under 

 the famous Blackhawk in what is now the 

 State of Wisconsin, nearly half a century ago. 

 For many years they have hunted unmolested, 

 but were recently removed to the Indian 

 Territory, under military escort, by orders 

 from the Government, but they were un- 

 happy, and refused to be comforted as wards 

 of the nation, so they made their way— sever;il 

 hundred strong— back to the happy hunting- 

 grounds of Wisconsin, a distance of 1,00U 

 miles. They are the same harmless, strolling 

 bands that they have been for many years, 

 but they have learned something of the rights 

 of settlers and have pre-empted certain wild 

 land, which they affect to occupy, and tlius 

 become entitled to the privileges of citizens, 

 and enjoy immunity from Government inter- 

 ference. 



It is only a mile or two from Berlin to the 

 cranberry marsh of Sackett Brothers, the pre- 

 siding genius of whose fortune is the Hon. 

 llobe Sackett. The berries grow on a marsli 

 which is so wet and yielding as to preclude 

 the driving of teams across except on a cordu- 

 roy road half a mile long leading to the build- 

 ing in the centre. The drive is anything ))ut 

 pleasant, as tlie wagon goes jostling over the 

 logs, and the causeway is so narrow tliat 

 teams cannot pass, making it necessary for 

 the driver to keep a sharp lookout over its 

 entire length, to see that he has the right of 

 way. Springing across one of the ditches on 

 either side one can pick the acrid berries from 

 the delicate bushes which grow not more than 

 a foot in height. The principal building is 

 the warehouse where the' beiTies are stored 

 and afterward barreled for market. It is a 

 substantial frame structure, recently built, is 

 148 by 44 feet, and four stories high. From 

 the upper windows can be had a comprehen- 

 sive view of the marsh and its busy force of 

 pickers. Tlie eye rests upon 750 acres of 

 marsh, not more than a quarter of which is 

 under cultivation, over whose area in the 

 busy time are scattered no less than 3,(100 

 picliers. 



A movable wooden railroad track runs from 

 the warehouse to the centre of operations, 

 and a car is loaded with the boxes of berries, 

 each person picking into a pan which is tlien 

 emptied into his box of a bushel capacity. 

 The pickers receive a ticket for every bushel 

 loaded on the car, and on reporting to the 

 Superintendent at the clo.se of the day, receive 

 credit for the whole. The price paid is 75 

 cents a bushel, and the average day's work is 

 not more than two or three bushels, although 

 it is not uncommon to pick five bushels, and 

 a few experts have been known to pick seven 

 bushels in a single day. The picliing being 

 often hurried on account of threatened ap- 

 proach of frost, a second picking is sometimes 

 necessary, for which about a dollar a busliel 

 is paid. The car on being loaded with the 

 filled boxes is drawn by a team of horses lo 

 the warehouse, where the berries are hoisted 

 on an elevator to the upper stories, and dis- 

 posed of in such manner as to secure the best 

 ventilation. The floors are covered with tier 

 upon tier of boxes of berries, there being some- 

 times 20,000 bushels under the roof at one 

 time. On the ground floor, large fanning 

 mills are in motion, into which the berries iiic 

 running from hoppers in the upper stories, 

 and all leaves and other impurities are blown 

 out, after which they are put in barrels and 

 hauled to Berlin, and from there shipped to 

 the Milwaukee and Chicago markets. A 

 coopering establishment on the property 

 manufactures the many thousands of barrels 

 which are annually required. 



The question naturally arises, "How do 

 these several thousand pickers subsist during 

 the season, for no boarding establishment of 

 sufficient capacity would be possible ?" The 

 answer is that the proprietor has erected bar- 

 racks ef frame buildings, for whicli there is 

 no rental, ttie pickers boarding themselves 

 each house being furnished with a kitchen 

 stove, and the rooms fitted up with bunks. 

 The greatest hiliarity prevails during picking 

 time, the nights being given up to innocent 



revelry and mirth on the part of the young 

 men and maidens, while in the neighboring 

 woods the Winnebagoes dance round their 

 camp fires and make the night hideous with 

 tlie drunken orgies with which cranberry time 

 is invariably associated. Sackett's marsh is 

 fitted by nature for its present uss, and its ad- 

 vantages of location could not have been im- 

 proved upon by the experience cranberry cul- 

 turists. It is necessary to flood tlie entire 

 surface during the winter, and this is ren- 

 dered easy by the fact that the marsh is a 

 basin lying in a wooded table-land, with an 

 outlet at the lower end, across which has been 

 constructed a dam 225 yards long and 4A feet 

 wide, with double floodgates for regnlaling 

 tlie height of the overflow. As soon as Lhe 

 crop is gathered the gates are dropped and lhe 

 marsh gaadually becomes submerged by the 

 autumn rains, the melting snow and the 

 drainage from the higher ground, until it be- 

 comes a lake. This often freezes to a con- 

 siderable thickness, furnishing a skating rink 

 that puts to blush the contracted affairs of 

 that name found in cities. In this manner the 

 soil receives its on'y cultivation, and the ten- 

 der plants are protected from the rigors of a 

 Wisconsin winter. It is not uncommon for 

 the marsh to be flooded eight or nine months 

 in the year, the water not being drawn until 

 June. 



Of all fruit raising cranberry culture is the 

 most uncertain, not more than one season in 

 five or six escaping the early frost, against 

 which there is no protection, and of whose 

 approach there is no warning, while the vines 

 are always subject to the attacks of the cran- 

 beri7 worm, which sometimes destroys the en- 

 tire crop. The yield of 1871 was the largest 

 ever known, and was successfully harvested, 

 but it has been followed either by total fail- 

 ures or only partial crops. Hundreds of 

 thousands of dollars have been invested in 

 the business, which is attended with the 

 greatest risk, but offers the possibility of a 

 large fortune. 



RULES FOR MAKING GILT-EDGED 

 BUTTER. 



Feeding. 



Select your cows with reference to the 

 quantity and richness of the milk produced. 

 The best cows are the cheapest for butter, so 

 get the best you can of whatever breed you 

 Select. Give them good pasturage in the 

 summer, and plenty of pure water, with fre- 

 quent access to salt. In winter, feed sweet, 

 early-cut hay, well-cured corn fodder, roots, 

 cabbages, etc., and a ration of bran, corn- 

 meal, ground oats, or middhngs. 

 Implements. 



Have the bist implements, and keep them 

 scrupulously clean, well-scalded, and often 

 exposed to the sweetening influences of the 

 sun. The milk pail and pans should be of 

 the best tin. A reliable thermometer is a ne- 

 cessity to every good dairyman. 



Milking. 



The milking should be done quietly and at 

 regular times, and the utmost cleanliness 

 observed. Nothing is tainted quicker than 

 milk by fnul odors, and surely at times, with 

 nearly all cows, there is enough animal odor 

 to it, without adding any more. 

 Setting. 



Strain the milk slowly into the pans, four 

 to six inches deep. It is an excellent plan to 

 strain the milk into a large can set in cold 

 water, and cool down to 60 degrees before 

 putting into the small pans. The milk must 

 lie set in a pure atmosphere, at such a tem- 

 perature as will permit the cream to lisi', in 

 from thirty to thirty-six hours iifler selling. 

 In order to do that the room shuuld be kept 

 at about 60 to 65 degrees, and not allowed to 

 vary much either above or below. 



In hot weather keep a large piece of ice in 

 a tub in the room. Cover it over with a thick 

 blanket, and, if arranged so that the water 

 will run off, it will keep a long time, and keep 

 the room very uniform. 



In cold weather some arrangement for 

 warming the milk room should be adopted. 

 Skimming. 



Skim as soon as the milk begins to turn 

 sour. Do not neglect this rule, as it is im- 

 possible to make good butter from cream that 

 has become old and sour. When you pour 

 your cream into the cream jar, splash as httle 

 as possible. Stir the cream every time you 

 add more to it, and wipe the sides of the pot. 

 Keep the temperature at about 60 degrees, 

 and the cream pot in the coolest part of the 

 house, covered with a fine gauze netting 

 strained on a hoop, not with a tight cover. 

 If covered too tight, fermentation is often too 

 rapid. 



Churning. 



Churn often, as there is nothing gained by 

 long keeping. Bring the temperature of the 

 cream in the churn to 58°, and not allow it to 

 rise above 64°. Churn early in the morning, 

 while it is cool. First scald the churn, turn 

 the paddles a few times ; then pour off, and 

 pour in cold water and turn the paddles ; pour 

 off and pour in your cream. In churning re- 

 volve the paddles with an easy, regular motion, 

 not too fast nor too slow. 



Coloring. 



Wlien likely to be deficient in color add a 

 sufficient quantity of The Perfected Butter 

 Color (made by Wells, Richardson & Co., 

 Burlington, Vt.,) to keep it up to the June 

 standard. 



Working and Salting. 



When it has "broken " and there is a diffi- 

 culty to make the butter gather, throw in some 

 cold water and give a few more turns. Some, 

 and I think a majority, of the best butter- 

 makers of to-day wash their butter with cold 

 water before removing from the churn. Gather 

 your butter with the paddle and lift it out into 

 the tray, press it gently and incline it, and let 

 the buttermilk run oft'. Work it gently with 

 the paddle, with a cutting, gentle pressure, 

 but not mash it ; or, better, put it into the 

 butter-worker. 



Salt it about an ounce to the pound, or to 

 the taste of good customers ; only with the 

 best salt, and free from lumps and coarseness. 

 Work the butter only so much as to expel the 

 buttermilk, but not to work it too dry. This 

 can be done by the use of a weak brine pre- 

 pared for the purpose. Put the bowl away in 

 a cool place. After standing twelve or twenty- 

 four hours gently press out, with a ladle or 

 machine, the remaining buttermilk and any 

 brine that will flow out with it, care being 

 used not to work it too touch. If this is done 

 the butter has lost its grain and becomes 

 salvey, and its keeping qualities are greatly 

 injured. 



Packing. 



Pack in vessels that will impart no impuri- 

 ties to the butter. Fill within half an inch 

 of the top. Place a thin cloth over the top. 



NORTH CAROLINA TOBACCO. 

 Mr. T. L. Rawley, Representative from 

 Rockingham county, presented to the Agri- 

 cultural Museum a specimen of beautiful to- 

 bacco of his own raising. It sells readily at 

 seventy-five cents per pound. Rockingham 

 embraces some of the finest tobacco lands in 

 the State, and is the leading county in this 

 interest, as we learn from the returns in Col. 

 Polk's office. The yield for the year 1877 is 

 slated at 3,190,966 pounds. And in this con- 

 nection another fact has been developed'by 

 these returns in the office of the Commis- 

 sioner. He says that the total yield accredited 

 to our State in the census of 1870 is about 

 11,000,000 pounds. He has already footed up 

 nearly 17,000,000 pounds from partial returns 

 from only seventy-eight counties, and three 

 important tobacco counties are left out en- 

 tirely. So we may safely assume that the 

 yield in our State was not less than 20,000,- 

 000 pounds. Verily, Colonel Polk is correct 

 wlien he says in his report that the foreigners 

 are misled by the census reports. — Bakigh 

 Observer. 



