154 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[October, 



not, perhaps, realize much more than the 

 crop of hist year, in consequence of the rav- 

 ages of worms, fleas, etc., and the short to- 

 bacco now being gathered. Mr. Diffenderfer, 

 of this city, in his report to the Pennsylvania 

 Board of Agriculture in reference to the crop 

 of this season says "tliat early in May several 

 insects l)egau to ravage the plant beds, and 

 among those sent in for examination, three 

 separate insects were discovered, two of them 

 known as the flea beetle, and the other tlie 

 'garden flea,' not larger than a grain of gun- 

 powder." These, it is said, are likely to prove 

 more hurtful to tobacco than either of the 

 others, as they put in an appearance earlier, 

 can bear more cold, puncture the tobacco 

 leaves in the earlier stages, and are, be.sides 

 so very minute as not to be readily ob- 

 served. 



It is said that, of the 100,000 cases grown in 

 the State, over 10,000 cases will be used in 

 Lancaster and York counties in the manufac- 

 ture of cigars, while the remainder finds a 

 ready market from Maine to California. There 

 are, according to the directory of this city, 

 seventy-five cigar manufacturers in the city; 

 they are to be found also all over the county, 

 as well as in the borough of York and the vi- 

 cinity. 



A GREAT APPLEJACK CROP. 

 This is apple jack year in Orange county, 

 N. Y. The apple crop i.s large every other 

 year. This year the fruit is unusually plenty. 

 Apple jack was first discovered it is said, in 

 New Jersey, and Sussex county was the great 

 distilling place of that beverage. But Orange 

 county, N. Y., long ago took the palm away 

 from Sussex in the matter of making apple 

 jack, and now turns out more of the liquor 

 than any county in the United States. The 

 stills of Orange county will this year yield 

 not less than 75,000 gallons of apple jack. 

 The farmers are gathering their apple crops 

 together already, and the distillers have com- 

 menced operations. 



i^ The bulk of the apple whisky made in 

 Orange county is required to supply the local 

 demand. The farmer takes his pay for his 

 apples at the still in the tempered juice of the 

 fruit. He stores his cellar with apple jack 

 with the same care that he stows away pota- 

 toes and cabbage for family use. The Orange 

 county farmer who has not a "vial" of the 

 native tipple to produce when visitors call, is 

 considered as lacking in hospitality. Stored 

 away in the cellars of the rural districts are 

 casks of apple jack from wliich age has re- 

 moved the Damascene edge, and given it the 

 golden glow and oleaginous body that mark it 

 as the pefect tipple to the taste of the iron- 

 clad tillers of the country's soil. 



Now and then apple whisky of this charac- 

 ter will be offered for sale through the closing 

 up of some estate. Public sales, including 

 the cellais of well known connoisseurs in the 

 product of the country's stills, will draw 

 more representative people as prospective 

 buyers than the sale of any other property 

 that may be advertised, excepting, perhaps, a 

 stable of Hambletonian colts. Whisky of the 

 class named commands from $7 to SIO a gal- 

 lon under the hammer. This is not the kind 

 the bartender will set ont at any of the hos- 

 telries of the county. If the man asks for 

 whisky at an Orange county bar, the bar- 

 tender sets out apple jack. They drink little 

 else in the community. 



HOW A FAMOUS CHEESE IS MADE. 



Perhaps the most justly celebrated cheese 

 made on the Continent of Europe is the Sv^-iss 

 Gruyere. This is made mostly in huts, called 

 chalets, high up among the Alps, at the time 

 during which the pastures on the mountain- 

 sides are accessible, and the huts habitable, 

 say from the melting of the snow in May to 

 the end of September, when men and animals 

 descend for the Winter into the sheltered 

 valleys thousands of feet below. The chalets 

 are located in the midst of tlie mountain past- 

 ures on a spot safe from avalanches, and gen- 

 erally near to a small pond or spring of water, 



when such are available. Provisions from the 

 valleys are carried up weekly to the chalets, 

 and it is under such difficult and romantic 

 circumstances that a cheese is made which for 

 hundreds of years has been considered almost, 

 if not quite, the best on the continent. 



The milk, partly skimmed, or not, accord- 

 ing to the quality of cheese desired to be 

 made, is put into a great kettle and swung on 

 a crane over a gentle fire, where it is allowed 

 to attain a temperature of 77° Fahrenheit, 

 when the kettle is swung off the fire and ren- 

 net is added to the milk. When coagulation 

 has advanced far enough the curd is cut into 

 as fine pieces as is practicable with the large 

 wooden knife which is used for the purpose. 

 The ketfle is then swung over the fire again 

 and the curd is taken up in small quantities 

 in a porringer, and poured back through the 

 fingers, whereby it is still more finely divided. 

 Great importance is attached to this division 

 of the curd, in order that each particle may 

 be fully exposed to the action of the heat in 

 the "cooking" process, which ensues up to a 

 point when a temperature of 90° has been at- 

 tained. The kettle is then immediately 

 swung off the fire, and the waste of curd and 

 whey stirred for some fifteen minutes longer ; 

 and if the cooking has been properly per- 

 formed, the particles of curd have the appear- 

 ance of bursted grains of rice swimming in 

 the whey. The curd is then collected in a 

 cloth, and great care is taken to expel all the 

 whey. The salting of the cheese is also con- 

 sidered a delicate and important process. The 

 salt is rubbed from time to time on the out- 

 side of the cheese, care being taken to discern 

 when enough shall have been absorbed. The 

 Gruyere cheeses are commonly three feet in 

 diameter, and weigh over one hundred pounds. 

 A successful cheese of this kind is like a soft 

 yellow paste, which melts in the mouth, and 

 it is filled with cavities about the size of a pea, 

 one or two, say, in each square inch of cheese. 



-^ 



MANAGEMENT OF CREAM. 



Under the head of "Dairy Management" 

 the London Agricultural Gazette places some 

 extracts from D. H. Milward's report to the 

 Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland. 

 Among them is the following: I think it of 

 much consequence to the making of good 

 cream butter that the milk should not be al- 

 lowed to turnsour before skimming,and when 

 ice is not used we must be guided by the tem- 

 perature of the air as to the time it should be 

 left; but, even were it possible to do so, I do 

 no not advi.se that milk should be left longer 

 than thirty-six hours before creaming, as by 

 that time the greater part of the cream, if not 

 the whole will have risen. Although appar- 

 ently it majr become thicker, it will increase 

 in quantity in a very slight degree, as none 

 but the poorest globules will have been added 

 to what has been up; and by continued ex- 

 posure very important chemical changes will 

 have commenced, which it is advisable should 

 not be allowed until a future stage. A con- 

 siderable demand for sweet cream butter has 

 been developed of late. This is made from 

 cream of the very best quality and churned as 

 soon as possible after skimming; but, as the 

 quantity is small, the price must be higher to 

 pay the farmers as well as the sour cream but- 

 ter, and therefore it is not likely to be re- 

 quired except as a fancy article. Sour cream 

 butter is an article of produce in which Irish 

 farmers are moi'e interested, as they nearly 

 all make butter of that class. I think that 

 much depends on the mode adopted in the 

 souring of cream as to what the result shall 

 be in the quality of the butter. The Danes 

 appear to regard this as a stage in the pro- 

 gress of very vital consequence, and one on 

 which the uniformity of quality very much 

 depends. I cannot do better than refer to the 

 souring systems described in the article on 

 Denmark, as giving full instructions as to 

 what I shall recommend. When possible it 

 will always be found more satisfactory and 

 productive of better butter to churn the cream 

 every day when it has arrived at the ])roper 

 stage of fermentation or souring, rather than 



to leave it to be done at longer intervals, 

 when the different lots of cream put into a 

 churning shall be of vary-ng degrees of sour- 

 ness. This cannot be done in small dairies, 

 and it is one very important advantage that 

 arises in the working of large ones. When it 

 is impossible to churn every day much care 

 will be required as is done in Normandy, to 

 keep back the souring of the first lots of the 

 cream, to get the whole to a proper degree 

 before churning. While souring cream im- 

 parts a pleasant flavor to butter that sweet 

 cream butter is wanting in, if carried too far 

 it is likely to impart a strong taste and to in- 

 jure it in other ways. 



Our Local Organizations. 



LANCASTER COUNTY AGRICULTURAL 

 AND HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The regular monthly meeting^ of the Lancaster 

 County Agricultural and Hoiticultural Society was 

 held Monday afternoon October 4. 



The foUowins; members and visitors were present : 

 Joseph F. Wilmer, Paradise; M. D. Kendig, Manor; 

 Johnson Miller, Warwick; Calvin Cooper, Bird-in- 

 hand; Dr. A. C. Green, city; Daniel Smeych, city; C, 

 A. Gast, city; F. R. Diffenderffer, city; J. M. John- 

 ston, city; W. H. Bollinger, Warwick; Dr. Wm. 

 Compton, city; John H. Landis, Manor; Jas. Wood, 

 Little Britain; Amos Groff, Conestoga Centre, C. L. 

 Hunsecker, Manheim; Israel L. Landis, city; E. S. 

 Hoover, Manheim. 



The meeting was called to order by the President, 

 Jos. F. Witmer. 



The reading of the minutes of the previous meet- 

 ing was on motion dispensed with. 



Hon. Prof. Roebuck was proposed and elected to 

 membership. 



Report of Committee. 



The committee appointed to visit the Berks counyt 

 fair made a report saying they had performed that 

 duty and gave a glowing description of what they 

 saw there. The fruit exhibit was reported as es- 

 pecially fine. Some criticism was made on the ille- 

 gible manner in which the exhibits were marked. 



The report was accepted and the committee re- 

 ceived the thanks of the society for having gone 

 there. 



The President read a report of the receipts and 

 expenditures of the late fair. From this it was 

 found the receipts were St89.9.5 and the expenses 

 $o31.28, leaving a deficiency to be met of $181.73. 



Calvin Cooper said the result was an unfortunate 

 one, but for all that we were in honor bound to pay 

 every cent. Neither would it exhaust what funds 

 the society has in the treasury and what are due it. 



On motion, the bills were ordered paid. If there 

 was not enough money in the treasury a small loan 

 was autliorized to meet all the liabilities. 



Dr. A. C. Green criticised the Board of Managers 

 somewhat severely, and attribute! the failure to the 

 lack of proper energy and enterprise, offering to run 

 the fair next year himself and pay $.500 for the privi- 

 lege. 



Johnson Miller defended the board, and said he 

 believed they did all they could. Our farmers do not 

 take to fairs as some others do. 



Calvin Cooper thought some of Dr. Greene's criti- 

 cism was just, but it is a lamentable fact that our 

 fairs are not what they should be. The fair was held 

 too late. The political excitement also interfered 

 with its success. 



Ephraim S. Hoover, one of the managers, said, if 

 Dr. Greene had lived in this county as long as he 

 had he might not feel quite so sanguine. He had 

 spoken with three-fourths of the persons who at- 

 tend market and received hundreds of promises, yet 

 the result was a failure. A large class of the peo- 

 ple are indifferent to fairs, while many more are en- 

 tirely opposed to them. But for all this he was not 

 willing to give the matter up. We ought to have as 

 good a fair as can be got up anywhere in the State, 

 but experience had demonstrated the fact that we 

 can't get up such a one. The political excitement 

 was against the fair, but the speaker felt he did all 

 he could toward success. 



President Witmer said that the premium lists 

 were thrice distributed among our business men, 

 and yet we see the result. The apathy of the busi- 

 ness men was extraordinary. They lent hardly any 

 assistance, but were very willing to charge the so- 

 ciety the top price for all that was needed. 

 Crop Reports. 



Johnson Miller said early srown wheat is coming 

 up finely— late not so well. Clover is still a failure. 

 Apples are nea/ly all away — the crop is small. Corn 

 husking is progressing. 



Calvin Cooper said wheat looks a little delicate — 

 much is not yet up. There are few apples left. Corn 

 is an excellent crop. Tobacco is turmng out badly. 

 It is full of flea-eaten holes, and far from being 

 what it should be. 



