^rreat) could materially affect the growth of a 

 plant, which daily requires so much food. We 

 tliought the article ingenious, and ive give it 

 the preference, because it is in opposition to <i 

 long established opinion, founded in mystery. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 1823. 



.NOTICE. 



Gentlemen whose names are now on 

 the hst of subscribers to this paper are 

 respectfully solicited to continue their 

 patronage ; and those who do not give 

 us notice to the contrary, on or befoie 

 (he 15th day of July next, will be con- 

 sidered as subscribers for the second 

 ' ulunie. 



Farmer^s and Gardener's Remembrancer. 

 Make Good Butter. — You may as well make 

 rood butter as bad. If your butter be of a good 

 juality aod well preserved, it will not only fe ch 

 more in market, but be more wholesome as well 

 as palatable to consume in your own I'amily — 

 We gave some remarks relative to making but- 

 ter in our paper No. '-', p. 12, as well as in some 

 other papers of a later date, but as we have 

 learned iVom good authority that some of lur 

 Subscribers are so careless and inattentive to 

 their own interests that they do not preserve 

 the files of our papers, and as particular direc- 

 tions of a complicated process might escape the 

 memory even of an attentive reader, we shall 

 repe.tt a part of our prescriptions, and incoi jt)- 

 rate fhem with others, which we believe 'CU 

 be found useful. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



more troublesome and expensive. According 

 to Dr. Doane, the temperature of the milk room 

 should ho iVom 50 to h'j degrees of Fahreniicit's 

 thermometer; and the Comiiletc (irazier says 

 " where the temperature of the milk room has! 

 bccomo affected by the carrying of newly drawn j 

 milk into it, it may be easily reduced to the \ 

 proper temperature by suspendihg a small quan- 

 tity of ice at a considerable height from the 

 lloor; and if, during winter, the cold should be- 

 come too great, a barrel of hot water closely 

 stopped, or a few hot bricks placed on the lloor 

 or ta'ile of the milk room will readily counter- 

 act its effects. But on no account whatever 

 should a chafing dish with burning coals be used, 

 as it will certainly impart a bad taste to the 

 j milk." 



The proper receptacles for milk are earthen 

 I pans not glazed nor lined v.ith lead, or wooden 

 trays. Lead, copper or brass uiensils, as well 

 as earthen ware vessels svla?*;.'! wuli lead, ought 

 on no pretext whatever U) be used ; for the acid 

 which is contained in mii;;, combines with these 

 metals, and forms a paisoious compound with 

 them. Sir John Sinclair recommends vessels 

 made of cast iron, so:"tcned by annealing them 

 in charcoal, so that they will not break by an 

 ordinary fall, turned siiiootii in the inside, and 

 laid over with a coat of tin to prevent the iron 

 from coming in contact with the milk. These 

 milk dishes are stated to be kept more easily 

 clean than wooden vessels ; and their superior 

 power of conduct':ig heat, cools the milk so 

 rapidly that the Scottish farmers' wives, who 

 have given them a fair trial, affirm that they 

 throw up one third more cream from an equal 

 quantity of milk.* Cast iron vessels, without 

 being tinned, woidd give no poisonous quality 

 to the milk, hut they might render the produce 

 of the dairy UDi»alat^bJe. 



" All dair^ utensils ought to be most carefully 

 scoured, first with hot water, and al'terwards 



381 



The dairy itouse should be kept neat, should . . • , ,, 

 Dol frr.it the souib, south-east or south-west.— ' '"'"f'^'' "'"^ '^°''^' »"^' 'f P' '" "° ^JO' I'>''ce, in 

 An apartment in a sweet and well ver.ulaled' f'''^'^'' '''^^ •;^'^7, P°f!''''^ ''^"•'^'^ °' '""^"^'/y ""J 

 cellar will answer a gocd purpose to keep [iiill 



and cream in. Cheeses shoidd not he set to 

 dry in the same room where your milk is set, 

 for they communicate an acid matter to the 

 surrounding air, which will ha\e a tendency to 

 make the milk sour. The milk room and cheese 

 room should therefore be separate apartments. 

 It will be well to place your milk room, if pos- 

 sible, over a spring or brook, near the dwelling 

 house ; and you may have a stone iJoor, and 

 channels in the floor to pass the water round 

 near the inside of the walls. Into these chan- 

 nels the pans may be set, filled wi.h milk, and 

 surrounded by water. If water could be intro- 

 duced into the milk room, so as to fall from 

 some height on the pavement, it would like- 

 ivise prove advantageous, as the waterfall and 

 the evaporation it causes will contribute to pre- 

 serve the air continually pure, fresh and cool. 

 As the milk itself when brought in warm, will 

 naturally tend to raise the temperature of the 

 milk room too high, it is recommended to have 

 an ice-house attached to the dairy, especially 

 where the advantage of a current of water can- 

 not be obtained. An ice-house would prove still 

 more profitable if the dairy be situated near 

 large towns, where the ice could be sold in 

 summer. Ice may be perhaps as well kept in a 

 common cellar, according to Mr. Nichols' mode 

 given page 114 of our paper, as by any method 



be removed. Should one or two scourings be 

 insutticient, they must be repeatedly cleansed 

 until ll ?y become entirely sweet, as the slight- 

 est tah.t or acidity may cause material loss."t 

 Sla'e, according to some accounts, makes very 

 good milk coolers, and perhaps free stone might 

 ansiver as well. 



The quality and quantity of cows milk greatly 

 depends on the nature of their food. Potatoes, 

 carrots and parsnips are recommended as caus- 

 ing cows to give excellent milk ; and mangel 

 wurtzel is highly spoken of for the same pur- 

 pose. Cabbages, if sound, answer an excellent 

 purpose, but the decayed leaves give a had 

 taste to the milk. It is thought best to milk 

 cows three times a day if luUy fed, and great 

 caution should be exercised by the persons em- 

 ployed, to draw the milk from them complMe- 

 ly, not onl3' to increase the quantity of produce, 

 but to preserve its (luality. Any portion which 

 may be left in the udder, seems gradually to be 

 absorbed into the system, and no more is form- 

 ed than enough to supply the loss of what is 

 taken away ; and by the continuance of the 

 same mode, a yet farther diminution takes place, 

 until at length scarcely any is produced. This 

 last mode of milking is practised, when it is in- 

 tended to render a cow dry. 



You should be cautious in your choice of per- 

 sons to milk your cows ; because if a cow be 

 roughly hanilled, it not only causes pain to the 

 animal, but induces her not to ghe do-xn, or 

 part with her milk, and such retention injures 

 the cow sometimes very seriously, and always 

 cau'^ps her to get into the habit of giving les? 

 and less milk at each successive milking, till 

 rendered completely dry. When cows are Itck- 

 Ihh, as the phrase is, they should be treated 

 with gentleness; and if the udder be hard and 

 painful, it ought to he fomented tenderly with 

 warm water. 



"After the milk is drawn from the cow, it 

 should be carefully strained through a linen 

 cloth or hair sieve, (Dr. Anderson prefers a 

 sieve made of silver wires, on account of its 

 superior wholesomeness) into the cream dishes, 

 which should never exceed three inches in 

 depth, though they may be made so wide as to 

 contain any quautity required, and which ought 

 to be perfectly clean, sweet and cool. If any 

 ill llavor is apprehended from the cows having 

 eaten turnips, i:c. the addition of one eighth 

 part of boiling water to the milk before it is 

 poured into the dishes will effectually remove 

 it.* When filled, the dishes ought to be set 

 upon shelves or dressers, there to continue till 

 the cream is removed. This should be steadily 

 done bj' means of a skimming dish, if possible, 

 without spilling any upon the floor, because it 

 will speedily taint the air of the room, and the 

 cream poured into a vessel, till enough be ob- 

 tained for churning." 



The Farmers' Assistant judiciously observes, 

 " If new milk be kept as warm as when it comes 

 from the cow, no cream will rise on it ; but 

 when suflnciently cooled, the cream separates 

 from the rest and rises to the top. In order 

 then to effect this to the best advantage, the 

 new milk should be made as cool as possible, 

 and the cooler it is thus made the more sudden- 

 I3' and etTectually the cream will rise. To set 

 milk pans made of tin in beds of salt would no 

 doubt be useful, where the cellar is too warm ; 

 and to set all milk vessels on a floor, which is 

 constantly covertKl with cold spring water is 

 also an excellent plan." 



The following remarks relative to the best 

 mode of making butter, are chiefly derived 

 from Dr. Anderson's valuable Essay on that 

 subject. 1. The milk first drawn from a cow 

 is always thinner, and inferior in quality to that 

 afterwards obtained ; and this richness increases 

 gradually to the very last drop that can be 

 drawn from the udder. 2. The portion of cream 

 rising first to the surface is richer in quality and 

 greater in quantity, than ttial which rises in the 

 second equal space of time, and so of the rest, 

 the cream decreasing and growing worse as long 

 as it rises at all. 3. Thick milk produces a 

 smaller proportion of cream than that which is 



* Ajricultnral Report of Scotland, 

 + Complete Grazier. 



*I\Ir. Young: lias recommended the dairy-man to boil 

 two ounces of nitre in one quart of water, and to bottle 

 the mixture ; of which when cold, a large tea cup full 

 is to be added to ten or twelve quarts of milk as soon 

 as it comes from the cow ; the quautity of salt petre is 

 to be increased as the turnips become stronger. The 

 feeding of cows with the roots alone will, as the F.arl 

 of Cgremonl found, prevent the milk from having a 

 bad taste. Another method of removing any ill flavor, 

 arising from the cows having eatea turnips, consists ia 

 warming the cream, and afterwards pouring it into a 

 vessel of cold water ; from which the cresm is to be 

 skimmed as it rises to the surface, and thus the un- 

 pleasaat taste will be left behind in the water. 



