VOL. XVIII, KO. 31. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



313" 



The butter in and nboiit Paris, is made and ofTcr- 

 ed for siile witiiout sail: it is inilupin liirjfe cusks, 

 weigiiinnj several liuiulred pounds, and keeps per- 

 fectly sweet. I am not acqiiaiiitoj with the pro- 

 cess of making this butter; for I lived in a province 

 whore the butter is no better tii.in it is here, and 

 often complainod of it. But it is evident that tlic 

 requisites above referred to, have been complied 

 with ill and about Paris, and the buttermilk i.s there 

 thoroughly extracted, or the butter «ould hot keep 

 without salt. 



I will now suggest a notion of my own, and one 

 which I hinted at about twenty years ago, in one of 

 the !iOst(ui paper.?. Tlie buttermilk must be ex- 

 tracted, but the cream also must not be injured by 

 beinjf kept too lopg ; and it would be better for 

 neighbors who have small dairies, to unite with 

 others, and make one churning before the cream 

 could spoil. 



Now to extract tlir buttermilk, we may take the 

 mechanical process offered at the last meeting, or 

 one, with a little alteration, which I shall respect- 

 fully propose, presently, to the inventor of the ma- 

 chine exhibited ; and then borrow a little aid from 

 chemistry. 



I believe that salt will not mi.\, chemically, with 

 a pure fatty substance, although butter may hold, 

 mechuniciilly, a large quantity of salt. With this 

 hyjictlicsis before us, and knorfing that salt has a 

 strong affinity for water and other vapid liquors, 

 Buch as buttermilk, if we avail of this alfinity, and 

 present the stronsest possible solution of salt, or 

 strong brine to the buttermilk, the chemists will ad- 

 mit that the buttermilk will leave the butter, for 

 which it has no chemical affinity, and go to the 

 brine. So much will, I presume, beadrnitted. We 

 will now return to the mechanical mode of separat- 

 ing the butter from the buttermilk. The plan pro- 

 posed by the inventor of the Fltiled Rolling Cone, 

 is the right one; for the whole mass of the butter 

 must be divided as minutely as possible, to extract 

 all the buttermilk ; for however little of it remains 

 is a cause of injury to the butter: it is a fermenta- 

 ble substance, and from it may be e.xtracted even 

 alcoliol ; but the vinous fermentation is not so 

 n;uch to bs feared as the acetous ; for the butter it- 

 self is subject to that change, which, makes it what 

 we call rancid ; and the bombic acid, thus produced, 

 is one of the most subtle of poisons. §o that ran- 

 cid butter is, in a degree, poisonous. Now, al- 

 though salt in quantities sufficient, is conservative, 

 a small quantity aids fermentation; hence salt is 

 good in manure, and useful to man and beast for 

 digestion. It may have been the cause, also, of 

 great mischief,— perhaps the yellow fever, which 

 prevailed ?onie years ago in our maritime cities, 

 may be traced to locations exposed to the full south, 

 where vogetuble matter, partially salted, and wash- 

 ed by city draiuings, at half tide, emitted the fatal 

 miasma. This conjecture may gain some weight 

 from the circumstance of the fever being found 

 originally and principally in precisely such locali- 

 ties in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, 

 Norfolk, and Charleston. 



The alteration which I propose to make in the 

 machine for extracting the butteriTiilL, is this. Make 

 a tight bii.x or trough, IS inches by 12 and 6 in- 

 ches deep : let a cylinder one foot long, 3 inches 

 diameter, fluted or plane, be transversely fi.xed in 

 this bu.x, so as to revolve as near the bottom as 

 p^issible, witiiuut touching it : this is to be turned 

 by a wduiltn crank, and the bo.\ to be kept full of 

 •trong brine ; the butter being placed on one side 



'if the cylinder, and pressed down, while the crank 

 is turned, will come out on the other side, in lay- 

 ers as thin a.s paper : thus the smallest globules of 

 buttermilk will be imiiiodintely extracted. Now if 

 I be correct in my philosophy, this butter, although 

 minutely e.xposed to a strong solution of salt, will 

 come out fresh ; and will require salting if salt 

 should be required. 



The process of whitening wa.x is somewhat simi- 

 lar ; it is reduced to the thinnest sheets, and then 

 exposed to the action of the sun and air. Perhnp.i 

 those who now raise beeswa.x, or bayberry wax, 

 might at their leisure hours, add fifty per cent, to 

 the value of these articles, by whitening them at 

 home. I see by the price current that yellow wax 

 is quoted at 30 cents, and white wax at 50 cents. 



If, sir, you should find the hints in this letter 

 worthy of notice, and should wish it, I will offer to 

 your cimsideration some remarks on forest trees, 

 the importance of keeping the high lands always 

 wooded, and the mode of covering those which are 

 now denuded. Also, on the choice of seeds of do- 

 mestic growth ; manures, and perhrips some pecu- 

 liarities of European practice, which have been con- 

 sidered of little importance, and so familiar to their 

 writers, that they have not been noticed in their 

 books; yet out of which Yankee ingenuity might 

 make something. 



Very respectfully, your ob't serv't, 



WM. FOSTER. 



For the New England Farmer. 



Mk Editor: — Observing in' the N. E. Tanner 

 of the RIth instant, a communication from one of 

 your correspondents an the subject of raising the 

 Rohan Potatoes, I have been induced to send you 

 some facts in regard to my own experience in that 

 way. 



Early in IVfarch, 1838, 1 purchased at the Office 

 of the N. E. Farmer, one box of Rohan Potatoes, 

 and taking it home, divided the contents with a 

 neighbor, at whose instance the purchase had been 

 made. My moiety, consisting I believe, of four 

 tubers m number, and those of rather inferior size, 

 was planted in hills, in a rich mellow soil, some 

 time during the month of April following. They 

 were well manured with manure from tlie .stable, 

 !ind so divided on planting, as to make from the 

 same four tubers, (if I rightly remember,) some 

 twenty hills, yielding on harvesting, at the rate of 

 twelve hills to the bushel : which, as the season 

 had proved very unfavorable on account of a se- 

 vere drought that prevailed, was considered, an ex- 

 traordinary good yield. At all events, it exceeded 

 that of the long red potato (the most prolific root 

 of the kind cultivated with us, and plante.l by me 

 this year, under circumstances equally favorable) 

 about one third ; twelve hills of the former, as 

 just stated, affording a bushel, and eighteen of the 

 latter. This result told much for the Rohan Po- 

 tato, and so disposed me to think favorably of it, 

 that it was with great regret J felt compelled af- 

 terwards, to admit concerning it, what on subse- 

 quent repeated trials proved but too true; namely, 

 that however valuable it might be deemed on ac- 

 count of its superior productiveness, it was not 

 entitled to be so esteemed on account of its edible 

 properties. For the table it was pronounced de- 

 cidedly inferior to any other variety known. Still, 



if it was found to yield a much greater crop with .i , j . . , . . , .u. ,;„,. ..r.^ „..„.. 



^ . ° ' I 'I'd not liike any lumules at the tmie, una, ciinse- 



the same expense of cultivation, as the foregoing nup,n,yj,i,ve no written ineinoranda to refer to in the 

 statement would seem to^ show, this undoubtedly ] case, which 1 regret. 



was a redeeming property of paramount considerS'' 

 tion. 



Accordingly, in order to he more fully satisfied 

 on this point, I last spring (183tt) planted this pota- 

 to in the same field, and side by side, with the long 

 red above alluded to. Both kinds vrere planted at 

 the same time, and subjected to the same mode of 

 treatment; the whole course diflering in nothing 

 with respect to the two, except only in one parti- 

 cular, and that was in regard to the quantity of 

 seed used. The former were cut into small pieces, 

 of which two, each containing perhaps one eye, 

 not less, were placed in a hill ; whereas, the latter 

 were planted entire and without being cut at all, 

 the number of tubers to a hill being varied from 

 one to two, according to their size. The result 

 was, that the yield of the rohan compared with that 

 of the red, was very nearly the same with that of 

 the preceding year, (1838) namely, as three to two. 

 fn this case it may be proper to observe, that the 

 ground upon which these roots were grown, had 

 been, in 1838, in Indian corn, and was manured for 

 the potato crop of the last; yeer, with a good com- 

 post from the barnyard, which was well spread and 

 harrowed in previous to planting. 



At another place, and in a soil better adapted to 

 the production of the potato, it being a deeper and 

 richer loam, I also planted, last spring, about twen- 

 ty rods of ground with the rohan, cutting it as be- 

 fore described, and manuring in the hill, with on« 

 shovel full to the hill, with manure taken from the 

 hog-yard ; the hills being about four feet distant 

 each way. This piece was hoed twice, and har- 

 vested (if I rightly remember) sometime in the 

 early paH of October. The yield here was supe- 

 rior to that in the other field ; the best part of th« 

 piece affording one bushel from every six hills. 

 The potatoes produced on this and on the other 

 piece of ground, were of large size, some tubers 

 weighing two^jounds each. 



SiichrMr Editor, as nearly as I can present them 

 from memory,* are the principal facts connected 

 with my attempts to raise the Rohan Potato, con- 

 cerning which so much has of late been written. 

 And if it be said of the foregoing statement, that 

 it does not evince an exactness and particularity of 

 observation, and a carefulness of comparisjii, such 

 as ought to characterise all experiments of a simi- 

 lar nature, especially when conducted with a view 

 to establi.sri important practical results, I certainly 

 should not undertake to vindicate it from the 

 charge. It must go for just what it is worth, 

 nothing more, What then is the legitimate infe- 

 rence deducible from the state of facts above pre- 

 sented .' It is, so far as they go to establish auy 

 inference, that the Rohan Potato, under precisely 

 similar circumstances, and in tlie ordinary way 

 can be raised on any given qtiantity of land, in 

 greater abundance and at a far less expenditure of 

 seed, than can be obtained from the most prolific 

 of the ordinary kinds usually cultivated among us. 

 Assuming, therefore, and it may be fairly done, 

 that, in point of nutriti.ve properties, considered as 

 food for stock, this root is, not to say the least, iJi- 

 ftrior io the common kinds, and it must be viewed, 

 if the above conclusion be correct, as an acquisi- 

 tion of no small importance to the agricultural in- 

 terest of the state. Yours, 



J. E. HOWARD. 

 West Bridgewater, Feb. 22, 1840. 



