VOL. XJitr. NO. 3. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



19 



By B. V. French, Brainlree — good specimens of 

 illon (?) Cherries. 



Will. Kenrick sent specimens of tlie May Apple, 

 •9ccivc(i liy him from Smithlield, Vn. They were 

 Tallicred previous to the 20th (if June, but they 

 isually ripen at that place by tlie aOth of May, in 

 )rdinary years, and are said to be the earliest apple 

 inown, which is their chief recommendation : fruit 

 small, and of a greenish yellow color, of an ogreen- 

 3le sub-acid taste, but not much flavor. 

 For the Committee, 



P. B. HOVEY, Ja. 



CURING CLOVER. 



The common practice of spreadin<j clover hay 

 "rem the swath, causes the leaves and blossoms to 

 Iry and crumble before the iiaulm or stems are suf- 

 ficiently cured. Thus either the finer parts of the 

 hav are lost, or the crop is housed with so much 

 moisture as to cause it to heat, and often to spoil. 

 Clover should only be spread when it has become 

 wet with rain in the swath, and should be gather- 

 ed again before the leaves dry and crumble. Both 

 these evils may be avoided, and labor saved withal, 

 by curing the grass wholly in swath and cock. Af- 

 ter experiencing the disadvantages of the old meth- 

 od, I adopted the onel am about to recommend, 

 and have pursued it satisfactorily ten or a dozen 

 years. 



My practice has been to leave the clover to 

 wilt in the swath, and, when partially dried, either 

 to turn the swaths or to make grass-cocks the same 

 day, 60 as to secure the dried portions from the 

 dew. That which is not put into cocks the first 

 day is thus secured the second day, or as soon as 

 it has become partially dried. These grass-cocks 

 are permitted to stand one, two, or three days, ac- 

 cording as the weather is, and as the curing process 

 has progressed, when they are opened at nine or 

 ten o'clock on a fair day, the hay again turned 

 over between eleven and three, and soon after 

 turning, gathered for the cart. Thus cured, the 

 liay is perfectly bright and sweet, and hardly a 

 blossom or leaf is wasted. Some care is required 

 in making the cocks. The grass is collected with 

 forks and placed on dry ground between the swaths, 

 in as small a compass as convenient at the base, 

 say two or ihrse feet in diameter, and rising in a 

 cone to the height of four or five feet. 



The advantages of this mode of curing clover, 

 are — 



1. The labor of spreading from the swath is 

 saved. 



2. The labor of the hand-rake ia abridged, or 

 may be wholly dispensed with, if the horse-rake is 

 used to glean the field when the hay is taken off, 

 the forks sufficing to collect it tolerably clean in 

 the cocking process. 



3. It prevents, in a great measure, injury from 

 dew and rain ; for these cocks, if rightly construct- 

 ed (not by rolling,) will sustain a rain of some 

 days — that is, they have done this with me — with- 

 out heating or becoming more than superficially 

 wet. 



Clover hay made in this way, may almost inva- 

 riably be housed in good condition ; and if rain 

 falls after the grass is mown, the quality of the hay 

 is infinitely superior in cocks to what it would be 

 under the old process of curing. — Judge Bud. 



CLOTTED OR CLOUTED CREAM. 

 The dairymaids of the western counties of Eng- 

 land, think that clouted cream furnishes one-fourth 

 more cream from the same (juantity of milk than 

 can be obtained in any other way. The following 

 description of the process is from the Library of 

 Useful Knowledge: 



" The milk while warm from the cow is strained 

 inlo either large shallow brass pans, well tinned, 

 of earthen ones, holding from two to five gallons, 

 in which should be a small quantity of cold water. 

 This is thought to prevent the milk from burning, 

 and to cause the cream to be more completely sep- 

 arated and thrown to the top. 



" The morning meal of milk stands till about 

 the middle of the day ; the evening meal until the 

 next morning. The pans are now steadily carried 

 to, and placed over a clear, slow fire; if of char- 

 coal, or over a stove, the cream is is not so apt to 

 get an earthy or smoky taste as when the milk is 

 scalded over a turf or wood fire. The heat should 

 be so managed as not to suffer the milk to boil, or, 

 as they provincially term it, ' to heave,' as that 

 would injure the cream. The criterion of its be- 

 ing sufficiently scalded, is a very nice point ; the 

 earthen pan, having its bottom much smaller than 

 the top, allows this point to be more easily ascer- 

 tained ; because when the milk is sufficiently 

 scalded, the pan throws up the form of its bottom 

 on the surface of the cream. 



" In summer, it must be observed, the process of 

 scalding ought to be quicker than in the winter, as 

 in very hot weather, if the milk should be kept 

 over too slow a fire, it would be apt to run or cur- 

 dle. 



"This process being finished, the pans are care- 

 fully returned to the dairy ; and should it be the 

 summer season, they are placed in the coolest sit- 

 uation ; if on stone floors or slate benches, the bet- 

 ter; but should it be the winter season, the heat 

 should rather be retained, by putting a slight cov- 

 ering over the pans, as cooling too suddenly causes 

 the cream to be thin, and consequently yield less 

 butter ; the mode of making which is this : The 

 cream should, in hot weather, be made into butter 

 the next day ; but in winter it is thought better to 

 let the cream remain one day longer on the milk. 

 The cream being collected from the pans, is put 

 into wooden bowls, which should be first rinsed 

 with scalding, then with cold water. It is now 

 briskly stirred round one way, with a nicely clean- 

 ed hand, which must also have been washed in hot 

 and then in cold water, for these alternate warm 

 and cold ablutions of bow! and hand, are not only 

 for the sake of cleanliness, but to prevent the but- 

 ter from sticking to either. 



" The cream being thus agitated, quickly as- 

 sumes the consistence of butter, the milky part 

 now readily separates, and being poured oft', the 

 butter is washed and pressed in several cold wa- 

 ters ; a little salt is added to season it, and then it 

 is well beaten on a wooden trencher until the 

 milky and watery parts are separated, when it is 

 finally formed into lumps for the market." 



Papers from different parts of the country men- 

 tion the prevalence of a dangerous drought. 



Glow Worm. — This insect is remarkable for the 

 light it emits during the night. This luminous ap- 

 pearance depends upon a phosphorescent fluid at 

 the lower extremity of the insect, which by unfold- 

 ing or contracting itself, it can withdraw at plea- 

 sure. This power serves to secure the insect from 

 attack by nocturnal birds. — Far. Ency. 



GRASSES. 

 The following are some of the general results, 

 of Sinclair's observations: 



1. Grasses which have culms with swollen joints, 

 leaves thick and succulent, and flowers with downy 

 husks, contain greater proportions of sugar and mu- 

 cilage than those of a less succulent nature. 



2. When this structure is of a light glaucous 

 color, the sugar is generally in excess. 



3. Grasses which have culms with small joints, 

 flowers pointed, collected into a spike, or spike- 

 like panicle, leaves thin, flat, rough, and of a light 

 green color, contain a greater proportion of extrac- 

 tive matter than others. 



4. Grasses which have culms furnished with nu- 

 merous joints, leaves smooth and succulent, flow- 

 ers in a spike or close panicle, florets blunt and 

 large, contain most gluten and mucilage. 



5. When this structure is of a glaucous color, 

 and the florets woolly, sugar is in the next propor- 

 tion to mucilage. 



G. Grasses which have their flowers in a pani- 

 cle, florets pointed or awned, points of the culm 

 smooth and succulent, contain most mucilage and 

 extractive. 



7. Grasses with flowers in a panicle, florets thin- 

 ly scattered, pointed, or furnished with long awns, 

 culms lofty, with leaves flat and rough, contain a 

 greater proportion of saline matter and bitter ex. 

 tractive. 



8. Grasses with long creeping roots, culms few, 

 leaves flat and rough, flower in a spike, contain a 

 greater proportion of bitter extract with mucilage. 



In the first part of April, 1920 grains of the 

 leaves of the following grasses, affording to Sin- 

 clair, the following proportions of nutritive matter: 

 Meadow fox-tail grass, OG gra. 



Tall oat-like sot\ grass, 120 



Sweet-scented vernal, 52 



Round-panicled cock's-foot, 80 



Perennial rye-grass, 70 



Tall fescue, 94 



Meadow fescue, 96 



Crested dog's-tail, 88 



Creeping soft grass, 90 



Meadow cat's tail (timothy,) 80 



Fertile meadow-grass, 70 



Nerved meadow-grass, 76 



Wood meadow-grass, 68 



Creeping bent, 42 



Rough-stalked meadow-grass, 80 



Broad-leaved red clover, 80 



White, or Dutch clover, 64 



Great bird'e-foot trefoil, 60 



Long-rooted clover, 76 



Lucerne, 90 



The chemical composition of the grasses varies 

 materially in the progress of their growth. '' I 

 found," says Davy, " in all the trials I made, the 

 largest quantity of truly nutritive matter when the 

 seed was ripe, and least bitter extract and saline 

 matter; most extract and saline matter in the au- 

 tumnal crop, and most saccharine matter in propor- 

 tion to the Dtlicr ingredients in the crop cut at the 

 time of flowering." — hhnson's Far. Encijdop. 



In all societies, it is advisable to associate if pos- 

 sible with the highest ; not that the highest are al. 

 ways the best, but because if disgusted there, we can 

 at any time descend ; but if we begin with the low- 

 est, to ascend is impossible. In the grand theatre 

 of human life, a box ticket takes us through the 

 house. — Lacon. 



