76 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



dasher. If there is no thermometer at hand, 

 exercise your judgment, and there will soon 

 be no need of a thei-mometer. We never use 

 one, now. If the weather is very cold bring 

 the churn into the kitchen over night, so that 

 it may be warmed through. Before using it, 

 pour in boiling water and let it touch every 

 part of the inside ; turn it out, and rinse with 

 cold water. Put the cream into the churn and 

 add a little warm sweet milk. 



8. Churn steadily and moderately, and the 

 butter will usually come within twenty-five 

 minutes. When it is brought together, add 

 just water enough to wash off the buttermilk. 

 Have a wooden tray and a wooden spoon at 

 hand ; scald them, rinse with cold water, place 

 the butter in the tray and work it over with 

 the spoon. Add a common tablespoonful of 

 salt to each pound of butter. Work over till 

 the buttermilk is apparently aU out. When 

 this is completed, set it away until the next 

 morning in a place as warm as where the cream 

 was collected. If in a cooler place it will 

 be likely to become so hard that it will be 

 difficult to handle. Work out the remaining 

 buttei-milk, and make it into Imnps or pack 

 down in tubs. 



Such are the rules observed in our kitchen, 

 by the mistress of the house, for more than 

 twenty years, and with imiform excellent results. 

 The butter made is not merely sweet, but has 

 that delicious butter aroma that nothing can im- 

 itate. It is never white, no matter how cold 

 the weather, nor of a dark yellow, but of a 

 beautiful straw color. It is firm in textm-e, 

 fine grained, and keeps well, when there are 

 not too many buckwheats about ! 



Only ten pounds of butter in each 100 that 

 comes into Boston market, are fit for the ta- 

 ble, — we are informed by the largest butter 

 dealers. Of course, the price must be gov- 

 erned by the quality-. Wliat an immense loss 

 this must be annually, to the producers. They 

 do not ]>robably get more than one-half as 

 much as they would if their butter was good. 

 It is just as easy to make good butter, as poor, 

 when a system is once established. It is cer- 

 tainly poor policy to go through so much labor, 

 and use up so much material, and only get half 

 pay for it. 



A PiU)rosAL has been made to fertilize the 

 Great Desert of Sahara, by complicated eys- 

 tems of river irrigation. 



EXTRACTS AI3D BEPLIES. 



Office of State Board of Agriculture, > 

 Lansing, Mich., Dec. 12, 1866. > 



Editors of the New England Farmer : — 



In your remarks preceding the communication 

 of President Aliliutt, relating to the Michigan State 

 Agricultural College, in your issue of 8th inst., 

 you say you "are glad to see a more favorable ac- 

 count of this pioneer institution than that present- 

 ed by the President and Secretary of the Board of 

 Agriculture." 



Please state in your next paper, to what state- 

 ment of the President and Secretary of the Board 

 Agriculture you allude. 



Respectfully, Sanford Howard, 



Sec. of the Michigan State Board of Agriculture. 



Remarks. — In the course of an article on Agri- 

 cultural Colleges in the Farmer of Oct. 27th, the 

 following paragraph occurs : 



"In Michigan, at the last session of its legisla- 

 ture, the President and the Secretary of the State 

 Agricultural Society, presented a petition asking 

 that the Agricultural College at Lansing, the Capi- 

 tal of the State, which had been in operation for 

 several j'ears, be removed to some more favorable 

 locality, on the gi'ound that where it was, and as it 

 was and liad been, it was practically a failure, be- 

 ing open only during the summer months, and 

 with a very tliin attendance even then.'" 



In introducing a note from the President of the 

 Michigan Agi'icultural College, correcting this 

 statement, we said: 



"We are glad, however, to see a more favorable 

 account of this pioneer institution than that fur- 

 nislied by the statement of the President and Sec- 

 retary of the Board of Agriculture, on which our 

 remark was based." 



These two extracts, thus placed together, show 

 that the expression "Board of Agriculture," was 

 unfortunately used for State Agricultural Society. 

 At the time of writing that sentence we were not 

 aware of the distinction between the two associa- 

 tions. 



We have upon our shelves an imperfect series of 

 volumes entitled "Transactions of the Michigan 

 State Agrieultui-al Society," compiled by its Secre- 

 tary, and also some later volumes, entitled "Annu- 

 al Report of the Secretary of the State Board of 

 Agriculture of the State of Michigan." These vol- 

 umes arc used mainly for reference ; and we have 

 looked upon the later volinnes, edited by Mr. How- 

 ard, as a continuation of the old "Transactions," 

 and upon him as a successor of previous Secreta- 

 ries and editors. But we now learn that the two 

 associations are distinct, and it ai)])ears not entire- 

 ly hannouious. The "Board of Agriculture" is a 

 State Board — at the head of which is the Governor 

 — and has charge of the college. It also makes an 

 annual report, including abstracts of the returns of 

 county agricultural societies. 



The State Agricultural Society is another body, 

 having no necessary existence by law, and not 

 having charge of the college. It was the President 

 and Secretary of this Society who signed the peti- 

 tion to which we referred. 



That this document, addressed "To the Honora- 

 ble, the Senate and House of Representatives of 



