270 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



JCTNE 



to each pound of butter of good fine salt 

 Some add to the salt the same quantity of 

 granulated white sugar, and thoroushly mix 

 ■with the butter. In spatting and working and 

 salting the butter, great care and judgment 

 must be used, as there is danger of heating 

 the butter and injuring the grain and render- 

 ing it greasy ; on the other hand if not suffi- 

 ciently worked the butter will be crumbly. 

 The sugar is no aid in preserving the butter, 

 but: is used to improve the flavor, some pre- 

 ferring and some disapproving. 



While the butter is warm, and as soon as 

 salted, put it into the tub and pound it down 

 solid, and if it does not fill the tub, cover it 

 with a cloth and put on it a pint of brine. 

 Fill the tub within one inch of the top, cut a 

 cloth one inch larger than the butter and 

 spread it on the top of it ; then cut another 

 cloth one inch larger than the last and fit it on 

 the top, spreading evenly and turning up each 

 edge on the inside of the staves, but it must not 

 hang over as it would draw brine out. Cut a 

 bar of sweet wood, two inches by half an inch, 

 and fit it on the butter ; bore through the stave 

 into each end of the bar and put in a wooden 

 pin tight to keep the bar in place, fill the tub 

 with fine salt, and fill again with brine and 

 keep it full. Some put in one-fourth inch of 

 fine salt at the bottom of the tub and cover 

 with a cloth. I think the cloth without the 

 salt sufficient. 



Butter made and packed in this way will 

 keep sweet and perfect wherever salt pork can 

 be kept, and as long. When the butter is 

 sold a small saving could be made in remov- 

 ing the salt and part of the brine ; but I would 

 advise, instead, to put the makers' name and 

 residence on each tub and let it go, salt and 

 all, and make the buyer promise to keep it all 

 on, and the tub full of brine ; because if ex- 

 posed to warm air this butter will depreciate 

 rapidly, yet it would not change if kept frozen. 



Such butter as this would be cheap at forty 

 cents per pound, while our good dairies would 

 be comparatively dear at thirty-five cents ; 

 and such butter is always wanted and sells 

 quickly, while ordinary butter cannot be sold. 

 The difference in market between really good 

 and common butter is two hundred dollars per 

 ton, and the difference in the cost of making 

 and keeping would not exceed five dollars per 

 ton. 



Ice is not, perhaps, an indispensable requi- 

 site in making butter, but it is a great con- 

 venience and aid, and but little expense re- 

 quired to get up an ice house. If ponds and 

 rivers are distant, take an old barrel or box 

 when the weather is cold, and dash on water 

 and snow and it is soon water tight ; then fill 

 with water and freeze up. Or a box of boards 

 and stakes like a mortar bed may be cheaply 

 made in the ice house or out of it, and water 

 or new ice thrown in, which could be carried 

 up to any thickness desired. 



EXTRACTS ANT) KEPLIEB. 



SUPERPHOSPHATE OF LIME AS A TOP-DRESSING. 



I wish to inquire through the Farmer, whether 

 you or any of your readers have made use of 

 superphosphate of lime as a top-dressing on mowing 

 lands ? If so, what month in the year should it be 

 applied ? How large a quantity to the acre ? "Will 

 it pay when hay sells for twenty dollars a ton ? 

 Does it work equally well on wet and dry soil ? 

 Should it be applied clear, or is it best to mix it 

 with loam or plaster ? A Subscriber. 



Hudson, N. H., April, 1870. 



Remarks. — We have no doubt that pure super- 

 phosphate of lime would be a good top-dressing 

 for grass land, but we have decided doubts as to 

 its being the most economical material you can 

 use. 



If there is a muck bed on your farm, or in your 

 neighborhood, and you can get it conveniently, 

 haul it out, dry it, pulverize and mingle with it 

 pure bone dust, manure, ashes, plaster, if the land 

 is clayey a little lime, and you will have a top- 

 dressing which will be exceedingly valuable. 



It may be a duty which we owe the farmer, to 

 give some decided opinions with regard to the use 

 of what are called superphosphates of lime. Per- 

 sonally, we have gained very little from their use ; 

 not a fourth part enough to pay their cost. On 

 the contrary, some excellent farmers state that 

 they derive great benefit from them. "We do not 

 feel free to recommend them, mainly on account of 

 their impurity, — but urge upon the farmer a more 

 constant resort to the materials which the Author 

 of Nature has placed more immediately within his 

 reach. 



"When used as a top dressing, superphosphate of 

 lime is usually sown broadcast, from 300 to 600 

 pounds per acre, without mixing with loam, or 

 if with loam, so much the better. The land 

 should be moist of course. 



COMMERCIAL MANURES — TOP-DRESSING. 



I am a subscriber to a paper that I consider 

 very valuable to a man that is trying to be a 

 farmer. When I receive it I first search for the 

 Extracts and Replies, and always wish there were 

 more of them, and have been on the point of ask- 

 ing that a larger space be devoted to them, but 

 have feared you would ask me to contribute as 

 well as read, and so have held my peace. But as 

 I shall be short for grass the coming summer, and 

 I have some good warm land that cuts but a light 

 crop, I wish to ask if it will pay to buy foreign 

 manures of any kind to spread on to it. If so, 

 which is the best ? A. Franklin. 



Shelburne Falls, Mass., March 21, 1870. 



Remarks. — We are sorry to say that we do not 

 know of any "foreign manures" that we can con- 

 scientiously recommend you to buy for this pur- 

 pose ; but we can with full confidence commend 

 to you the practice of such farmers as C. F. Lin- 

 coln, of Woodstock, detailed in last week's Fak- 

 HER, of "B.," Oak Hill, N. Y., in the number for 

 February 12, and by other practical farmers who 

 favor the public with their experience in farming 

 that pays. We have been well paid by top-dressing 



