1871. 



NEW ENGLAXI) FARRIER. 



87 



we think the result would show a fearful indebted- 

 ness. Taxes have increased rapidly within a few 

 years; but, hij;h as they are, they afford no just 

 measure of our financial extravagance, as they fall 

 fur short of meeting our annual expenditures. 

 The annual interest on the town or city debt alone 

 of many municipalities represents a larger sum 

 than was raised on the grand list of those towns 

 or cities not a great many years ago. Little leaks 

 sink gicat ships, and we believe that premiums on 

 life and property insurance are draining from 

 country towns an ncuount of money that would 

 surprise us if the sum total could be ascertained. 

 \\'ho will give us the figures ? 



•\aNEGAR EELS. 



Messrs. Editors : — Some of you did up the ex- 

 planations on the "hair snalvt" question, in a late 

 number of the Fakmer, rather neatly. But didn't 

 you make one rather broad statement ? Thus : — 

 "These curious worms, like all other animated 

 heimjs are produced after their kind." Three or 

 four years ago, I took some new cider and put a 

 small quantity into a new pine "keeler" and set 

 it up on a shelf in mj' kitchen. In the course of a 

 few weeks it had changed to JirM-rate vinegar, l)ut 

 it was full of little eels. I could see tlicm with the 

 naked eye, and there appeared to ho millions of 

 them. They were certainly "animate" beings, but 

 how could they be produced "after their kind ?" 

 I certainly know that new cider, white pine, and 

 air, were all the visible materials that entered iiit(j 

 their pn)diu:tion. I wish you would clear up this 

 mystery as neatly as you did that in relation to 

 the hair snakes, for it has bothered me much. 



Edwin Guild. 



Walpole, N. IT., Dec. 17, 1S70. 



Remarks. — 'NVTien one begins with compliments 

 or flattery we generally expect he will end with 

 something a little dilferent, perhaps with a "poser," 

 and we are at once put on our guard. So, taking 

 refuge behind a pile of books we repeat our belief 

 that every "animate being," even the vinegar eel, is 

 produced "after his kind." Of course we shall not 

 here enter into a discussion of the question of 

 spontaneous generation. We prefer for once to 

 dogmatize, and using the language of one of our 

 ])ooks, say that this doctrine "has now no place in 

 physiology," as the most learned men rest their 

 l)clief in the simple truth so early announced, that 

 "every living creature that moveth," is produced 

 "after his kind." 



The vinegar in which you found the eels was 

 m.ade of cider. Cider is water in which the vege- 

 t;\ble matter of the apple is decaying or undergoing 

 transformations. Now the books say, — we quote 

 from the American Cyelopa;dia : — 



"If a drop of water in which animal or vegetable 

 matter is (iccayiiig, be placed upon the ol)jeet- 

 holch'r of a iiowcrl'iil microscope, it will be found 

 to .swarm u itli l«\ iiig beings in active and incessant 

 motion. They vary in size from the onc-hundreth 

 of an inch, when they arc just within the limits of 

 nna>si>te(l vi.-ion, to a minuteness which it tasks 

 the power of tlie glass to detect. These arc in- 

 fusoria; they abound in every ditch, pond, lake, 

 or river; are ccpially numerous in salt as in fresh 

 water; have l)een found in hot s|)rings, and in the 

 melted snow of the Alps; in short, wherever water 



I and decaying vegetable or animal matter exists 

 I these infusorial annuals will be found hi vast 

 I myriads. There is no doubt that they are often 

 I drawn up into the atmosphere in watery vapor, 

 and Iwnie to and fro by the winds. Many forms 

 are not deprived of life by complete desiccation, 

 (thorough drying) and may therelbre be mingled 

 with dust, and in this condition carried about by 

 the winds, to resume their active vitality so soon 

 as they chance to fall into water favorable to their 

 existence." 



If the foregoing statement is reliable you will 

 sec that "new cider, white pine and air" furnish all 

 the necessary conditions of comiiliance Avith the 

 command to "bring forth abundantly ;" and, also, 

 how it is possible that the eels in your vinegar 

 might claim descent in regular order from ^lediaival 

 ancestry. The microscope is a modem invention or 

 discovery, and medical and other scientific men are 

 making great use of it of late. It has demonstrated 

 that there are microscopic plants as well as micro- 

 scopic animals, and that the i)lant as well as the ani- 

 mal is produced "after its kind" with as much exact- 

 ness and certainty as "great oaks from little acorns 

 grow." The seeds of these microscopic plants float 

 in the air, and are called "spores." It is supposed 

 that they produce rust on gi'ain, and fever and 

 ague and other diseases in the human system, by 

 their growth on straw and in the blood. 



WHAT AILS THE CREAM ? 



Our butter has come as well as could be expected 

 until the two last chumings, when I flunk we 

 churned nearly half a day each time. The cream 

 was not over seven days old; had been kept in a 

 wanu huttery, and well stirred at each skimming. 

 Wc put in salt, hot water, and lastly butter, to make 

 it come at all. Now do please some of the readers 

 of the Farmer, or editor, let a fellow kimw if there 

 is any way to make it come in a proper length of 

 time. As this is my first attempt in the writing 

 line, the editor will please coiTcct any mistakes. 



J:,'ast Burke, Vt., Dec. 14, 1S70. 8. 



Remarks. — We have made more or less butter 

 for some twenty-five years, between November and 

 May, and have rarely had any trouble in chuniing 

 or othenvise, during that time. The first thing is 

 to have good cows and clean milk. The milk and 

 the cream is kept at a temperature of alwut 60°. 

 The cream is taken off in from 36 to 40 hours. A 

 little salt is put into the pot as often as cream is 

 added and the whole stirred. Chum often ; say 

 once a week, or oftcner if sufhcicnt for six or eight 

 pounds. In churning, have cream, chum, d;isher, 

 &c., of a temperature of about G2°. Churn steadily 

 and moderately, and expect butter in twcnty-fivo 

 minutes. 



These rules have been stated with greater par- 

 ticularity so often, that on the receipt of your let- 

 ter wc thought we would try your ipicstionson Mr. 

 O. S. IJliss, Secretary of the ^■el•mout Dairyman's 

 Association, and a gentleman who ha.s made butter- 

 making a specialty. The following is his answer. 

 You will sec that if ho is eori-ect in his iilca of the 

 cause of the trouble with your cream, the fault is 

 at the l)arn and not in the buttery ; with the man, 

 not with the dairy woman, on whose shoulders the 



