Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 591 



is not only from observation but from experience in dairying on a 

 small scale, where the cheese run from twenty to thirty pounds. Let 

 it be understood that I do not pretend to write about making cheese 

 on the factory system ; but from analogy I cannot see why your May, 

 June and July make, put up in fifty pound cheeses, should not keep 

 at least a year and improve in quality, if made from sweet /WZy new 

 milk, salted just right, neither too much nor too little, and kept till 

 November on shelves where it can be thoroughly cured. Whether 

 you will get enough more for such cheese to pay the extra cost of 

 producing, is of course for you to determine. 



The animal heat question was not very troublesome. Our night's 

 milk was strained into a tub where it remained till morning, cooling 

 only to the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere. A cistern, 

 however, holding about forty gallons stood near by, into which a 

 never failing spring discharged its water. The morning's milk was 

 added without cooling. 



Lime and Plaster. 



Mr. J. D. Hicks, Altoona, Blair Co., Pa.— I have read your pro- 

 ceedings from time to time with a great deal of pleasure, and I hope 

 profit, and I will be obliged to you for information on the following 

 questions : 



When is the best time of the year to spread lime, and on what kind 

 of land is it most beneficial, and how many bushels would you advise 

 to be used to the acre ? 



Is plaster any benefit to land by being merely sowed over it broad- 

 cast with the hand, and what is the real object of using plaster at all ? 

 I have seen a great many farmers sow it on their clover fields, and 

 never could see that it done any good. 



Mr. J. B. Lyman. — Lime dissolves best in cold water. It should 

 be on the ground when the winter snows melt, and at the time of tlie 

 spring rains. If spread in winter it interferes with other farm- work 

 but little. Lime does the most good on moist, clayey lands. It is a 

 substitute, to some extent, for draining ; for its action on wet, spongy 

 pastures that incline to moss is to make the surface lighter and more 

 porous. It benefits most soils, but the action of lilne on sands is less 

 apparent. As clover is a lime-plant, it is applied witli great profit 

 to lands just before seeding down. It is doubtful whether more than 

 fifty bushels to the acre is distinctly beneficial, though many farmei-s 

 apply a hundred. 



