Proceedings of tee Farmers' Club. 631 



or by crushing and smoothing the surface by pressure, the best of 

 butter will appear waxy and sticky when tasted, and will exhibit 

 very little or none of that peculiar appearance which is called grain. 

 Butter should never be smoothed and crushed while it is being worked, 

 as sucli manipulation tends to destroy the grain, by rendering it 

 " salvey " or adliesive. Prime butter that has been made of the 

 shining globules that were gathered among tlie fragrant clover, that 

 has not been worked too much, will not adhere to one's lips and 

 teeth, any more than a piece of a Bartlett pear. On the contrary, 

 butter that has been worked too much, that has been crushed with a 

 ladle or with a roller, will be divested of all granular appearance, 

 and will adhere to one's teeth and lips like tallow. There is science 

 in working butter. The mass should be gashed through and through, 

 to allow tlie buttermilk opportunity to escape into the gashes. Then, 

 as the gashes are closed, the milk will all flow out, as it cannot be 

 forced again into the butter. More butter is spoiled by overworking, 

 by crushing, grinding beneath the ladle or roller, or with the bare 

 hands, than any other ^ys^,J. 



To EaISE WATERMELOIfS, 



Mr. B. F. Stanley, Greenville, S. C, wrote : " As a small return 

 to others for their knowledge, I give you our plan for raising water- 

 melons. Holes dug two feet square and eighteen inches deep, twelve 

 feet apart, filled with fresh stable manure tramped down, the sur- 

 rounding soil drawn over ; or, better still, fresh soil from the woods or' 

 corners of fences mixed with road sand, a broad, flat hill, like an. 

 inverted saucer, a little well rotted manure or guano slightly raked in, 

 some coal dust to absorb the sun's rays, which also prevents forming 

 a crust. Second, seeds left, never work them when the dew is on 

 them, nor disturb the vines, but work them thoroughly ; let no grass 

 or weeds appear. Our weights from twenty -five to forty-five pounds. 

 Our best varieties, the Orange, bankright, and Bradford." 



Oats oe Siioets for Food. 

 Mr, G-. W. Fisk, Coldwater, Mich., requested the opinion of the 

 club as to the comparative value of oats and common bran or shorts, 

 in feeding milch cows or sows with pigs. " Which will best develop- 

 the frames of young animals with the least expense, with oats at forty- 

 flve cents and shorts at one dollar per hundred ? After several years" 

 experience in cutting feed for. both horses and cattle, I am entirely" 



