PROCEEDINGS OP THE FAHMERS' CLUB. 335 



sweet grass butter — enough ti> last my family the year round. It is then 

 thoroughly worked by this break; the buttermilk all worked out; a little 

 crushed sugar (and salt if necessary) worked in; then packed tightly into 

 clean stone crocks; a cotton cloth laid on the top; a little salt with some 

 saltpeter sprinkled on the cloth; then about one inch of good brine poured 

 on, and we have sweet grass butter all the year. Another item, not unim- 

 portant to many, is that in the f re part of summer butter is only worth 

 about one-half or two-thirds as much as in winter." 



Prof. Nash — I perfer October butter to that made earlier, and I prefer to 

 pack it in large masses. A white oak barrel is better then any other 

 vessel, but the barrel should be filled at one time. I believe the largHjr the 

 mass of butter, the better it would keep. 



Preservation of Timber. 



Dr. Lewis Feuchtwanger. — During a recent visit to California, I exam- 

 ined the wharves and piers erected in San Francisco; and also in traveling 

 through the mining districts of the State and Nevada Territory, I was 

 principally impressed with the rapid destruction of the planks, joists and 

 posts of the timber by the dry rot; and having conversed with many per- 

 sons on the subject, learned that they sympathized with me in the ultimate 

 disastrous condition of that disease of the timber, and from the daily 

 reduction of the old trees for building purposes, the time may not be far 

 distant when the present high price of timber would be doubled, and difficult 

 to obtain at that. I was informed by a gentleman interested in the largest 

 hydraulic gold mining company of the State, that he was obliged to replace, 

 every two years, the props in his ditches and flumes, and is subject to very 

 high expenses where he requires a large amount to be hauled from con- 

 siderable distances. I have reflected upon the matter in my leisure moments, 

 and concluded to make known a few remarks on the subject, which appear 

 to me of importance. 



The dry rot attacks mostly the white and sugar pine, the various species 

 of oak, and some species of cedar; it is a fungus known in botany by the 

 name of merulius lachrymous, which appears at first in delicate white fila- 

 ments, spreading toward the surface and interlacing with one another, and 

 it appears to commence on the outside by agency of atmospheric causes of 

 change, and to gradually work inward. It no doubt affects timber in 

 warm, close and moist situations, and appears to be nourished by the 

 petrefactive fermentation of the juices of the plank; and Pliny, who seems 

 to have been acquainted with this cause of the decay of timber, observes 

 that the more odoriferous a piece of timber is, the more durable and resist- 

 ing is it to decay. He also knew that the part of the timber most subject 

 to rot was the sapwood, outside of the heart, and recommended the cutting 

 of this away in squaring the stick. For the last century, the British and 

 French navies have suifered much by the dry rot in their vessels of war; 

 and instances are recorded where several ships were sunk, the timbers of 

 which were afflicted by the dry rot; and in the mines of France, timbers 

 used for props have been seen to crumble together within a year or a year 

 and a half. I observed, on the Sierra Nevada, a large fresh-hewn pine 

 tree, of four feet diameter, completely taken hold of at the inner crosscut 



