178 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMER. 



New York Preminm Butter. 



At the last New York State Fair, H. N. 

 Kimball, of Rutlan, JeflFerson county, obtained 

 the first premium for 50 pounds of batter, made 

 that season. 



The following are his answers to the ques- 

 tions proposed to him by the Committee of Ex- 

 amination: 



1st. Butter was made in September, from 

 fifteen cows. 



2d. Milk is placed in a well ventilated room, 

 with as much surface exposed to th^ north as 

 possible, the rest shaded so as to keep cool; is 

 warmed in fall and winter by means of a stove. 

 The cream is taken off as soon as the milk be- 

 comes thick, and sometimes before; it should be 

 taken off before any specks show themselves on 

 the cream. The cream is kept at about 56 ° or 

 58 ® , by means of coolers suspended in the well. 

 Milk should be closely watched, and not let the 

 cream stand too long, aa it injures the quality 

 of the batter. 



3d. The batter is rinsed with cold water. 



4th. "Water is used as being the best and 

 most expeditious way of freeing it of milk; and 

 good butter, I think, (Jannot surely be produced 

 in hot weather, without the use of water. 



5th. We use the Ashton salt, three-fourths of 

 an ounce to the pound, or rock salt. 



6th. Use no saltpeter, as I think it does no 

 food. 



7th. I think the Syracuse salt injurious, aa 

 there seems to be an earthy substance that does 

 not dissolve readily, and it shows itself in small 

 scales on the butter. 



8th. We pack the butter in shaved ash tubs, 

 made from heart stuff; as all sap timber in the 

 tab will soak the brine tni become mouldy. 

 Pack as solid as possible, and cover with a cloth 

 and a thick coat of salt, and exclude from the 

 air as much aa possible. 



The cows are native stock, with no extra feed- 

 ing. 



-^•f 



RuTA BagasExtka — A Correspondent writes: 

 To-day we have taken a lot of rata baga- seed 

 (J ft) to} acre) and sown it broadcast all over 

 our garden, dropping it thickly wherever there 



is likely to be a single foot of spare room, as for 

 example, between the rows of early corn and po- 

 tatoes, peas, &c. The hoeing is now going on 

 which will cover the seed;"and hereafter the grow- 

 ing young plants will be cut up with the hoe 

 like weeds wherever they are in the way; but 

 left to grow where there is room for a single 

 turnip. A useful plant may as well occupy the 

 ground as a useless weed, and in autumn we shall 

 most likely gather several bushels of 'turnips lor 

 the bare cost of the seed, or 25 cents. This 

 plan may be pursued not oaly in gardens but iu 

 fields, at any time in June, July and even into 

 September. After, say July 15, some of tbe 

 later varieties of turnips should be substituted 

 for rata bagas. 



HORTICULTURAL. 



The Strawberry Culture. 



Cincinnati is confessedly ahead of all other 

 cities and localities in the United States in the 

 cultivation of the strawberry. Nicholas Long- 

 worth may be regarded as having led the way to 

 the extraordinary amount of production, not 

 only there, but in every other part of the United 

 States. This has been the result of a discovery 

 made by Mr. Longworth, which has been often 

 told, and is merely thus: An ignorant market 

 woman, first in Philadelphia, and afterwards in 

 Cincinnati, was famous for raising large crops, 

 beating all her neighbors. Every spring she 

 was observed to carefully go over her beds, pall 

 up nambers of the largest blossoming plants 

 and throw them over the fence. The rival 

 gardeners, emulous of her success, carefully 

 picked up these rejected plants and set them out 

 in their gardens. But not yet had they caught 

 the goose that laid the golden eggs. Her cast- 

 aways did no better than the old ones, if as well, 

 and still she raised five times as many berries as 

 any one else. On coming to Cincinnati, she 

 still distanced all competitors — why, no one 

 could discover. At length her son carelessly 

 dropped a hint in the hearing of Mr. Longworth 

 who caught it up and experimented, until he 

 found out the curious fact that the strawberry 

 is sometimes male, sometimes female, and some^ 

 times hermaphrodite, having both organs more 

 or less complete — a fact, the judicious use 

 whereof has brought the price of strawberries 

 from 40 to 50 cents down to 4 and 5 cents per 

 quart, and made them a staple of the State. It 

 was the male strawberries, whose blossoms are 

 always the largest, that the market woman 

 threw over the fence, keeping just gentlemen 

 enough in her beds for the ladies. Too many 

 not only taking up too much room, but as 

 their energies are not exhausted, in bearing 

 fruit, grow and Sfitead so fast as seriously to 

 encroach upon the harems, so that if not looked 

 to in time, they are likely, as Mr. Longworth 

 sajs, "to kick all the women out of bed." — 

 Hence it is that many people find that they 

 have fewer and fewer strawberries, though the 

 blossoms are larger and larger every spring. 

 On the other hand, the female can do nothing 

 without intercourse with the other sex, of 

 course. Hovey's seedling, so long the favorite 

 strawberry of the east, is a pure female, and 

 bears only when it has companions in the bed, 

 as it is almost sure to have few or none. The 

 English strawberries are said to be always her- 



