m'i 





310 



THE ILLINOIS FA.rt]SIER. 



So great is the qmintity of water 

 here poured forth, that it forms a river 

 of itself, large enough to float flatboats 

 ■with cotton. The planter who lives 

 here has thus transported his cotton to 

 St. Marks. Near the fountain we saw 

 some of the remains of a mastadon 

 which had been taken from it. The 

 triangular bone below the knee measur- 

 ed six inches on each side. Almost the 

 entire skeleton has been sent to Bar- 

 num's Museum. 



——-- 



THE l).\iIlY. 



now OOSIIEX BUTTER IS MADE. 



The Southern Planter contains the follow- 

 ine: account of the process of uiaking butter 

 in (jiosheu, from the pen of Mr. Dcuriiston, a 

 practical butter luakcr : 



The cellar, where the milk is kept, should 

 be cool, wdl ventilated, and clean. Tiic 

 luilk ought to be strained into pans contain- 

 ing ten or twelve <(uarts each. If the wea- 

 ther is very warm, tlie pan.'s oujilit to be set 

 on the cellar bottom — otiiorwise on shelves. 

 Tiie milk ouuht not to be churned until it 

 becomes thick, or loppered — the milk and 

 cream are tlien churned together. 8ome 

 dairymen skim off" the cream and part oftlie 

 milk, and cl urn that, but Goshen butter is 

 churned fnuu the milk and cnam. The 

 churn used is the common "dasher churn," 

 driven by dog, horse or hand power, accord 

 ing to the size of the dairy. The churn 

 may behalf or two-thirds full with milk; and 

 a paiJt'ul of cold water added before starting 

 to churn. In cold weather, warm water is 

 put in. The churning should be with a slow, 

 regular motion — and to make good solid but- 

 ter, will take from one hour to one hour and 

 a half; befde the churning is done, another 

 pailful of water ought to be put in. When 

 the butter is done, take it out, wash it 

 through one water in a large tray, throw the 

 water out, then salt the butter, using about 

 one ounce of pure Liverpool (Ashton) salt 

 to each pound of butter. Work the salt 

 through the butter — put it in a cool place 

 and let it stand an hour; then work it care- 

 fully over, and set it aside for five or six 

 hours — work it over again, and set it aside 

 in the same cool place until the next morn- 

 ing, when it is packed. In working butter, 

 great care ought to be taken to work out all 

 of the milk — but not to work it too much, so 

 as to break the grain, and make it '^salvcy." 

 If any milk is left in, the butter will .wou 

 become rancid; and if worked too much, it 

 will be "greasy" or "salvey," and not solid. 

 Butter worked just enough will be solid — 

 siceet — 1/elloiv — and the drops of brine on it 

 will be as "clear as crijstal." 



Orange county butter is packed in white- 

 oak firkin.s — the staves selected so as not to 

 leak the brine; the firkins will weigh about 

 eighteen or twenty pounds empty. The fir- 

 kins arc soaked in pure cold water for some 

 days before using, by being filled with the 

 water — they hold from eighty to one hun- 

 dred pounds of butter. When the firkin is 

 full, a linen cloth is placed over the top of 

 the butter, and on this cloth a lay of saltan 



inch in depth is laid, made a little damp 

 with cold water. 'J'he butter stands until 

 marketed; then the salt and cloth are taken 

 off, a fresh cloth wet with brine put on, and 

 the firkin headed up. Great care should be 

 taken to have the firkins kept perfectly clean. 

 The outside ought to be as bright as when 

 turned out by the cooper. No leaky firkin, 

 or any that will filter the least particle of 

 brine, ought to be used. This is the way 

 Goshen butter is made. 



One of the best butter makers in Chemuiii' 



o 



county, manufactures as follows : — The milk 

 is put into twelve quart pans, and set on the 

 bottom ot" the cellar, where it remains until 

 it becomes loppered. It is then, both milk 

 and cream, poured into churns, which hold 

 a barrel each. A pailful of water to six 



paiJf'iils of juilk is added, and tlie whole 



brought to a touiperaturo ol si.xty-eight de- 

 grees. The churning is done by horse pow- 

 er, and recjuircstwo horses. Just before the 

 butter is tolly come, another jiailiul of water 

 is put into eacii churn to thin the butter- 

 milk, so that the butter nay ri.se freely. — 

 'i he butter is taken from the churn into 

 large wooden bowls, thoroughly washed with 

 col I water, and salted witii one ounce of 

 Ashton (Liverpool) .salt to each ])ound of 

 butter, and lightly workeil thnjugh with a 

 wooden blade it is afti-rwards worked at 

 intervals of about three hours, three or fjur 

 times with a common ladle, and j)acked into 

 firkins the next morning. 



Butter, when packed, should be kept in 

 as cool a place as can be found until it is 

 sent to market — a cool c dlar is the best 

 })lace. Dairy butter is generally marketed 

 in Novcudierand December. Our dairymen 

 generally sell fresh, the butter made in 

 sj)ring before grass comes, and that made 

 last in the fall after grass; they pack as long 

 as the cows can be kept on good grass. — 

 Many feed their cows on cornstalks 

 in autumn, and continue to pack until 

 winter. 



The proportion of pasture and of meadow 

 lanas depends altogether on the season, and 

 on the grass. Clover •will not feed as long 

 as timothy and the finer sorts. The true 

 rule is to keep the pasture I'resh, by chang- 

 ing from field to field. Gows arc very nice 

 in their selection of lood; they will select as 

 cautiously as auy epicure, if they have a 

 chance, and to make them profitable for 

 dairy purposes, they at all times ought to 

 have plenty of grass and water. In our cli- 

 mate, we allow that two tons of hay per cow, 

 is none too much for winter; at our place 

 less, probably, would answer. Corn meal is 

 good food for cows, in winter and early spring. 

 It is very importiuit that cows be brought 

 through tlic winter in good condition; their 

 value for dairy purposes depends on this. — 

 In our State, the dairymen stable their cows 

 through tlic winter, keep them warm and 

 comfortable, and feed them well. 



In all our dairy districts, the land becomes 

 more rich and productive from year to year. 

 I am acquainted with acres that have not 

 been plowed for twenty-five years; the sod is 

 stilfand rich — the grass thick and fine. It 

 is never fed down, except here and there m 

 patches, the cattle selecting the finest and 

 sweetest portions, treading the rest down into 

 the earth to enrich the succeeding trrowth 



thus adding to the productive capacities of 

 the soil. 



To produce good butter, the grasses ought 

 to be a mixture of clover, timothy, blue, and 

 other finer native grasses. We lay down our 

 lands, with clovdr and timothy — the white 

 clover, the sweet vernal, and other tine 

 grasses come iii the second or third year, 

 making fine,- sweet pasture for several years 

 alter. Where wo intend to make butter, wo 

 let our land lay in sod for a number of years 

 the older the sod, the finer and more nour- 

 ishing the grass. We prefer to restore our 

 grass lands by top dressing, rather than to 

 plow and re-sod. Newly seeded lands do 

 not produce as good grass, for dairy purposes 



as old. 



••* 



Price of ^Vlinit In War, 



AVe have before alluded to the extrav- 

 airaiit ideas that are entertained in some 

 quarters in relation to the eflect of war 

 upon food. No part of Europe was 

 more ravaged by imperial armies, in the 

 early part of the century, than Italy and 

 the iihinc province.*? of Prussia; and if 

 we turn to tiie local prices of that day, 

 Avc shall observe the facts. The present 

 Piedmont formed then nine departments 

 of Franco, and the price of wheat rang- 

 ed in lb08, from 2of. per hectolitre, in 

 the Appenines, the highest price, to 15s 

 in Itura. At Turin the price was 15.85f. 

 per hectolitre, cq"al to $1,01 per bush- 

 el. In Belgium the range was 12.6iif. 

 to lO.llf.; the former price at Luxem- 

 burg, equal to 84c per bushel for wheat. 

 This was after nearly twenty jears of 

 war, following a most terrible famine, 

 which Was the immediate cause of the 

 revolution. The wheat product of the 

 forty-four departments annexed to the 

 empire, and comprising Holland, the 

 IMiine, Belgium and Italy, was for three 

 years as as follows: — When produced, 

 in 1810, 194,556,513 bushels; in 1811, 

 188,043,891; in 1712, 210,933.522.— 

 The product of France itself, in wheat, 

 was 1G1,U0U,U00 bushels. The price, in 

 France itself, has never varied, except 

 with the abundance, or otherwise, of the 

 crops. Some singularly interesting 

 facts in this regard, are to be derived 

 from a document addressed to the Pre- 

 fect of the Seine, by M. de Carabray, 

 Chief of the Bureau for the distribution 

 of food to the poor at Paris, in 1840-7. 

 The report gives the average prices of 

 wheat since L447, with the years of fam- 

 ine, and the prices for those years. In 

 171G, the famine raised price of -wheat 

 in France to §3 per bushel. In 1718, 

 the harvests wore abundant, and the* rate 

 fell to 50c per bushel. In 1720, in a 

 time of great abundance, the price rose, 

 under La.w's paper money, to very dear 

 rates. In 1725, continued rains ruin- 

 ed the crops, and a frightful famine 

 compelled the government to become a 

 large purchaser of foreign grain. The 

 crops alternated until the famine of '93, 

 when wiieat sold at §1,75 per bushel. — 



