THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



311 



means to clean it. This may be pretty nearly 

 eflected by winnowing or reeing, or by tlie use 

 of a flannel screen, or, finally, by swimming 

 in strong briny mixture. 



From the Massachusetts Ploughman. 

 NORTH DEVON CATTLE FOR BUTTER. 



It is now generally admitted by all who have 

 any extensive acquaintance with stock that the 

 North Devons make the best oxen. Their com- 

 pact form, with small bones and straight limbs, 

 render the oxen of this breed most acceptable 

 to the teamster — while their docility in the yoke, 

 and their aptness to fatten on ordinary food, 

 make them popular as farm stock, particularly 

 in New England and New York. 



But it is as generally hinted that with all 

 these fine qualities the Devons are not great 

 milkers, and therefore are not so suitable for 

 dairymen as cattle that yield large messes of 

 milk. 



It ought to be understood, however, that the 

 remarks on their milking qualities are founded 

 chiefly on the trial of the lot imported into 

 Boston a few years ago, by the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural Society, for our readers have seen 

 within a few weeks most handsome accounts in 

 the Southern papers of the dairy qualities of 

 this breed of cattle. 



The fact is that the Baltimore importation 

 of North Devons diff"ers as much from the Bos- 

 ton importation of cattle of the same name as 

 any individual animals of our native herds dif- 

 fer from each other. It will be remembered 

 that the Baltimore stock was a present from 

 Jerome Bonaparte to Mr. Patterson, whose 

 daughter he married. 



Now the North Devons which we have long 

 been recommending come from Baltimore. We 

 have had a number of these on our farm for 

 several years, and now we have been testing 

 their dairy qualities, as we promised to do 

 when we could have leisure. 



One pound of butter from less than four 

 quarts of milk. We have four heifers on our 

 farm at Framingham of the Baltimore impor- 

 tation. They were three years old last sum- 

 mer — one, Blanche, had a calf April 22d. The 

 other. Bora, calved June 22d. Last week 

 these two heifers were milked at six P. M., and 

 again at six A. M., and their milk was set in 

 a dairy by itself The quantity from both hei- 

 fers was less than twelve quarts. 



On Saturday evening last the cream from 

 these two milkings was churned into butter. 

 That is, the cream was stirred with a spoon in 

 a large bowl. It soon became butter — not six 

 minutes time was spent in the operation. The 



weight of this butter, after working out the 

 milk, was three full iiounds. The butter was 

 then salted with three ounces of fine salt and 

 set away in the cellar. On the next morning 

 the butter was again worked over, and was 

 again weighed. It still weighed as much as 

 before, three j^ounds — for the amount of milk 

 now worked out balanced the three ounces of 

 salt. 



Thus on the 22d of October these two hei- 

 fers yielded three pounds of butter from one 

 day's milk — less than twelve quarts of milk — 

 and they had no feed whatever but grass, in a 

 lot, too, which had been fed down pretty close 

 some weeks before the trial. 



The butter is now hard, yellow, and of as 

 fine quality as any that we have ever made. 

 Seven days would give twenty-one pounds — 

 ten and a half pounds to each heifer for one 

 week in the latter part of October — six months 

 after calving. This milk proves to be as rich 

 as any that is told of from the Alderney cows. 

 Less than four quarts of milk yielding a pound 

 of butter. The usual estmiate is ten quarts 

 of milk for a pound. 



Be this rio'ht or wrono;, it is no common oc- 

 currence to find four cjuarts yielding a pound 

 of butter. And if heifers of three years old — 

 four and six months respectively after calving — 

 will each yield ten pounds and a half of butter 

 per week on grass feed alone, in the latter part 

 of October, what may be expected of them at 

 seven or eight years old in midsummer ? 



These heifers may be seen any day on the 

 farm of the Editor of the Ploughman, in Fra- 

 mingham, where he has numerous other full 

 bloods as promising as these. The butter and 

 the heifers and all the stock may be examined 

 by any one who chooses. 



More trials will be made of other animals 

 of the same herd, and a particular account 

 may be expected of them in a future number. 



A CHEAP BAROMETER. 



A correspondent of the " Country Gentleman" 

 writes as follows : 



"For some jyears I have been in the habit of 

 watching the condition of the gum in my wife's 

 camphor-bottle, which stands in our bed-room. 

 And when not disturbed it makes a capital weather 

 glass. It answers my piir}:)ose as well as a barome- 

 ter that would cost me twenty-five or fifty dollars. 

 Wlicn there is to be a change of weather from fair 

 to windy or wet, the thin flakes of the gum will 

 rise u}), and sometimes wlien there was to be a 

 great storm I have seen them at the top. When 

 they settle down clearly at the bottom then we are 

 sure of grand weatlier. Any farmer who will watch 

 his wife's carnplior-bottle for a season, will never 

 have occasion to Avatcli tlie birds or locusts or ants 

 for indications of a change in the weather." 



