735 
On  the  Farming  of  Somerset. 
is  a favourite  in  the  western  district.  Mr.  Alexander  Luttrell  has 
taken  some  pains  to  introduce  Spalding’s  in  the  western  hill 
country,  and  (from  the  account  which  I had  from  a very  intelli- 
gent miller)  though  it  fetches  a lower  price,  it  appears  to  be  the 
best  wheat  to  sow  where  red  wheat  alone  can  be  grown  : I saw 
several  ricks  estimated  at  50  bushels  per  acre. 
Till  a few  years  ago,  the  only  turnips  grown  were  varieties  of 
the  white,  the  greenring  being  sown  for  late  feeding  ; but  now  the 
Scotch,  Aberdeen,  golden  yellow.  Dale’s  hybrid,  and  Skirving’s 
swedes  are  generally  valued. 
Scalded  or  Clouted  Cream  and  Butter. — It  is  the  practice  in 
the  dairies  of  the  west  of  the  county  to  adopt  the  Devonshire 
practice  of  warming  the  milk  about  12  hours  after  it  has  been 
taken  from  the  cow.  The  process  need  not  be  described  here,  as 
a full  account  of  it  is  given  in  Mr.  Tanner’s  Report  on  Devonshire. 
It  is  a common  opinion  that  the  object  of  the  scalding  is  to 
extract  from  the  milk  a larger  quantity  of  cream  and  butter.  I 
was  once  led  to  doubt  the  correctness  of  this  opinion,  and  having 
made  many  inquiries,  and  received  the  most  contradictory  an- 
swers, I requested  an  intelligent  farmer's  wife  to  make  the  expe- 
riment, and  the  following  is  the  result: — 
Twelve  quarts  of  milk  were  measured  and  weighed,  so  as  to  be 
sure  that  the  quantities  were  exactly  equal.  The  result  shows  a 
difference  in  the  weight  of  butter  amounting  t o 7|  lb.  on  every 
100  lb.  : — 
Raw. 
Scalded. 
lbs.  07.. 
lbs.  oz. 
Weight  of  the  milk  before  setting 
29  6 
29  6 
Weight  of  milk  and  cream  before  cream  was  taken  oil’,  show-) 
ing  loss  by  evaporation J 
29  2 
28  1 
Weight  of  cream  when  taken  oft'  
3 11 
2 8 
Weight  of  butter 
1 6 
1 
The  two  specimens  of  butter  were  analyzed  by  Professor  Way, 
with  a view  of  ascertaining  w’hether  the  scalding  process  produced 
a purer  butter  by  separating  the  cheesy  matter  more  completely 
from  the  butter.  The  result  was  as  follows  : in  100  parts  of  each 
specimen  there  were — 
Raw. 
Scalded. 
Pure  butter  ...... 
79-72 
79-12 
Casein  with  some  sugar  of  milk  and  salts 
3-38 
337 
Water  (by  loss) 
16-90 
17  "51 
100  00 
100 '00 
Water  by  direct  determination  (drying  at 
212°). 
17-54 
17-68 
3 B 2 
