190 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[June, 
subserve a good purpose. Place the clieese on a 
piece of a broad board, a little inclined, and use a 
fence rail for a lever, placing one end under abuild- 
ing, or any other structure of sufficient weight, and 
on the other end lean a couple of rails, or hang a 
pail of stones. Cheese should be pressed only 
hard enough to remove the whey. A little practice 
will make perfect. While pressing, the cheese 
should always be kept shaded from the sun. I 
think we arc inexcusable if we have not our tables 
bountifully supplied with this most wholesome, 
palatable, and nutritious article of food." 
»-. »»»■ — •— 
Pure Butter. 
The fresh sweet pastures of June, furnishing that 
abundance of succulent feed which new milch cows 
need to give rich milk in abundance, make this 
month pre-eminently the butter month. We pre- 
sent herewith tbe views of a good butter maker ex- 
pressed in a communication by " H. A. H.," which 
has lain for some time on our table: "I am very 
particular about thoroughly scalding and sunning 
my pans in hot weather; do not fill them more than 
half full, and skim after the milk thickens sutlicicnt- 
ly so that the cream will come off smooth without 
taking any milk with it, which, I thiuk, is apt to 
make curdles in the butter, and that injures the 
looks of it. Churning should be done every d.iy, 
if sufficient cream be obtained. If not, the cream 
In the pot should be thoroughly stirred whenever 
any is added, and I add a little salt, which certainly 
is not a bad idea. I design, when I churn, to have 
the cream the right temperature, neither too warm 
nor too cold, so as to avoid putting in any warm or 
cold water, and as soon as it is gathered I take it 
out and wash it in cold water until it is thoroughly 
freed from buttermilk ; salt it to my taste, and set 
it in a cool place until the next morning, when I 
work it over again until it presents a firm and uni- 
form appearance. Last summer I worked my but- 
ter three times before packing. At the last work- 
ing I add a small quantity more of salt. After pack- 
ing it smoothly I sprinkle a tablespoon ful of loaf 
sugar and a little salt over the top between every 
layer, and apply on the top of that a cloth pressed 
down closely to keep the air from it during the 
time that must intervene before the packing of 
the next layer. After the jar or firkin is well 
filled, I put the cloth on the top and apply an- 
other thicker one, and fill up with salt packed 
tightly, and even with the top of the jar ; then lay 
on another cloth to fit the top. I also put another 
one over the jar and have it come over the edge 
and paste it tight to the jar, then put on a board 
and weight. Or another way ; Instead of putting 
in salt I take melted butter and turn in on the thin 
cloth even full, and lastly, apply salt sprinkled over 
the top before putting on the last cloth and weight. 
Then again, I have had butter keep well after 
packing thoroughly as I have stated, to fill up the 
top of the jar with strong brine, which should stand 
two inches deep on the top without being filled up 
with butter, and it is necessary to put a little 
saltpetre in the brine. Any one, whether he has a 
very good place to keep butter or not, if he attend 
to the strict observance of these rules, can have 
good butter and keep it for months, and that 
through the hottest weather." 
Fault-finding with Children. 
Mrs. H. B. Stowe, in the Atlantic Monthly, has 
done a good service for both parents and children 
in exposing this common mistake. The following 
extract conveys the pith of her views on the subject: 
"Children are more hurt by indiscriminate, 
thoughtless fault-finding than by any other one 
thing. Often a child has all the sensitiveness and 
all the susceptibility of a grown person, added to 
the faults of childhood. Nothing about him is right 
as yet ; he is immature and faulty at all points, and 
everybody feels at perfect liberty to criticise him 
to right and left, above and below, till he takes re- 
fuge in callous hardiness or Irritable moroseness. 
" A bright, noisy boy rushes in from school, eager 
to tell his mother something he has on his heart, 
and Number One cries out — 'Oh, you've left the 
door open ! I do wish you wouldn't always leave 
the door open ! And do look at the mud on your 
shoes ! How many times must I tell you to wipe 
your feet ?' ' Now there you've thrown your 
cap on the sofa again. When will you learn to hang 
it up?' 'Don't put your slate there; that isn't 
the place for it.' 'How dirty your h.ands are! 
what have you been doing ?' ' Don't sit in that 
chair ; you break the springs bouncing.' ' Mer- 
cy! how your hair looks! Do go upstairs and 
comb it.' 'There, if you haven't torn the braid 
all off your coat ! Dear me, what a boy !' — ' Don't 
speak so loud ; your voice goes through my head.' 
— 'I want to know, Jim, if it was you that broke 
up that barrel that I have been saving for brown 
flour.' — 'I believe it was you, Jim, that hacked the 
side of my razor.' — ' Jim's been writing at my 
desk, and blotted three sheets of the best paper.' — 
Now the question is, if any of the grown people 
of the family had to run the gaimtlet of a string of 
criticisms on themselves equally true as those that 
salute unlucky Jim, would they be any better na- 
tured about it than he is ? No ; but they are grown 
up people ; they have rights that others are bound 
to respect. Everybody can not tell them exactly 
what he thinks about everything they do. If every 
. one did, would there not be terrible reactions ?" 
Something ahout Perfumes. 
People will persist in using perfumes, and if they 
■would oulyuse the delicate ones of flowers it would 
not bo so objectionable, but when it comes to musk, 
which suggests skunk, and bcrgamot, that savors 
of barber shops, we think perfumes had better be 
dispensed with. It is the common belief that all 
perfumes are distilled from the plants and flowers 
the names of which they bear, but this is not the 
case. Though many arc obtained from woods, 
barks and seeds by the operation of distillation, the 
oils of or-ange, lemon, and bcrgamot are obtained 
by expressing tlie rinds of those fruits. In separa- 
ting the delicate odors of flowers a quite different 
process is generally resorted to, founded upon the 
fiict that the fragrance of the flower continues to be 
exhaled as long as it remains alive, and upon the 
property possessed by pure fats of absorbing this 
odorous exhalation. This process is largely carried 
on in the South of France, .and is called ^^ Enjlmr- 
age." Square wooden trays are formed by setting 
panes of glass in wooden frames which are about 
two inches high, so that when two of these are 
placed one over the other, there will be a space of 
four inches between the two glasses. The fresh 
butter, lard, suet, or whatever grease is used, and 
which must be as pure as possible, is spread over 
the glass bottom of one of these trays, the flowers 
placed in it, and a similarly prepared tray covered 
over it. The flowers remain here for a day or two, 
when they are removed and replaced by fresh ones. 
The same grease remains in the tray as long as the 
season of blossoming of the particular plant Lasts, 
it being worked over with a knife, so as to present 
a fresh surface every time fresh flowers are put 
in. In this way large quantities of grease are pre- 
pared strongly flavored with the perl^urae of Orange 
flowers, Jasmine, Tuberose, Violets, etc., which is 
used for perfuming pomades, or to impart its fra- 
grance to alcohol, and thus form the various liquid 
scents or essences. The perfumed fat being infused 
in alcohol for several weeks, imparts all its odor to 
that liquid, while none of the fat is dissolved by it. 
Many of the perfumes sold under fanciful names 
are combiuations made by mixing the various ex- 
tracts. Some of these .are made to imitate the per- 
fumes of flowers, such as Sweet Pea, -n^hile others 
like "Jockey Club," "West End," etc., are agree- 
able compounds not made to imitate any natural 
odor. Some of the names are exceedingly imagi- 
n.ative; " Night-blooming Cereus " for instance, is 
a mere fancy n.ame to a compound perfume, which 
bears no resemblance in odor to the flower after 
which it is called. Indeed there are probably not 
flowers enough of the Cereus produced in the coun- 
try in a year to make a dozen bottles of the per- 
fume which bears this name. Those who have 
an abundance of fragrant flowers can make the 
experiment of extracting their odors by spread- 
ing the gre.ase upon dinner pkates, filling one with 
flowers and inverting another one over it. 
About Lightning Rods. 
— ■ — 
From the letters we receive asking information 
about lightning rods it is evident that there is suf- 
ficient interest felt in the matter to warrant us in 
devoting considerable space to it. No one who has 
a house or barn can afford to neglect the protection 
which a properly constructed lightning rod will 
give. There are numerous kinds of patent light- 
ning conductors, each claimed by the inventor to 
be superior to all others. We cannot decide upon 
the merits of these rival inventions, but can do our 
readers much better service by pointing out the 
essentkils of a good lightning rod. The following 
was prepared some years ago by Prof Henry, the 
distinguished physicist, who h.as given especial 
study to electricity, and it appears to be perfectly 
plain and to cover the whole ground. 
"1st. The rod should consist of round iron, of 
not less than three fourths of an inch in diameter. 
A larger size is preferable to a sm.aller one. 
"2d. It should be, through its whole length, in 
perfect metallic continuity ; as many pieces should 
be joined together by welding, as practicable, and 
when other joinings are unavoidable, they should 
be made by screwing the parts firmly together by a 
coupling ferule, care being t.aken to make the upper 
connection of the latter with the rod water-tight, 
by cement, solder, or paint. 
" Sd. To secure it from rust, the rod should be 
covered with a coating of black paint. 
"4th. It should be terminated above, with asingle 
point, the cone of which should not be too acute, 
and to preserve it from the weather as well as to 
prevent melting, it should be encased with plati- 
num, formed by soldering a plate of this metal, not 
less than a twentieth of an inch in thickness, into 
the form of a hollow cone. 
"5th. The shorter and more direct the rod is in 
its course to the e.arth, the better. Acute angles 
made by bending the rod and projecting points 
from it along its course should be avoided. 
"6th. It should be fastened to the house by iron 
eyes, and ra.ay be insulated by cylinders of glass. 
We do not think the latter, however, of much im- 
portance, since they soon become wet by water, 
and in case of a heavy discharge are burst asunder. 
"7th. The rod should be connected with the earth 
in the most perfect manner possible, .and in cities 
nothing is better for this purpose than to unite it 
in good metallic contact with the gas mains or 
large water pipes in the streets ; and such a connec- 
tion is absolutely necessary if the gas or water 
pipes are in use within the house. This connec- 
tion can be made by soldering to the end of the 
rod a strip of copper, W'hich, after being wrapped 
several times around the pipe, is permanently .at- 
tached to it. Where a connection with the ground 
cannot be formed in this w.ay, the rod should 
terminate, if possible, in a well alway» containing 
water, and where this arrangement is not practica- 
ble, it should terminate in a plate of iron or some 
other metal buried in the moist ground. It should, 
before it descends to the earth, be bent so .as to 
pass off nearly perpendicul.ar to the side of the 
house, and be buried in a trench surrounded with 
powdered charcoal. 
"8th. The rod should be placed, in preference, on 
the west side of the house, in this latitude, and 
especially on the chimney from which a current of 
heated air ascends during the summer season. 
"9th. In case of a small house, a single rod may 
suffice, provided its point be sufliciently high above 
the roof, the rule being observed, that its elevation 
should be at least half of the distance to which its 
protection is expected to extend. It is safer, how- 
ever, particularly in modern houses in which a 
