50 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
The Best Way to Make the Best Butter. 
$50 Prize. 
* The Proprietors of the Blanchard churn, through their 
agents, R. H. Allen & Co., place in the hands of the pub- 
lishers of the American Agriculturist the sum of Fifty Dol- 
lars ($50), to be awarded for the best practical essay on 
making and packing butter. The conditions are: 
The essay should be brief, not exceeding 15 pages of 
foolscap paper, and thoroughly practical in its whole 
character. It is intended to be used as a Manual for 
Butter-making, not only to instruct the novice, but to be 
useful as a source of valuable hints to experienced butter- 
makers. It should include the management of the milk 
from the time it is drawn from the cow, the treatment of 
milk and cream in the dairy, churning, working, salting, 
packing, and marketing butter. — Each essay should be 
nccompauied by the name of its author, in a sealed enve- 
lope, and must be received at the office of the American 
Agriculturist, (245 Broadway, New York) on or before 
March 10th, proximo. The essays will be submitted to 
n committee approved by the Editors, to be hereafter 
announced, and the prize essay, if deemed of sufficient 
merit, will be published in the American Agriculturist. 
Some Facts about XSiatter. — The but- 
ter of commerce and economic use contains according to 
Way: Fat (margarine and oleine), 82.70 per cent; cheescy 
matter or curd, 2.45 percent; water, salt, milk, sugar, 
etc., 14.85 per cent. The fatty portion or true butter va- 
ries in its composition, consisting, as it does, of two 
fats, called margarine, which is a solid fat, and oleine, 
which is an oily or liquid fat. Summer or grass butter 
contains about 40 per cent of margarine, and GO of oleine ; 
while winter or hay butter contains about G5 per cent of 
margarine, and 35 of oleine. If butter is melted at a 
temperature of 140" to ISO", the pure butter maybe sep- 
arated from the cheesy matter, water, salt, etc., and will 
become solid on cooling. If the pure butter stands long 
enough at a temperature about TO", or a little higher, the 
solid and liquid fats will separate. Melted butter may be 
cooled to 00 6 before it begins to harden. 
Bjtnseed Oil-Cake, Oil-Cake, Oil- 
Meal.— The seed of Flax, called linseed, is valuable 
for the oil expressed from it, and which forms the 
basis of our best common paints. Vast quantities are 
annually consumed, the seed being partly derived from 
this country, but chiefly from the East Indies. The seed 
is ground, then heated, and subjected to enormous press- 
ure, which frees it from its oil, and leaves it in hard, 
rough cakes, romewbat less than an inch in thickness. 
This is the linseed oil-cake, or oil-cake of commerce, 
and most of that made in this country is shipped to 
England. It is of high nutritive value, and the manure 
of animals fed upon it is very rich. It is laxative in its 
action upon the bowels, if used in large quantities, yet 
may be fed freely without fear of putting sheep or cattle 
off their feed ; on this account it is well to mix it with 
the feed of both cattle and sheep. For horses, nothing 
is superior to it as an alterative diet, if fed in small 
quantities, say a pint three times a day. It gives a 
smooth coat, and loosens the bowels. Fed to beeves, it 
Should bo mixed with Indian meal in the proportion of 
one part oil-meal to two parts Indian meal. Fed to 
sheep, the cake is usually broken up into a coarse pow- 
der, no lumps being larger than the end of one's finger. 
The secretion of milk is greatly promoted by it, and if 
not fed in too large quantities, no foreign flavor or ojli- 
ness is imparted to the milk. It should always he fed 
with bran, corn-meal, or some other provender, about in 
the proportions above named. Its nutritive value, com- 
pared to maize, is as 28 to 10, as shown by analysis. 
Jflosr* Fed on Cattle Droppings.— 
Tape Worms.— Tape worms exist in neat cattle as well 
as in other animals. They live and grow in the intes- 
tines. Joints capable of producing great numbers of eggs 
which hatch into the minute creatures that finally be- 
come tape worms, continually break oft* or separate from 
the parent worm, and passing through the intestines arc 
" cast into the draught." Hogs, rats, and other animals 
which eat filthy food are likely to take them with their 
food into the stomach, and from this cause comes attacks 
of the disease in pigs called measles, and hence we have 
measly pork. This, if eaten raw or not well cooked, 
will produce tape worm in man and other animals. " A. 
E. T.," of Missouri, thus writes, describing a practice 
which should be unequivocally reprobated, no matter 
how profitable, as dangerous alike to mau and beast, for 
the reason above given :—" The Editor who * Walks and 
Talks ' once stated that on the whole he did not think it 
paid to cook for cattle. Has he ever tried the "Western 
practice of feeding corn raw in the car to the cattle, and 
letting the pigs cleanup after them, feeding the shotcs 
nothing else? A full fed steer will thus fatten or winter, 
it is said, one or two grown hogs. I have never seen a 
statement of the amount of beef and pork a bushel of 
corn will thus produce. "Will you have the kindness to 
make the inquiry through the American Agriculturist. 
Objection maybe made to the practice as not cleanly ; 
but the hog is as much a crop as the cabbage, and we 
feed the latter, as well as all other garden truck, on the 
grossest food." Cabbages do not feed on living food. 
Bee Botes.— By M. Quinb-y. 
Apiary for Febrnary.— Care of Stock.— As'a 
general rule, disturb the bees as little as possible. Raise 
hives that are out-doors, when a w y arm day has loosened 
them, and sweep out the accumulations of dead bees and 
fragments of comb. Banger from protracted cold is not 
over. See directions last month. Move such as are to 
have their locations changed before they mark their 
present places in the spring, otherwise the bees will re- 
turn to the old spot and be lost. Give four or even six 
feet between the hives nnless crowded for room. Hives 
painted of different colors— light colors are best, because 
cooler— and standing with the alternate ones advanced a 
foot, will be found serviceable when they must be placed 
closer than four feet. Let each have its own stand rather 
than put all on a plank in common ; then working at one 
hive will not disturb all. Be careful to shade the bees 
after light snows, if the sun comes out bright. A bee- 
house may now be set up, but I do not think them profit- 
able. They crowd the hives too much. True, you may 
make artificial swarms, or furnish fertile queens two or 
three days after natural swarming, but this would hardly 
balance the disadvantages. As this matter of rearing 
queens both for the purpose just indicated and for chang- 
ing native swarms to Italian, is of considerable import- 
ance, I will give a practical method. 
Rearing Queens.— Premising that you use the 
movable frame, make a number of small frames, as near 
four or five inches square as maybe, to just fit inside one 
of your large ones. Fill with clean worker comb — tl*rt 
which has been frozen is the best, because the eggs of 
the moth will have been thus destroyed— and put the 
large frame containing these small ones in the middle of 
Bomc stock with a fertile queen from which you wish to 
breed. Provide also some small boxes on the plan of a 
simple movable frame hive, with loose top and rabbeting 
for the frames, and just the size to accommodate three 
or four of them. When eggs have been deposited in the 
combs, set up one of yonr small boxes with them as a 
hive in miniature, and confine in it between a pint and 
quart of bees. They will immediately construct queen- 
cells, and may then be opened. In this way any number 
of queens may be provided. 
Buying Bees. — The present month is a good 
time to buy and move bees that are standing out-doors. 
Sleighing furnishes good transportation. Look out for 
sufficient honey, and plenty of bees, and be careful that 
there is no " foul brood, "— bees ought to be seen in at 
least five layers between the combs. Stop the holes in 
the top and side of the hive, turn it and cover the open 
end with muslin or wire-cloth, fastening with carpet 
tacks. If more than twenty-four hours on the road, some- 
thing stronger than muslin will be required. Bees ought 
not to be moved from a cellar or warm room without 
allowing them tofly foraday in fair weather. If housed, 
bees are uneasy and begin to spot the combs very much, 
—set them out for a few hours the first opportunity. 
Preparing for Spring.— See that everything is 
ready for the coming year ; hives, boxes, covers, stands, 
and roofs, arc to be made and properly stored. In a little 
while spring will open and a crowd of other malter will 
demand attention. Not least among the items to be re- 
membered now is some attention to the 
Study of tlie Subject. — Ilowever much yon may 
despise the nonsense found in a good deal that is 
written upon bee culture, still, there is hardly a thing 
printed on the subject which a man really interested and 
in earnest can afford to let go unread. It is rare, indeed, 
to find a writer uttering such unmixed stupidity as not 
to give at least some profitable suggestion, while by ig- 
noring the whole for the fault of some, yon condemn 
yourself to a place fifty years behind the times. One of 
the most profitable books to study is Langs troth's " Hive 
and Honey Bee, 1 ' but I would advise a bee keeper to 
read not only this but all he can find from Huber down ; 
to test what, he reads by his own observation, and learn 
how much folly and wisdom can come from the same 
mouth. In this way we arc made teachable and critical 
at the same time. Now if this work is to bo done, let it 
be in these days of short sunshine and long leisure. It 
is brain work that leads the world, and if^ever our spec- 
ialty is to command the respect and attention it deserves, 
it rests with its advocates not only to exhibit its merits 
in successful practice, but to urge its claims with clear, 
well-informed heads. And more than that, if your vision 
extends no further than your own pocket, be assured that 
the hand with which, if at all, it must be filled, will blun- 
der if not directed by a disciplined power of thinking. 
In-and-in Breeding.— An inquirer asks, 4i If it 
is not well to introduce strange colonies of bees into the 
apiary and thus escape breeding in-and-in. " 1 am not 
aware that any course of vigorous experimenting was 
ever undertaken to test this point, but facts as well as 
analogy, certainly favor it. It is so generally true of 
other animals that it can hardly fail to be so of the honey 
bee. The prominent instance we have— the cross be- 
tween the native and the Italian, is clearly in favor of the 
principle. The hybrids thus produced possess superior 
qualities in a marked degree. I am persuaded that this 
hybrid will prove more active, hardy and industrious, and 
more inclined and better fitted to defend itself than 
either of the races it springs from. As to crosses be- 
tween stocks with differences less strongly marked, 
although results are less striking, yet they point, I think, 
in the same direction. I have known several instances 
where small apiaries kept at a distance from all other 
bees for a number of years, have gradually " run out," 
exhibiting no sufficient cause for their decay. It may 
have been no other than in-and-in breeding. But if there 
were no other reason for frequent crossing than the gen- 
eral law, I should strongly recommend it for that. Of 
course, where no foreign blood is introduced, whatever 
weaknesses or defects exist in your stock must go on in- 
tensifying until its constitution fails. 
I>o the "Workers ever Sting tlie Drones ? 
— When honey becomes scarce in the latter part of the 
season, the drones are commonly destroyed ; sometimes 
by crowding or dragging them out of the hive and some- 
times by stinging, but neither exclusively or at the same 
time. But there are certainly occasions when the work- 
ers do sting the drones. If a number of the latter were 
put in a strange hive at night — the hive having a fertile 
queen— there would be none left in the morning. 
Ogden Farm Papers— No. 2. 
I have seen enough during the two years of 
my occupation to convince me that, of all the 
manures I can get, that which is the surest to 
produce a good effect on my land is that taken 
from the cellar of my own barn — where it has 
never had a ray of sunlight nor a drop of rain 
to lessen its value. For instance, the strongest 
manure that is to be purchased in this neighbor- 
hood is ''Fish Guano," the refuse of the fish-oil 
works. It contains all of the fish except its oil 
and its water, (both of which are of no value 
for manure,) and from its odor and appearance, 
it is evidently a xevy strong ammoniacal fertil- 
izer. I have never known it to he used without 
producing decidedly good results. Last summer 
I prepared four acres for winter rye. One-half 
of the piece had not been manured since I took 
possession of the farm. On this I spread fish 
guano at the rate of two tons ($30) to the acre. 
The other half had been well manured in the 
spring, from the barn-cellar, and had produced 
a strong growth of corn fodder. The seeding 
and other treatment was precisely alike on both 
parts, 3*et, in earliness of sprouting, in rapidity 
of growth, and in ability to bear severe changes 
of the weather, the part manured from the barn 
is very much better than the other. 
The most important question for me to con- 
sider is, therefore, — How can I most cheaply fill 
my barn-cellar?— for, in filling that, I shall he 
accumulating a "working capital" for future 
operations. As hut little is sold from the farm 
besides butter and pork, the nutritive elements 
of the manure will not he lost — as they would 
he in selling hay and grain. A cord of manure 
is spread in April; by August the corn fodder 
that it has produced has been consumed in the 
stable, and a second (and larger) amount of 
manure is carted out for winter rye, or for the 
top-dressing of grass land. By the middle of 
the following June the rye lias been eaten, and 
the manure mude has been again spread upon 
the land. Tlie manure helps to make tlie 
growth, but it only helps. The natural fertility 
