14 ? 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR 
s»5 'u 
jar aiul liiiiii^ !1 Oji till- Ivvo oi’ ilireu (lays to let the j)irkte 
jiraiM iVo »i It, Re biili it, ami [)l.ice ii H^iiniri the j r. 
cover It tight down with a. jiai;. r jiierced with a larjie |>iu, 
and 111 this slate let it u rviain nil wanted liir use. in tins 
state it oii^ht to he kept iwidve luonihs; it may, how- 
ever, in case oi' necessity he used in a few days after it has 
received s<diini; ; hut it will not l)e so strong as if kept ti 
longer time. In order to [nepare 'Jits rennet for use, take 
a handlni of the leaves of the svveel briar, the same quan 
tiiy of the leaves of the dog-iose, and the like quantity of 
branilile leaves; boil them in a gallon of water, with three 
or four handfuls of salt, atiout a quarter of an hour; strain 
off the liquor, and having let it statiil till perfectly cool, 
pul it into an earthen vessel, and add to it the niaw (ren- 
net) prepared as above. 'I'o this is added a good sounii 
lemon, stuck round with about a quarter of an ounce of 
cloves, which gives the rennet an agreeable flavor. ’ 
The decoction oftlie leaves of sweet briar, dog-rose, and 
bramble may bedispensed with; but the use ofthe lemon 
and cloves is commended. The strength of the gastric 
juice thus provided for coagulatit g milk, will depend 
partly on the age of the rennet, and partly on the tempera- 
ture or climate where it is kept. 
Experience in its use can alone decide the exac^ amount 
which will yield the most satisfactory results. In the 
best dairy districts of England, about a third of a wine 
pint ofthe liquid above describes suffices for fifty gallons 
of milk. In small dairies in this country it is a common 
error to put in too oiuch rennet, whicli always renders the 
cheese strong and unfileasant. The least that will answer 
fully to coagulate the milk, is the quantify netded. Cold, 
sweet milk coagulates with considerable difficulty; and 
the warming of the whole mass — none too much, and 
none too little— is a point of importance in cheese making. 
Something near hlood beat, or the temperature ot the 
stomach of a sucking child, in which new milk coagu 
lates so readily, is the rightdegree foi the adding of liquid 
rennet. Formerly it was not uncommon to heat a purl of 
the milk in a large iron pot or kettle nearly to the bui ing 
point, and mix this with cooler milk in the cheese tub; 
but in this way one is almost certain to scorch a little 
milk on the sides ofthe iron vessel, which is sure to dam- 
age the cheese. To avoid this, milk was first warmed in 
large litt buckets let down into boiling water — the milk 
being stirred constantly to warm it all equally. In the 
large cheese making establishments in the State of New 
York, milk is warmed in vats either by steam or hot water 
conveyed through pipes in the bottom of the vat. Pro- 
fessor Johnston says that 95° Fhar. is the right tempera- 
ture (or setting milk ; but some dairymen prefer 85, or at 
most 9U° of heat When milk is raised to u high tempera- 
ture, it bursts the small, microscopic vessicles which sur- 
round the particles of butter, and the latter run together 
like oil, and flow out of the curd when it is pressed, with 
the whey. Many cheese makers who are too wise in 
their own conceit to study the elementary principles of 
their business, contrive, by dint of hard scalding and hard 
pressing, to extract neatly all the butler from the cheese 
■which they manufacture, and feed it to their hogs or calves 
in whey. It would be quite as well for the consumers of 
such cheese, it they made them exclusively of skim-milk, 
and sold their butter as such in the market. 
After milk is set, the timeduringwhich the curd stands 
is important. It should be cut and broken up as soon as 
the milk is fully coagttlated. The longer the curd stands 
after this, the harder and tougher it will become, Most 
dairymen in New York follow the Cheshire and Ayrshire 
practice of cutting curd with a knife; but it should be 
used gently, ami the curd ought to be slowly pressed, 
wlieilier by the ham) or other means, until it is dry 
enough to be chopped fine. In ntaking the rich Stilton 
cheesCj the curd is not cut nor broken at all j it is hung 
up ill a cloth for the whey to o’raiti out. The leading oh- 
j cl heing to l etaiii all the hut ter in the cunl. Chee.-e in- 
lended Cor a di.-staiit marki-ts .should he pretty well pressed; 
l)ut Cor home cotisiimpiiori, litile is gaiimd hy this opera- 
lion; while soinethiMg is lost vvhere one’s curd is ricl-in 
ituiler. Some scedd newcuid with liotwaitror whey for 
15 rniiHiies alter nearly all the whey has heen dipped and 
pressed out. J'his renders the cheese fimier, and less 
liahle to heave or crack. In salting cheese .ind bu<ter, the 
quantity used (iept lids soinewbat on the time and man- 
ner oCapplying the same IVIuchoC it may be worked 
out again in the whey, or butter-milk. Experience is the 
best guide in salting anything. 
Annatto is now generally used to impart a rich golden 
colar to cheese made for market, and bi the proportion of 
nearly half an ounce to a cheese of 60 pounds. 
For some reason, the dairy business has never prosper- 
ed at the South. Either the climate is too hot, grass is 
too scarce, or our rural population have no taste for the 
production of cheese, and therefore, none, or next to none, 
IS manufai'iured. The importation of so much butter and 
cheese is not so creditable to Southern industry and econ- 
omy as would be the home production of these important 
articles. The same milk that will yield 100 pounds of 
butter will make 200 pounds of good cheese. Some times 
the difference is more than this; for large dairies in Herki- 
mer county, N. Y , have turned out over 650 pounds of 
cheese a per cow in year. L. 
EESCUE GKASS. 
A correspondent and subsciilicr requests us to give our 
opinion ofthe Rescue Grass, which as many of our readers 
know, is a grass newly introduced into this country, 
whence is doubtful, and patronized by a Mr. Iverson, of 
Georgia, who has given it the name it bears, because he 
asserts it to be a remedy for nearly all the ills that land 
is heir to, first rate for hay in summer and grazing in win- 
ter, and the greatest dis- overy yet made for improving 
good land and renovating exliausted soil. We give our 
opinion reluctantly, because it is almost a personal matter 
with Mr. Iverson to dispute the merits of his grass, and 
because we fear we offended him, or came near it, in declin- 
ing an agency for the sale of it, about ayear ago. And really 
it is unpleasant to fight the battles of the public with 
every individual who has an enthusiastic admiration for 
his own slock, grass, grain, pea, machine, implement or 
invention. Still we must try and do our duty, which is in 
this instance to say we attacli no peculiar value to the 
Ceratnekloa BieviaHstata, or Rescue Grass, of Mr. B, V. 
Iverson, Columbus, Ga. 
The price of the seed, S5 per peck, with an obligation 
on the part of the purchaser to raise none for sale, is too 
much to pay, and it creates a monopoly to which we 
object decidedly, and which no farmer should desire, if 
really anxious for “every farmer in the South to possess 
and cultivate” it. 
“Four years” is time enough to establish, by disin- 
terested testimony, some of the merits of this grass, and 
though a diligent reader of the Soil of the South, the 
Southei'n Cultivator and the Alabama Cotton Planter, we 
have seen no testimony of the kind, so that the “experi- 
ence” of others seems not to have endorsed Mr. Iverson. 
The grass is an annual ; and we hold that none of 
IhM family of grasses can be invaluable, or very valuable 
even, as the seed have to be sown every year, or have to 
seed themselves, in the first case, rye is as good a grass 
as we can get, (or oats further South), and will grow 
quite as luxuriantly, on similar soil, as Rescue Grass, and 
corn sown for soiling must be infinitely better, and cap- 
able of producing more green meat on inferior soil. Wheat 
is well known to be among our most hardy winter plants, 
and to grow as rapidly, in favorable seasons, as any other. 
