CULTIVATION OF COTTON.—NO. IV. 
147 
perature of the cream to between 50 and 55 degrees 
at the commencement, and the process of churning 
will carry it to 60 degrees, or upward. Extensive 
experiments in Scotland have shown that the 
greatest quantity of butter has been produced at 60 
degrees, and the best quality at 55 degrees. Mr. 
Aiton describes the process common in the dairy 
districts of that country, which is to place the milk 
when first drawn in coolers for 6 or 12 hours. 
When entirely cool, it is then put into a large tub 
1 second or third milking may be added, till the 
whole is loppered. It is then ready for churning, 
but if the lopper is not broken which causes it to 
ferment, it may remain several days. The churn¬ 
ing is commenced at 50 to 55 degrees, but it must 
attain 70 degrees before the butter can be separ¬ 
ated. 
When collected, the butter must be thoroughly 
cleansed of every particle of buttermilk. This can 
only be done by working it, either with or without 
cold water. A ladle ought always to be used for 
this purpose, the hand never. Nothing should be 
then added to it but fine salt. Vast quantities of 
butter are yearly made in the United States, which 
are used for no other purpose but soap-grease, from 
the total want of all care in preparing it. Five 
things are required in producing butter to keep for 
a distant market. All the buttermilk must be work¬ 
ed out ; pure, fine salt used ; and during this pro¬ 
cess and afterward , the butter should be kept cool; 
the vessels in which it is packed must be sweet ; and 
they should be closed from the air. When filling 
a vessel with butter from successive churnings, 
brine may be placed over the top to exclude all the 
air, or a clean cloth used, saturated with salt. 
Cheese can only be made to advantage when the 
cows have a free range in a summer pasture. Un¬ 
less their food contains a great deal of nitrogen, 
which it seldom does, exercise is absolutely essen¬ 
tial to develop the casein, which is the peculiar 
principle of cheese. All the care and neatness en¬ 
joined above for making butter, are equally required 
for making cheese. One or more milkings, if 
sweet, may be made into a cheese. No cream 
should be taken from the milk. When enough 
milk is obtained, heat it to its natural temperature, 
and add rennet sufficient to produce coagulation in 
30 or 40 minutes. For this purpose a piece two 
inches square, and soaked in a pint of water for 12 
hours is generally sufficient for a cheese of 20 lbs. 
The curd is then broken into fine pieces, and all 
the whey run off, when, after being drained, it is 
placed in the hoop, and under the press. After 10 
or 12 hours, the cheese should be rubbed with fine 
salt and replaced in the press, where it may re¬ 
main 48 hours. If the whey is set in pans, it will 
produce cream which may be churned into butter 
for greasing the cheese. The cheese should be 
turned daily at first, and occasionally afterward till 
it is cured. It should be always kept in a cool, 
dry place, and when ready for market is best pre¬ 
served by packing in a cask with clean, dry oats. 
Use no coloring for cheese. Annatto, which is 
generally supposed to be used for this purpose, is a 
good vegetable medicine enough for dysentery and 
some other disorders. But the trash sold for An¬ 
natto, and such as is used for coloring cheese, is 
the vilest compound ever presented for human 
food ; consisting of old powdered bricks, starch, 
turmeric powder, train oil, potash, soft soap, quick¬ 
lime, chalk, pipe-clay, and sometimes a little of 
the genuine article added. Even if pure, it would 
not improve the cheese ; and filthy as these ingre¬ 
dients are, they injure it just in the proportion in 
which they are used. 
An agricultural committee in Jefferson county 
N. Y., examined 27 cheese, and 10 butter dairies, 
comprising 829 cows, in the fall of 1842, and they 
report that the cows make on an average 31S lbs. 
of cheese each, beside 40 to 50 lbs. of butter in the 
fall and spring. The cheese averaged 2 lbs. 2 1-2 
oz., and the butter dairies 13 1-2 oz. per day.- The 
cheese at 5 1-2 cents per lb. will exceed the value 
of the butter at 12 1-2 cents per lb., 1 3-8 cents per 
day. The comparative value of the offal for pork¬ 
making, and the labor in preparing each, must then 
determine which is the most profitable article for 
market. 
R. L. A. 
Buffalo , May 1 5th, 1843. 
For. the American Agriculturist. 
CULTIVATION OF COTTON.—No. IV. 
Log Hall, Miss., July, 1843. 
_ In my last I gave you as minutely and as dis¬ 
tinctly as I was able, the mode I pursue in the 
working of the crop; which is pretty much the 
same followed by some others, I would not say 
generally, because I know very little how many of 
my neighbors get along, finding enough to do at 
home to keep matters and things a-going. But I 
believe this plan is pretty much the same as is 
generally pursued. 
Cotton-Plant in Full Bloom.—(Fig. 34.) 
After my crop has grown so large as to meet in 
the row, or to be injured by the plow, I have the 
