196 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
into squares of about an inch, let it stand until 
the whey rises above the curd, breaking it up 
from the bottom of the vat or tub ; then let it 
stand until the accumulation of whey is suffi¬ 
cient to scald the curd the first, then draw or 
dip off the whey, strain and heat it to 00°, then 
turn on your whey, turning and breaking up 
the curd while doing so; as soon as it begins to 
cool, you strain off the whey again, and heat it 
to 104° or 105°, then pour on your heated whey 
again, all the while working and breaking up 
the curd with your hands, until it is entirely 
fine, letting it remain until it is cooked to that 
degree that by working the curd in your hands 
the particles will not be larger than kernels of 
wheat; then draw off the whey, and salt at the 
rate of an ordinary sized tea-cup full to 15 lbs. 
curd. After salting, continue to work the curd 
to the degree of fineness last named; the curd 
cannot be too fine; then put it into the press, 
and let it stand six hours; then turn, bandage, 
and press 18 hours more; then place the cheese 
on the counter and bandage it, then color cheese 
and bandage together, after the coloring matter 
strikes in, grease well with whey butter, and 
never grease any more, but turn and rub the 
cheese well every day for four months; after 
that time turn and rub well about three times a 
week. 
The above is a good general rule, but not in¬ 
variable. In a very wet time, when the milk 
contains a larger quantity of water than it does 
at others, the curd might require a little more 
salt, and perhaps a little more scalding, and so 
other variations to which the general rule is ap¬ 
plicable. 
AMERICAN CAMEL COMPANY. 
A company is being formed to import Camels 
into this country. The project has received the 
sanction of the War Department at Washing¬ 
ton— and the Legislature of New-York has 
granted them a most liberal charter. A gentle¬ 
man interested in the matter, has handed the 
New-York Times the following memoranda, 
which give some information on the subject: 
“There are vast regions of our country, espe¬ 
cially among our newly-acquired possessions, 
where the peculiarities of the Camel give it the 
advantage over all other animals. Patient, 
docile, and strong—its great strength enabling it 
to carry burdens varying from five to fifteen 
hundred pounds, at the rate of from 25 to 40 
miles a day, and for many successive days—it 
finds food and sustenance in the stunted vege¬ 
tation from which the horse, the mule, and the 
ox turn with repugnance. It has the power of 
abstaining from water from five, six, and seven 
days at a time, and this quality alone, in the 
sandy stretches of the Southwest, where fre¬ 
quently nothing but the salines or salt-pools are 
to be met with over distances of from 60 to 90 
miles, and which no animal but the Camel will 
drink, seems to mark it as the animal destined 
by nature for just such regions. It braves all 
weathers, and is equally serviceable in all climes. 
It is long lived, not easily susceptible to disease, 
and expends its last breath in the service of its 
master. Some varieties are so fleet that they 
will perform journeys of from 100 to 200 miles 
a day, and by the use of these, the outrages of 
our border Indians would speedily and effectu¬ 
ally be stopped. The reports of the different 
exploring parties throughout the regions lying 
between the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean, 
demonstrate the need of some other means of 
transportation than those now in use, and the 
peculiar fitness of the Camel for that object. 
Mr. Bartlett, the late Commissioner for running 
the boundary line between Texas and New- 
Mexico, and the adjoining States of the Mexican 
Territory, strongly urges the introduction of 
the Camel. The results of the British armies in 
India, and of the French in Algiers, establish its 
value for military purposes, while the experi¬ 
ence of all past ages, from the Patriarchal era 
down, reveals the important part performed by 
this most useful of animals in the extension of 
commerce throughout vast portions of the older 
continent. The route across Texas, from the 
Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific, corresponds pre¬ 
cisely in climate and soil with portions of Africa, 
where the Camel is the universal beast of bur¬ 
den and travel. 
“In view of these advantages, and of others, 
which might easily be added, it seems altogether 
desirable, therefore, that the project of intro¬ 
ducing them into this country may meet with 
favor, and we can hardly doubt that if liberally 
and intelligently undertaken, the enterprise will 
confer both fame and fortune upon its projectors 
and friends.” 
- * e t - 
For the American Agriculturist. 
FARMING IN THE MQHAWK VALLEY, 
MONT. CO., N. Y. 
Farmers along the Mohawk Valley are prin¬ 
cipally engaged in cheese making. A great 
portion of their land is occupied of course as 
pasture and meadow. From thirty to eighty 
cows are generally kept on these dairy farms. 
When they are turned out in the spring, care is 
taken to have their food as nearly the same 
from day to day as may be, so that the cheeses 
may be of uniform size, which is thought by 
many of them to be necessary in order to know 
the quantity of ingredients to use. Farms on 
the Valley flats, as they are called, generally run 
back over the hills, and it is on these that the 
cows range the season through, as the flats are 
used for meadow and plow-land. The hills are 
never plowed, and during the heat of summer 
the grass is short, tough, and of inferior quality. 
The farmers raise such crops as they need for 
their own use on the flats, and depend on the 
dairy for “ making” money. 
But could they not make more if they were 
to plow their pasture lands every few years, 
raising an occasional crop of grain on them, be¬ 
sides getting good and tender grass. When the 
pasture is short in dry weather, the dairymen 
cut up their sown corn (of which every one has 
some) as it is needed, and give to their cows to 
keep up the flow of milk. 
There are, however, some formers here that 
do not keep a dairy, but devote their attention 
to the cultivation of grain. The flats are better 
adapted to the growth of corn than any other 
crop, though their fertility renders the formers 
able to raise any crop they choose. Broom corn 
is extensively raised by some, but the price of 
the brush is so variable that in some years they 
get an extra reward, while in others it hardly 
pays for the labor. It averages good pay, how¬ 
ever. I have been told that some fields have 
been planted twenty years in succession, and 
the last season produced a good crop. Wheat 
was formerly grown on the upland with success, 
but lately it has not been so good on account of 
the fly, and its cultivation has been abandoned. 
The cultivation of hops is now receiving consid¬ 
erable attention in this and adjoining counties. 
It is calculated that more hops will be raised 
this season in this section than has been for 
several years before. A great many yards were 
planted last year, and many more are intended 
for this year. The hop-growers seem to think 
that there will be a permanent demand, and 
they are not the only ones interested in their 
culture. A few miles north, the poles are ob¬ 
tained, and the owners make it a good business 
by furnishing them at $8 per hundred, having 
bought the land for a few dollars an acre. It is 
estimated that 500,000 poles passed through the 
village of Fort Plain last winter, and nearly as 
many more through St. Johnsville, south,'into 
Otsego Co. 
The cultivation of fruit is very much neg¬ 
lected. No kinds arc raised to any extent, and 
the few there are, are of poor quality. All the 
fruits, except peaches, might be raised to great 
advantage, but it takes too long to realize the 
benefits to suit many of our inhabitants. More 
interest seems to be taken in shade trees, of 
which there are many fine specimens here. It 
is thought that the deep, rich soil along the 
river is adapted to the culture of tobacco, and 
some are intending to make extensive experi¬ 
ments this summer. T. S. U. 
FALSE COLORING OF CHEESE AND CIDER, 
I have not observed that this subject has ever 
been noticed in the Agricultural Gazette , and 
yet it is well worth the consideration of the ag¬ 
ricultural mind, and not less so of the gastro¬ 
nomic intelligence. Can any of your dairy cor¬ 
respondents prove that coloring matter is bene¬ 
ficial to cheese; that this improvement in qual¬ 
ity is equal to the expense and trouble ? Does 
it either hasten or retard the ripening process 
of cheese? Does it allow cheese to be kept 
longer ? From the few inquiries I have made 
in a dairy country, I have found that those most 
agate in cheese-making give an exactly contrary 
opinion. They say that giving this color occa¬ 
sions considerable expense and trouble; they 
excuse themselves by saying that the factors 
would not buy their cheese without it; and I 
suppose that the factors would say that the re¬ 
tail dealers would not look at it; and these 
latter, that their customers would not eat it. I 
am inclined to think that the consumer and re¬ 
tail dealer are the most answerable for the false¬ 
hood ; for a lie it is, if beneficial or not, as long 
as the purchaser is allowed to believe that color 
is a sign of richness. It only amounts to cul¬ 
pable ignorance in the consumer, while the 
dealer shores up this ignorance by lies; and the 
cheesemaker cannot entirely escape a charge of 
countenancing, through self-interest, a cowardly 
device. On the part of consumers, I affirm my 
own positive opinion that uncolored cheese is by 
for preferable ; pale cheese ripens better, and is 
of a better flavor than colored. In these days 
of reform, when all falsities are scouted, why 
should this one linger, as an active lie, in the 
land of truth ? Let the motto, “ trust not to 
false appearances,” descend to every day life 
and practice, and be engraved on uncolored 
cheese, and may the color of shame be perma¬ 
nently fixed in the faces of those w T ho use such 
uncolorable artifices. Are cheeses to be looked 
at or eaten ? If I am told that I am to have 
the pleasure of eating a rich cheese, I would 
rather judge of it by my palate than my eyes. 
This reasoning, perhaps, may not seem quite so 
conclusive as regards cider, for Apples certainly 
have often a considerable color, but their juice 
has not the same, or if so, not enough to give a 
deep tint to the cider. I have never seen the 
best natural cider of a dark color, certain it is, 
that coloring is very extensively used; and 
what is used would be very difficult of discovery, 
for it is a less delicate operation with cider than 
with cheese; the digestion of the former is of a 
more comprehensive nature; after a short in- 
teranal disturbance it settles, and is corked sub¬ 
missively dowm till used, and we will not trace 
its consequences further. In coloring cheese a 
kind of vegetable paste, said to be imported 
from Spain, is, I believe, universally used; but 
in cider, though the color may be often a vege¬ 
table dye and harmless, yet I should much doubt 
whether it be not often too mineral and un¬ 
wholesome. Let the Lancet decide. Are we 
just then in blaming the Chinese, whom we are 
prepared to suspect of coloring their teas, while 
our own honest tradesmen do the same in a 
home production ? I should be glad to see a 
confutation of these allegations in the Agricul¬ 
tural Gazette. I should be glad to be resolved 
(for it may be an erroneous idea) that all con¬ 
sumers of rich (looking) cheese, and strong 
bodied cider, are not, so for forth, fools; and the 
sellers of the same, to the same extent, knaves. 
— J. G. Leyhart, Lapstew, in Agricultural Ga¬ 
zette. 
- ♦ « ♦- 
McCormick’s Reaper— Important Legal De¬ 
cision. — We understand that in the case of Cy¬ 
rus II. McCormick, vs. William II. Seymour 
and Dayton S. Morgan, (the Reaping Machine 
case,) which w r as tried in the Circuit Court of 
the United States for the Northern District of 
