350 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Mat, 
lievedhim from the present danger, hut it was 
months before he got rid of a troublesome and 
alarming cough which followed. The sufferer must 
keep cool—live on water gruel—call to his aid all 
his patience and bear his torment as he best can. 
A moderate dose or two of Epsom salts will serve 
to cool the blood and to keep the eruption from 
running into bad sores or ending in a crop of boils. 
- K. 
The writer adds in a note to the Editor : “ I have 
suffered severely often—and once dangerously from thd* 
plants named above, and know from trial and experi¬ 
ment the neutralizers of the poison.” 
Vinegar—Acetous Fermentation. 
The sharpness of vinegar is due to acetic acid 
which it contains. Its color and flavor, aside from 
the sourness, are due to the other ingredients of the 
cider wine, or any thing else from which it is made. 
Acetic acid is only produced from alcohol, which, 
absorbing oxygen from the air, becomes acetic acid. 
Alcoholic liquids will rapidly turn to vinegar if ex¬ 
posed to the air, and the more thoroughly exposed, 
the more rapidly will this, which is called the ace¬ 
tous fermentation, proceed. Warmth also greatly 
promotes it, and any fermenting body diffused 
through any liquid containing alcohol causes it to 
go on more rapidly. Good cider vinegar contains 
only about 5 per cent, of acetic acid; it is very strong 
when it contains 6 to 8 per cent, and the best wine 
vinegar contains only 10 per cent. This renders it 
necessary where vinegar is transported far, to carry 
93 to 95 per cent, of water, and so, of course, it is 
much cheaper to carry the strong acid and make vin¬ 
egar by adding it to water at the journey’s end. 
“ Distilled vinegar,” or acetic acid lacks the pleas¬ 
ant flavor of good cider vinegar and has only the 
peculiar taste of the volatile pungent acid itself. 
When cider is set for vinegar, place the barrels 
in a warm shed, or even in the open air, on the sun¬ 
ny side of the house, tack some gauze over the 
bung-holes, to keep insects out, and it will soon be¬ 
come vinegar. The addition of “mother of vine¬ 
gar,” whieh is a fungus plant (My coderm a aceti), 
seems to give an impulse to the fermentation, and 
the same be given by a quart or two of good strong 
vinegar drawn from the bottom of the barrel; but 
'if the cider has any proper strength, these additions 
are of no advantage, and if it is weak they are apt 
to produce moldiness. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Hints on the Art of Butter Making. 
In order to make pure butter, something is re¬ 
quired besides the good breed of cows—the sweet 
grasses—the soft springs—the rolling lands—and 
the rich milk, and the most experienced churners 
—the most improved machinery—the purest atmos¬ 
phere—the best material may be manufactured into 
yellow grease instead of butter, unless the process 
be properly performed. It is a fact well known to 
scientific dairymen, that the pure butter is not made 
by agitating the milk—not made by the process of churn¬ 
ing. Butter already exists in the milk, and the art 
of separating it from the milk, is that on which 
the success of the dairy depends. 
Butter exists in globules so small as to defy the 
detection of the eye unaided by the microscope, and 
the removal of these globules without crushing 
them, is the delicate and difficult task the dairy¬ 
man has to do. There is no luxury that comes to the 
table which is so exquisitely sensitive as butter. If 
the cow feeds on white clover, the butter has a white 
clover flavor; if she feeds on cabbages, the butter 
has the flavor of cabbage; if the butter is kept in 
the vicinity of the stable, it forthwith becomes taint¬ 
ed with the smell of the stable; if packed away in 
pine tubs, it catches the taste and odor of the pine. 
It requires skillful handling or it will certainly be 
spoiled. If there is too much rubbing in the churn, 
these fine globules, mashed and crushed against the 
sides of the churn, will give greasy butter; and if 
the air is excluded the gases will injure it. What 
can be done, you inquire, to cause the adhesion of 
the globules without grinding or breaking them. 
Experienced churners answer the question, when 
they caution young beginners not to churn too fast, 
not to heat the milk too much, not to overdo, etc. 
They may not in every instance understand the 
philosophy of the fact, but they do know the fact, 
that “overdoing” makes grease and not butter. 
The seasoning of butter is a matter of taste, and 
there are a great many persons who imagine that 
the more salt they put in the butter the better it 
keeps. That is a great mistake. Just enough and 
none too much is what is required. [Few indeed, 
even among butter makers in this country, know 
the luxury of fresh butter with no salt at all.— Ed.] 
Too much will spoil the taste and not save the but¬ 
ter. Without penetrating any deeper at present 
into the philosophy of butter making, I will simply 
add that, a gentle and uniform agitation of the milk 
will best reward the butter maker for his pains. 
[The cream should have a temperature of about 
65° F. when churning begins.— Ed.] The butter 
should be kept away from all unpleasant odors, and 
when put down should be packed in white oak tubs. 
Clean cows, clean stables, sweet churns and pans, 
neat and tidy operators,are among the things desired 
by those who would send pure butter to market. 
Geo. W. Bungay. 
Grease Spots. 
A grease spot on many delicate fabrics is a 
difficult thing to remove, on others it comes away 
very easily. When first made, before the fibers have 
thoroughly absorbed the grease, soap of almost 
any kind will often quickly remove it; after a few 
days, a soap of peculiar quality is required. The 
hardest and whitest is commonly best, and soft- 
soap is the most powerful, but liable to change the 
color or weaken the texture of the goods. Turpen¬ 
tine, kerosene, and other carbonaceous liquids, have 
a great affinity for grease, and dissolve it, but are 
themselves so difficult to remove from cloth that by 
their use we are apt to only diffuse the grease over 
a larger surface. Ether, chloroform, and to a limi- 
ited extent, alcohol, dissolves grease, and though 
they do not remove it any better than turpentine, 
yet they bring it into a condition to be easily wash¬ 
ed away by soap and water. On fabrics not injured 
by alkalies, ammonia water used to wet the spots, 
renders them easy of removal. Ox gall is a soap of 
a very delicate, mild character. It will sometimes 
remove grease, and other spots from silks, and 
other delicate fabrics, without injury to the colors, 
when every thing else fails; it is itself easily wash¬ 
ed off. Almost any very fine soft substance will 
absorb grease. The articles most in use and very 
effective are, potter’s clay, French chalk, common 
chalk. These are scraped upon the spot in fine 
powder, or wet up to a paste and laid upon it, and 
then by application of a hot-iron in close proximity, 
the grease, even though it be wax or spermaceti, is 
absorbed by the clay and may be washed away, and 
all removed after a few patient applications. In 
the absence of clay or French chalk, or on fabrics 
likely to be injured by them, any bibulous paper 
(such as will quickly absorb water, like blotting 
paper) may be laid upon the spot, and a hot-iron 
being applied, a great part of the grease will be 
taken up by the paper, and the rest chiefly diffused 
so as not to be seen. 
Cocoanut Shell Hanging Basket. 
Miss E. M. Powell, of Ghent, writes to the Agri¬ 
culturist : “ A very pretty hanging basket can be 
made by sawing off about three inches from the 
smaller end of a cocoanut, removing the meat, and 
covering the outside with the green, the cup, and 
the wood mosses. These may be fastened to the 
shell with a solution of gum arabic, made very thick. 
I have one containing moneywort (growing in the 
shell) which droops gracefully over the sides, and a 
verbena which is now (March 22,) in bloom. These 
cups or baskets are very easily and quickly made, 
and they are very beautiful.”-[The shell is of 
course suspended upon a string which may be at¬ 
tached to the upper rim of the cup by means of 
small holes. Small vines or moss may be trained up 
the strings. See page 212, July Agriculturist, 1861. 
These ornaments cost little or nothing, and they 
add much to the cheerfulness of a room. They are 
as good as medicine in the room of an invalid.—E d.] 
Stone Jugs vs. Tin Cans for Fruits. 
W. B. B., of Southern Minnesota, writes to the 
Agriculturist thus: “ Here at the West, tin cans cost 
at least 33 cents per gallon, and can be used 
but once, to which must be added considerable more 
if you live far from the tinman. The “ self sealers ” 
cost 45 cents a quart here! Stone jugs cost only a 
“York Shilling” (12X cents) per gallon, and will 
last for years. On three years’ trial we find the 
jugs preserve fruit better than tin cans. We fill the 
jugs while standing on a hot stove; and while the 
contents are boiling hot, close them with a cork or 
nicely fitting plug of soft wood, covering with melt¬ 
ed sealing wax or resin.” 
[Remakes. —After using hundreds of tin cans, 
common and self sealing, we have discarded them 
entirely, and advise others to do so, on account of 
the danger there always is of the corrosion of the 
tin and the production of poisonous 6alts. Well 
glazed stone ware, jars, bottles, or jugs, answer 
well. We prefer glass, however. The dark colored 
glass is cheap. We use wide necked bottles, one 
and two quart sizes—mostly quarts—corking while 
hot, wiping clean and dry, and covering with ce¬ 
ment made of one pound of resin with about one 
ounce of tallow melted together. The bottles are 
then set necks downward in small tin patty pans, 
costing a penny apiece, or in old saucers if these be 
on hand, and cement enough is dipped in to com¬ 
pletely envelop the top of the bottle neck. This 
entirely shuts out access of air. If the bottles be 
filled with hot fruits, and be corked and sealed 
while still hot, the pressure is always inward, but 
the tin or saucer covers prevent the cork being 
forced in by the air. We merely heat the fruits 
through in a kettle, dip them into the jars, or glass 
bottles of any kind, and seal as above. The expe¬ 
rience of two years proves this mode to be the cheap¬ 
est and best. But more full particulars next month.] 
About Unleavened Bread. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist. 
I believe it is generally admitted that yeast, cream 
of tartar, and saleratus do not add any nutritive 
properties to bread. But it is also as generally be¬ 
lieved that good bread can not be made without 
them. This I think is a mistake. Certainly some 
of the best bread I ever tasted was made as follows: 
No. 1. Take wheat flour (either Graham, or fine,) 
and pure soft water, and make into a very stiff dough, 
roll out from half to three-fourths of an inch thick, 
cut into cakes two inches or less square, or round 
like crackers, prick them through several times 
with a fork (to prevent blistering), pass them into 
an oven sufficiently hot to bake wheat bread, and 
keep up the heat for twenty minutes or more. 
No. 2. Mixtures of corn, rye, oats, and barley 
flour. If any one of these alone, on any two or 
three of them in almost any preparation, be mixed 
with pure soft water and baked as directed in No. 
1, an excellent bread will be produced. 
Bread made according to the above directions and 
thoroughly dried in the air after baking, or better, 
in a warm oven, will keep for many months, and 
lose none of its natural taste or good qualities, 
especially No. 1. Remember that nothing but wa¬ 
ter and flour, or meal, not even salt, is added in mak¬ 
ing unleavened bread; neither is the dough allowed 
to rise before baking. It rises while in the oven. 
This bread is not so soft and spongy as fermented 
bread, yet enough so for persons having good teeth. 
Those having poor masticators can soak it in water 
or milk, or in any way that they would use com¬ 
mon crackers. If properly prepared, this bread does 
..not loose its meet natural taste by long keeping, nor 
can it sour, as is sometimes the case with raised 
