AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
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AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, THE MOST USEFUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF iWA.V.— Washington. 
CONDUCTING EDITOR, PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 
ORANGE JUDD, A. M. ALLEN &. CO.> 189 Water-st., New-York. 
VOL. XIY.-NO. 14.] NEW-YORK, THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 1855. [NEW SERIES.-NO. 92. 
JTor prospectus, (fterms, 
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Judd, (the Conducting Editor). 
Letters inclosing subscriptions and on oth¬ 
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Co., Publishers, and also those referring to 
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separate sheets. 
HINTS ON BUTTER AND CHEESE MAKING. 
1. At this season there is perhaps no 
question of more interest to farmers, and to 
farmers’ wives especially, than the proper 
treatment of milk and its products, butter 
and cheese. The subject is worthy of a vol¬ 
ume, and we can but wonder that a large 
treatise devoted especially to this subject 
has not appeared ere this. Without attempt¬ 
ing to take up the subject fully in all its 
parts, we will offer a few hints at this time, 
hoping to enlarge upon it in the future. 
2. Composition of Millc .—If we take 1,000 
ounces of milk, of about the average quality, 
and examine it, we shall find about 850 ozs. 
of pure water, about 43 ozs. of curd, 50 ozs. 
of butter, 43 ozs. of sugar, and some 31 ozs. 
of salts, consisting of phosphate of lime and 
magnesia, common salt, soda, &c. All of 
these substances are apparently mingled to¬ 
gether. We can drive off the water by care¬ 
ful evaporation, leaving the other substances 
in a solid mass, and constituting about one- 
seventh of the whole. We will remember, 
then, that seven pounds of milk contain 
about six pounds of pure water. These fig¬ 
ures are not designed to be strictly accurate, 
but to show something of the general aver¬ 
age composition of milk. 
3. If we allow milk to stand at rest in a 
moderately cool place, and in shallow dish¬ 
es, for 40 to 60 hours, nearly all the oil or 
butter will rise to the surface, on account of 
its being less heavy than the other sub¬ 
stances. This shows that the oil, or butter 
in the form of cream, is not chemically uni¬ 
ted with the water, but merely floats in it. 
Twenty pounds of milk contain on the aver¬ 
age about one pound of oil or butter. 
4. Remove the cream and keep the skim¬ 
med milk from souring, and the curd (casein) 
will not separate from the water. But add 
any sour substance to it, such as vinegar or 
any of the acids, and it will at once curdle— 
that is, the curd will separate into a mass by 
itself. Take out this curd and put it into 
pure water, and it will not be dissolved again, 
but add some soda or saleratus to the water, 
and it will then dissolve the curd. If we 
examine new milk, or uncurdled skimmed 
milk, chemically, we shall find that it con¬ 
tains a little soda. These and other experi¬ 
ments show that casein or curd is not dis¬ 
solved in pure water, but that it is held in 
solution in milk by means of the free soda 
present. If milk is allowed to stand exposed 
to air for a time it sours of itself—that is, 
some of its own elements change to an acid, 
and this acid neutralizes or destroys the free 
soda existing naturally in the milk, and the 
water not being able to dissolve the casein 
or curd without the soda, the casein sepa¬ 
rates into a “ curdled ” mass, just as cam¬ 
phor in solution separates into a fiocky 
mass when water is poured in to withdraw 
the alcohol. By adding soda to milk faster 
than it is used up by the acid formed in sour¬ 
ing, we can keep milk from curdling for 
weeks or months. About 25 lbs. of milk 
will produce one pound of dry curd. Cheese 
is curd containing some water and more or 
less oil or butter. 
5. Removing the oil and casein, or curd, 
from milk, we have left what is usually 
called whey. This is chiefly water containing 
sugar and a small quantity of the salts be¬ 
fore described. Take the whey and carefully 
evaporate it to dryness, and we shall have 
left a quantity of sugar not unlike common 
white sugar, though a little less sweet to the 
taste. There will be a little more than one 
pound of this sugar to twenty-five pounds of 
milk or whey. Mingled with the sugar will 
be a little more than an ounce of soda, phos¬ 
phate of lime, and other salts, which can be 
separated by chemical processes. 
6. If the oil of milk, that is the butter, be 
separated from all other substances it does 
not easily decay or change. Indeed, per¬ 
fectly pure butter may be kept for years en¬ 
tirely unchanged, and this, too, without the 
addition of salt. In this respect it is like 
pure tallow or lard. 
7. The casein, or curd, on the contrary, 
contains an element (nitrogen) not found in 
oil or butter, and it decays very rapidly un¬ 
less preserved by the addition of salt or 
other means. Separate it from the soda in 
the milk by washing it with water, and if ex¬ 
posed at common temperature it commences 
decomposition immediately. 
8. This distinction between oil and casein 
(butter and curd) is an important one, and 
upon a proper understanding of this depends 
success in butter making and butter keeping. 
The secret of making good butter lies in so 
raising the cream, so churning, and so work¬ 
ing as to free it from the casein; the secret 
of preserving butter lies in counteracting the 
effects of any particles of casein remaining 
in the butter after it is made. 
To the consideration of the practical de¬ 
tails of butter and cheese making our next 
article will be devoted. 
Calves with Sheep. —A farmer writing to 
the Germantown Telegraph strongly recom¬ 
mends letting calves run with sheep. Last 
season two of his spring calves came from a 
good pasture much debilitated, without any 
perceptible cause for their reduced condition. 
He put each one with a separate flock of 
twenty-five sheep, and they immediately re¬ 
cruited, and during the entire winter 
lived very harmoniously with their woolly 
companions ; fed with them from the rack ; 
often changed position at night to get a bed 
by the side of their warmer fleeces ; and, in 
the spring, they were by far the healthiest 
and heaviest of his spring calves. 
For the American Agriculturist, 
ALFALFA. 
The alfalfa, or Chilian clover, which Lieut. 
Herndon refers to, page 137 current volume, 
and to which you alluded to in some back 
number, is nothing but the old lucerne. I 
have had lucerne for some 15 to 20 years, 
from a small patch to four acres, and think 
I know it. 
The alfalfa was sent me three or four 
years ago from the Patent office. The seed, 
when first seen, was pronounced lucerne; 
but I concluded to test. I did so, and lu¬ 
cerne it was. Fearing an accidental mis¬ 
take, I procured another parcel from Florida, 
seed as the other, and lucerne it was. 
I have it growing in my flower-garden, 
putting it there, supposing, from the newspa¬ 
per accounts, that it would be more desirable 
than aught else, and I could be sure to watch 
it and do the nursing when in the flower de¬ 
partment. I send you a twig from both 
lots. 
Like Monsieur Tonson in the play, this 
grass (clover) pops in when one little ex¬ 
pects it, and it expects to be paid for it; 
when if called lucerne, it would be regarded 
only as lucerne. P. 
[The above is from a reliable correspond¬ 
ent of extensive observation. The samples 
forwarded were kept over two weeks in the 
