AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
259 
their time, unremunerated, to the duties of 
the Board, and renders them deserving of the 
State’s gratitude. We are apt to but lightly 
esteem advice gratis, and it is not impossi¬ 
ble that these men’s efforts are underrated 
for that very cause, and perhaps many who 
are aware of their existence suppose them 
to be the incumbents of fat offices, which 
are mere sinecures, instead of which they 
give a very large amount of time, labor and 
money without any other present or pros¬ 
pective reward than the success of their 
measures, and the benefit of their country¬ 
men. 
Since the first establishment of this Board, 
m spite of opposition, and of the narrow¬ 
minded attacks of men who judge only by 
evidences of their senses, they have accom¬ 
plished an immense amount in the way of 
undermining prejudices, enlightening dark¬ 
ness and introducing improvement. 
But they too have to meet the low-minded 
and mean opposition, and to suffer from the 
most aggravated and least defensible attacks, 
the stabs of pretended friends ; they, and 
the agricultural press besides, have been for 
years urging the extensive trial of specific 
manures, whether to supplant, assist, extend 
or enhance the benefits and use of barnyard 
manures. 
To secure a judicious application of the 
material used, repeated directions have been 
given of the amount to be used, and the best 
way of applying it, in some cases, even, with 
details of carefully tried experiments, as 
further guides; and as a result of this action, 
a larger quantity of specific manures has 
been sold this year than ever; how disas¬ 
trous, then, must be the effect upon novices, 
who have been excited to try such aids to 
culture by this continuous advice, if they 
buy in good faith, and relying upon the as¬ 
surance of the seller, a spurious article, per¬ 
haps at a high price, which will prove either 
useless or perhaps positively injurious to 
their crops. 
If, for instance, any one purchases guano, 
trusting to the statement of the vender that 
it is a genuine and valuable article, paying 
$40 or $50 a tun for it, which is in reality a 
miserable combination of lime, plaster, salt, 
coal-ashes, and a pinch of guano to give it 
smell and color, (see analysis of Chilian 
guano below, taken from the London Agri¬ 
culturist of May 24,) which will give no re¬ 
munerative return for its application, he does 
not condemn the article he used, so much as 
the spirit of improvement which prompted 
him to make the trial, and the entire discred¬ 
it of the operation falls, not as it should on 
the head of the vender, but upon the advo¬ 
cates of progressive agriculture ; and the 
untiring efforts of the friends of improve¬ 
ment are all laid under suspicion. But such 
must this year be the fate of many, for it has 
been discovered by the editors of the Coun¬ 
try Gentleman, that an article denominated 
Chilian guano has been largely manufac¬ 
tured and sold over the country, and some 
even shipped to England, at the price of $40 
a tun, that is not worth $10 the tun. It is 
composed of 
Water.4.0 
Sand.2.4 
Organic matter, (Sugar-house scum).15.3 
Phos. Lime.24.5 
Plaster. 9.5 
Salt.6 2 
Chalk.37.6 
99.5 
of which there is 1.06 per centof ammonia— 
and this abomnible preparation is endorsed 
by Dr. Hayes of Massachusetts, and Prof. 
Mapes, of New-York, and some others, and 
has been widely recommenced as a valuable 
fertilizer. 
What a terrible stab from behind is this, 
coming, too, from the very men who make 
he largest protestations of zeal and enthusi¬ 
asm in the agricultural cause. It is an out¬ 
rageous and abomnible piece of quackery 
and imposture, nor can too much indignation 
be felt against its perpetrators; no confi¬ 
dence will hereafter be felt by the victims of 
this fraud in any so called agricultural im 
provements. But we can not too strongly 
urge upon those who have suffered this year, 
not to be discouraged in the future, but with 
renewed zeal make other efforts, only here¬ 
after being careful to purchase their material 
from men of solid and well-established repu¬ 
tations, and never to purchase any recom¬ 
mended preparations because they are cheap, 
nor unless heartily endorsed by men who can 
be depended upon. 
It is to be desired the exposure of this 
humbuggery as published in the Country 
Gentleman and American Agriculturist 
should have the largest publicity, that the 
public may become so thoroughly awakened 
to a sense of the benefit good special ma¬ 
nures may do, and of the worthlessness of 
the bad, that there may be a larger use of the 
former every year. And we can not help 
believing that those interested in agriculture 
in our Commonwealth have so Urge a share 
of good sense to be able to discriminate be¬ 
tween the good and the bad, and while they 
award the largest share of praise and en¬ 
couragement to all who are honestly labor¬ 
ing to forward the cause among us, no less 
thoroughly to condemn all quacks, and ven¬ 
ders of patent agricultural medicines, wheth¬ 
er for men, animals or the crops.— New- 
England Farmer. 
POOR FARMING AN EXPENSIVE BUSINESS. 
The truth is, poor farming is an expensive 
business. The cost exceeds the income. If 
from a very low grade of farming, which 
must of course be unprofitable, we ascend to 
a better condition of the art, we shall come 
to a point where there is neither loss nor 
gain; the income equals the outgoes ; the 
ends meet, as they say. And this, if we un¬ 
derstand these matters, is the very condition 
in which nine-tenths of our farming now is. 
The farmer of a hundred acres puts on his 
farm in his own labor, in the labor of his wife 
and his children, in taxes, insurance, &c., 
$500. And he takes off in some marketable 
produce or for home consumption, $500. 
“The ends meet;” and if there were no bet¬ 
ter way he need not complain ; for he is 
working his way through the world as quiet¬ 
ly and as easily as most men ; for the devel¬ 
opment of high moral qualities he has the 
advantage of most others; and what is more, 
he has the best possible means of training his 
children to those habits of industry and fru¬ 
gality which more than conspire to make 
them good men and women and worthy citi¬ 
zens. Let him not, therefore, complain. 
But if there is a better way, let him fall into 
it. We do not believe that farming is neces¬ 
sarily limited to the operation of putting on 
$500 and taking off $500, and living by the 
operation, only because what is put on is 
mostly in the form of labor done by the fami¬ 
ly. If a farm will give $500, with the labor 
of one man, it will give a great deal more 
with the labor of two men ; and the excess 
will more than balance the wages and board 
of the second. Instead of putting on $500 
and taking off $500, the better way is to put 
on $700 and take off $900 ; and then to put 
on $900 and take off $1,200. There is doubt¬ 
less a limit beyond which the income could 
not be made to increase above the expendi¬ 
tures ; but very few of us are in danger of 
going beyond the limit. There is much more 
danger of falling short of it. Our standard 
is too low. Men are afraid to trust their 
land, lest it should not pay them. It is the 
best paymaster in the world.—J. A. Nash, in 
The Farmer. 
STILTON CHEESE. 
Most of your readers have no doubt heard 
of the famous Stilton Cheese. This cheese 
was first made, we are told, by a near rela¬ 
tive of the landlord of the Bell Inn, near 
Melton, Leicestershire, England, where its 
reputation was such that it sold for a long 
time for half a crown per pound. I am not 
aware that any attempts have as yet been 
made to produce Stilton Cheese in the Uni¬ 
ted States; but Mr. Henry Parsons of Guelph, 
Canada, has manufactured it of a quality 
said by good judges to be equal to that made 
in the mother land. There appears to be 
nothing very peculiar in the process as de¬ 
tailed by those who understand it, and con¬ 
sidering the cheese really possesses the high 
superiority justly claimed for it, the only 
thing surprising at all to me is, that its man 
ufacture has not become not only common, 
but universal. 
As some of your readers may have a curi¬ 
osity to know the process, 1 will give a re¬ 
capitulation recently given me by a dairy¬ 
man from the “old country,” who is perfect¬ 
ly familiar with the details, having lived 
many years on a farm where^Stilton Cheese, 
of the first quality was the principal dairy 
product. By way of premising, allow me 
to say that I am assured that the excellen¬ 
cies of this cheese have by no means been 
exaggerated. The entire product of the very 
extensive dairy of which he was honored 
with the general supervision, sold ordinarily 
for about double the price of other cheese, 
and the demand for it was such that the reg¬ 
ular customers often bid upon each other, 
and not unfrequenily took it in its immature 
state, or before it had become sufficiently 
ripe to cut. I will now proceed to give his 
directions in the fewest possible words : 
The night’s cream, without any portion of 
the skimmed milk, is put to the milk of the 
next morning, and if cheese of a superior 
description and richness is desired, an addi¬ 
tional allowance of cream is afforded, mixed 
with a little sweet butter. The rennet, 
without any coloring, is then put in, and 
when the curd has come, it is immediately 
removed without being broken, and put 
whole into a sieve or drainer where it is 
pressed by means of weight until the whey 
is completely expelled. It is then put with 
a clean cloth into a hooped chessart (mold), 
and pressed, the outer coat being first salted. 
When sufficiently, it is removed, and placed 
on a clean, dry board, bound closely in a 
cloth (which is changed daily) to prevent 
its cracking. When the cheese is dried tol¬ 
erably well, the cloth is removed, and no 
lurther care is required, except turning it 
daily and occasionally brushing the surface. 
The cheese is never large, seldom weigh¬ 
ing more than ten or twelve pounds, yet it 
requires two years to perfect its excellen¬ 
cies, and bring it to complete maturity, for 
they are not supposed to be fit for use till 
they have began to decay. To accellerate 
the process of ripening, and prepare them 
more speedily for the market and the table 
of the fastidious epicure, they are often 
placed in warm, damp cellars, where the 
putrefactive process is often quite rapid, or 
they are even wrapped in strong paper and 
sunk in hot beds, which prepares them much 
quicker than they can be by the former pro¬ 
cess. The shape of these cheeses bears 
little resemblance to that of the common 
kinds, pressed in wide hoops—being that of 
a sugar loaf, though somewhat less lengthy 
and of larger diameter.—J. B. J., in Ger¬ 
mantown Telegraph. 
“ Patrick Maloney, what do you say to the 
indictment 1 Are you guilty or not guilty V’ 
“ Arrah ! musha, yer worship, how can I 
tell till I hear the ividence,” 
