140 
AMERICAN AGrRIC U LTURIST. 
prefer this simple and efficient plan to any of the 
recently invented “powers” got up by the ma¬ 
chinists, although some of them work very well in 
their way, and have the merit of compactness in 
their favor. Of “dog” power we don’t think 
much. No dog is good for any thing for such pur¬ 
poses unless he will weigh near or quite a hundred 
pounds. We would quite as soon board a pony- 
horse as such a dog, with the difference, that while 
the horse can do a good deal of other work, the 
dog is little, if any thing, less than a nuisance 
when not churning. We do not intend to slander 
the dog family at large, for which we have a 
quite sufficient attachment; but for common 
farm purposes a fifteen or twenty pound terrier is 
better than an overgrown cur, or Newfoundland 
of a hundred weight avoirdupois. After all, the 
churning power must be disposed of in the way that 
the dairyman shall find, upon mature considera¬ 
tion, the most available and economical—each in 
his peculiar circumstances. 
CARE OF THE BUTTER WHEN CHURNED. 
The butter being well brought together in the 
churn, so as to be easily taken out with a wood¬ 
en butter scoop, it should be put into wooden 
bowls of sufficient capacity to hold as much as 
can be thoroughly worked at once—say six to ten 
or twelve pounds in a mass. As soon as in the 
bowl, and sufficiently cooled if not enough so 
when taken from the churn, the milk should be 
rapidly worked out and poured off, so long as 
any quantity of it follows the ladle ; the latter 
part of the working, with the use of pure, soft 
cold water to wash the butter clean. Then the 
butter should be thinly spread out in the bowl, 
and a sufficiency of pure fine salt, say about an 
ounce to the pound of butter, sprinkled over it, 
and worked uniformily in through the whole mass. 
No human hand should touch the butter —not be¬ 
cause it is untidy, but because the hand is ivarm , 
rendering the butter greasy, and taking from it 
the waxy consistence which it should always re¬ 
tain. So, “ hands off,” in butter working. 
As soon as the salt is well worked in, set the 
bowl and butter away in the dairy room in a cool 
place for a number of hours, eight, twelve, or 
twenty-four even, according to the temperature, 
that the salt may become well incorporated with 
the butter, and the briny particles disengaged 
from it. Then work it thoroughly over again so 
long as any milk or brine will run. This done, 
the butter may be made into rolls for immediate 
marketing, or packed in solid mass in good sweet 
oaken or ash tubs or firkins for keeping. If the 
tubs or firkins be not filled at once, a light sprink¬ 
ling of fine salt may be laid upon it, and a clean 
thin cloth laid close down to the butter when 
packed, to prevent air getting to it; and as soon 
as the keg or tub is full, a strong brine of pure 
salt and pure soft water should be poured over it, 
and the cover put over to exclude the air. We 
are aware that some, even good butter makers do 
not wash their butter in water at all, and that 
others do not measure or weigh the salt they use ; 
they “ work the butter clean,” and “ salt to the 
taste.” But we contend that the buttermilk can 
not be thoroughly excluded without the diluting 
aid of water, and unless it is excluded, it will 
sooner or later spoil the butter by becoming ran¬ 
cid ; therefore washing is the surer method to 
thoroughly exclude the milk. As to “salting to 
the taste,” tastes differ so materially, that unless 
it be for a given market the test is an uncertain 
one. We prefer weight and measure always, in 
such cases, to guess work. 
After the butter is once packed, let it be stored 
in the coldest place you have—an ice house if 
possible. Butter ought,if well made,to keep a year. 
We have eaten it at eighteen months old perfect¬ 
ly sweet and palatable. It will keep if it be made 
under all the conditions we have stated, in grass, 
feed, cows, milking, and manipulation. When 
taken from the storage room for market, the brine 
should be poured clean off the top, and if in tubs 
the covers either of cloth, or wood closely se¬ 
cured. If in kegs, the heads should be closely 
fitted in, and the hoops driven tight. 
Where large quantities of hutter are made, the 
working process by the ladle is laborious. It may 
perhaps be better done by a hard wood fluted 
roller, revolving round an iron eye secured in the 
center of a table of marble, or hard wood plank. 
This roller should be large, say 5 or 6 inches 
thick at the outer end, and tapering toward the 
center end; a loose haft of iron, with a hook at 
the small end to secure it to the iron eye in the 
plank. On the outer end of the roller a handle 
should project by which to work it—of course the 
roller revolves on this shaft which goes through 
it. The roller thus works in a circular form, and 
the butter-milk works toward the center of the 
table, the latter dished out and slightly inclining 
toward the eye aforesaid, with a hole through the 
table, and a bucket underneath to receive the milk 
and water worked out. For a large dairy such 
an implement is a great relief to hand labor in 
this important branch of the work, and which in 
its severity is sometimes slighted to the evident 
damage in the keeping of the butter, this often¬ 
times affecting its market value twenty-five to 
fifty per cent. 
ARTIFICIAL, OR ORNAMENTAL ADJUNCTS TO THE 
BUTTER. 
Some dairy people, add sugar or salt-petre to 
[lighten the flavor ; others add annato, or orange 
carrot juice to give it color. We do not believe 
in any of these attractions to well made butter. 
Pure salt is all that is wanted to season it in the 
best possible manner to the taste. Every thing 
else in the long run pollutes it The color will 
take care of itself except, perhaps, in the coldest 
Winter weather when it is of little account to 
make market butter at all. If it be pale in color, 
its flavor will sell it with ordinary customers, who 
generally prefer a pure uncooked article to one 
tinkered up for market with foreign ingredients. 
A WORD AS TO THE KIND OF SALT. 
As to the purity of this article there has been 
much controversy. Our domestic salt, as at Sy¬ 
racuse in New-York, the Kanahwa in western 
Virginia, and elsewhere in other States has been 
condemned by many dairymen as impure, and 
consequently unfit for butter and cheese making. 
On the other hand, Chemists have pronounced 
them free from injurious mixtures, and perfectly 
good for dairy uses. We take no part in the mat¬ 
ter. We only insist that all dairy salt should he 
pure and free from foreign admixtures of any 
kind. Rock salt is pure, and the great majority 
of our dairymen prefer such. The cost of the salt 
for a dairy of any size is but a small item of out¬ 
lay in any event, and we advise no one to run the 
slightest risk by the use of an impure article when 
a reliable, good one can be had at a reasonable 
price. 
- . - — « — . - 
Clean Milking. 
It is sometimes forgotten that the last gill of 
milk drawn from the cow’s udder is the best part 
of every milking. Careful experiments made in 
England show, (according to a report lately pub¬ 
lished) that “the quantity of cream obtained 
from the last drawn cup from most cows, exceeds 
that „of the first in the proportion of twelve to 
one.” The difference in the quality also is con¬ 
siderable. Hence, a person who carelessly leaves 
but half a pint of milk undrawn, loses in reality 
about as much cream as would be afforded by six 
or eight pints at the beginning; and loses, too, 
that part of the cream which gives the richness 
and high flavor to his butter. 
-- -- — --- —- 
The Government Camels. 
It will he recollected that an appropriation was 
made by Congress a few years since to import a 
number of camels into this country for the pur¬ 
pose of testing their adaptability to the climate 
and for use as beasts of burden, especially on the 
southwestern plains. A considerable number 
were brought from several countries bordering 
upon the Mediterranean, and they were mostly 
taken to Texas. W r e have from time to time 
seen sundry newspaper paragraphs indicating that 
the experiment is likely to prove successful. We 
hope these statements are reliable, though we 
have learned so much respecting the origin of 
newspaper and telegraphic reports emanating from 
Washington, in regard to agricultural matters 
connected with the Government, that we scarce¬ 
ly know what to believe. We shall be glad to 
hear further in regard to these camels from some 
of our non-interested readers residing in the local¬ 
ities where the animals are now in use. We can 
not see why camels should not thrive as well, and 
be as serviceable in the southern sections of this 
country as in a similar climate in southern Europe, 
southern Asia, and northern Africa. A recent 
number of the Galveston News (Texas), has the 
following statement concerning a camel in that 
city belonging to Mrs. Watson, and employed in 
carrying ship freight to and from the wharves. 
The statement is a weighty one surely : 
“ On the word of command being given by the 
native keeper, the huge animal lay down to re¬ 
ceive his load, which consisted of five bales ol 
hay weighing in the aggregate 1,400 lbs., firmly 
bound to the pannier placed upon the animals 
hump. At the word, the camel arose, without any 
apparent effort, and walked off in a stately man¬ 
ner through the city. We were informed that 
the same animal had 1,600 lbs. placed upon him, 
with which enormous weight he arose. They are 
represented as tractable and affectionate. As an 
example of their affection Mrs. W. informs us 
that a pretty white one which she had petted ; 
would always kiss her when within kissing dis¬ 
tance, which we think showed good taste on his 
part, in addition to an affectionate disposition.” 
Rather a hard story to “ swallow ” or “lift.” 
Did the editor of the News previously test the 
weight of these “ five bales of hay, weighing 1400 
pounds!” The idea of a camel getting up with 
nearly three-fourths of a tun on his back, and 
this too “ without apparent effort," or with any 
amount of effort, is putting it rather strong. Was 
it not a mistake of the printer 1 Did not the edi¬ 
tor mean an elephant1 He has probably “seen the 
elephant.” We should like, also, to know more 
about that “ kissing.” Does the camel kneel 
down when he kisses a lady 1 
One of the most telling descriptions of “ for- 
lorniiy” we have heard, was that of a boy who 
asked a Boston police officer for shelter in the 
Station House: “ See, Cap’n, first my father 
died, and my mother married again, and then my 
mother died and my father married again, an 
somehow or other 1 don't seem to have noparenls 
at all, nor no home, nor no nothing." 
