440 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ May 23, 1891. 
frequent repetition of its most useful lessons. Well informed as 
old subscribers are, it can do even them no barm to jog the 
memory a bit, and even if they urs sensible of knowing all about 
it, they must take such a benevolent interest in our efforts to 
assist others, and in the ever widening influence of the Journal 
that their approval is a very safe foregone conclusion. 
Certainly our title this week is a suggestive and tempting one, 
for who does not regard really good butter as one of the most 
delicious things we can have upon our tables ? That two of our 
friends in Shropshire do we have proof in the letter of one asking 
for practical details of butter making, and the prompt adoption 
by the other of the hints which we involuntarily let fall upon 
tasting some excellent, but not perfect home-made butter, during 
a recent visit to that famous grazing county. The butter sent to 
table was of good flavour and high colour, but when cut white 
streaks were visible, affording sure evidence of faulty churning. 
Our hostess said that neither she nor her cook had been taught 
butter making, but she was so anxious to have good butter that 
she gave close personal supervision to the work. A description of 
the correct method of churning, of the importance of stopping 
the churn immediately upon the appearance of the butter grains, 
of thorough washing of the grains in the churn, and of the use of 
the butter worker, was listened to with intelligent interest. Butter 
grains we were told had never been heard of before, and the churn 
had been kept going till the grains had been pounded into a 
mingled mass of butter and casiene, hence the white streaks. Next 
day was churning day, and at luncheon came the triumphant 
announcement of butter grains and perfect washing! Depend 
upon it there will be no more discoloured butter in that house ; 
but it must not be forgotten that good butter is not entirely a 
result of correct churning, there are other important factors to 
success which must have due attention, and of primary importance 
among them is 
Cream Management. 
Whatever is the system favoured, whether shallow pans, deep 
pans, or immediate separation, the cream should be kept either in 
glass or glazed earthenware jars about twelve hours after it is 
skimmed or separated to induce ripeness, and so not only facilitate 
■churning, but to ensure all the butter being got from the milk. 
The addition of a small teaspoonful of powdered saltpetre to 
3 gallons of cream prevents bitterness, and is worthy of attention. 
Inequality of condition in cream prevents good butter being made. 
Newly skimmed cream should not be mixed with old cream at the 
dime of churning, but cases arise when it becomes desirable to 
■churn all the cream that can be had. The cream, new and old, 
should then be well stirred together, and stand for a few hours 
Before churning. The colder the weather the longer should it 
stand, and whde standing it should be stirred occasionally, so that 
the whole of it is put into the churn of the same consistency, and 
not part in thick clots, and part in a much thinner liquid state, as 
is so often the case when cream is left unstirred. 
Good butter is obtained from weekly churnings, but churning 
twice a week is decidedly preferable for the bulk of the cream ; 
most home farmers churn daily. Cream that has soured a little 
yields the butter grains more quickly than quite sweet cream, and 
we have heard of most excellent butter being made from cream with 
which a little sour buttermilk was mixed. The longer a cow has 
■calved the longer will it require to churn before the butter grains 
are visible, because the cream globules are smaller than they are 
in the milk of cows that have calved more recently. It is obvious, 
therefore, that much butter may be lest when the cream of “stale” 
and “ fresh ” cows is mixed. The butter grains from the fresh cows 
Being visible so quickly misleads the churner who, under the very 
natural idea that the whole of the butter has “ come,” runs off the 
buttermilk and with it the smaller invisible batter grains of the 
older cream. It should be clearly understood that tie larger the 
butter grains are the sooner do they become visible in the churn, 
and it is for this reason that butter is obtained so quickly from the 
cream of the milk of Jersey cows as the cream globules are so large. 
In butter-making contests time is taken into account, but in com¬ 
mon fairness the cream used by each competitor ought to be from 
the same breed of cows, and also be equal in the freshness of cows 
and ripeness of the cream. It is by giving close attention to such 
little matters of detail that good batter is made, and there are 
several such matters to which attention will be given next week. 
WOKK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Very seldom indeed is land left for a long summer fallow now'. The 
once popular idea of resting the land in this w'ay is now pretty well 
exploded, and recourse is only had to a bare fallow when land has 
become so foul with Couch Grass and other perennial weeds that it can 
only be got clean by repeated pioughings and harrow'ings. In such 
extreme cases every opportunity of pushing on such work should be 
taken, and much good may now be done before haymaking begins. All 
the large roots of Couch Grass, Thistles, and Docks should be cleared off 
by the harrows, but for smaller roots hand-picking and hand-raking may 
be necessary. It is only by such care that it is possible to clean foul land. 
The plant of all root crops should be singled as soon as it is large 
enough to handle, and both horse and hand hoes must be kept going 
briskly gto keep down w'eeds. If it ts intended to apply a top-dressing of 
nitrate of soda to Mangolds let this be done immediately after the plant 
is singled, so that the manure is w'ell w'orked into the soil by the hoes in 
order that the 'moisture in the soil may act upon it and cause it to 
dissolve. A shower of rain will do this quickly, but then w'e dare not 
reckon upon rain. It probably comes in good time, but it is uncertain, 
and it is wise to make as sure as w'e can of the prompt action of the 
manure. See that Potatoes have the soil drawn to the stems in good 
time before growth has so far advanced that harm may be done by the 
plough, which is the case when the roots have previously spread far in 
the soil. 
Several instances of washing sheep in unsuitable weather have come 
under our notice recently. For all ordinary flocks it is simply an 
affair of a day, and it is surely only w'lse to w'ait till the weather is 
really w'arm, and not to plunge the sheep into water w'hile the weather 
continues so cold. Very strongly is the necessity for w'ashing wool in 
this W'ay questioned now. Much w'ool is sheared “ in the grease ” or 
unwashed state, and w'e believe its quality and value for all purposes is 
equal to that which is washed on the sheep. The wool staplers are, 
of course, sharp enough to raise any quibble by which farmers may be 
induced to accept something less per pound for the wool than market 
value, but this is a matter that should and could be set right once for 
all by Agricultrrral Chambers. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Butter not Keeping: (^Perplexed ).—If your butter loses quality 
in a day or tw'o after the churning it is probably owing to keeping 
it in some place where its surroundings are impure. It may be the 
air is tainted by odours from other food or stores, or even from the 
w'alls, floors, or furniture of the room, and butter so quickly absorbs 
any taint that it is soon spoilt. We hope to deal fully with this 
important matter in our Farm article next week. Meanw'hile we shall 
be glad to have a precise description of your butter store, including 
floor, W'alls, w'oodwork, and general contents. 
The 'Wheat-bulb Fly (TF. J?.).—Your Wheat appears to be 
attacked by this destructive visitant, Hylemyia coarctata. It is 
illustrated in Miss Ormerod’s fourteenth “ Report,” published by Messrs, 
Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., and can be obtained through 
a bookseller for Is. 6d. We do not know that any certain remedy has 
been discovered, but w'e believe some persons like yourself have found 
soot useful, and others consider dressings of nitrate of soda 
advantageous. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS, 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat. 61° 32' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; AHitnde, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 AM. 
IN THE DAY. 
Hygrome- 
C3 . 
Shade Tern- 
Radiation 
a 
is > 
ter. 
r d 
• ^ ^ 
a.- rt 
perature. 
Temperature. 
05 
OS 
May. 
X. 1 
2^ 
In 
On 
Dry. ! Wet. 
Qo 
Max. 
Min. 
sua. 
^rass 
Inches. 
deg. ! dev. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
In 
Sunday..17 
29.73! 
4'!.7 1 19.7 
N. 
51.6 
49.6 
u>.7 
9!.6 
29.2 
Monday. 18 
29.281 
4).0 4’).0 
N B. 
50.3 
4.5.1 
37.8 
06.0 
62.4 
0.07»> 
Tuesday .... 19 
29..53 7 
45.0 , 38. 
N. 
48.2 
51.6 
33.4 
KH.O 
28.0 
0.< 80 
Wednesday.. 2i 
21>.729 
5 *.3 4o.8 
8.W. 
48.6 
66.3 
4'.1 
93.4 
34.3 
0.S2t 
Thursday.... 21 
29.412 
46.0 1 44,9 
N.E. 
49.0 
40.9 
42.0 
62.9 
42.9 
0.05t 
Friday .22 
20. fi9 > 
41!.9 46.0 
S.W. 
43.8 
59.4 
44.1 
107.9 
44.5 
Saturday .... 23 
29.76! 
5'.6 4''.8 
N. 
40.0 
58.9 
4i.l 
9!.8 
39.0 
0.031 
29.685 
4!.5 43.0 
49.4 
64.0 
38.9 
90.0 
35.8 
1.240 
T. - REMARKS. 
17tn.—Bright till 10 AM, then spots of rain and hail,and genera'ly cloudy after, with 
frequent showers of rain and 8oft hail. 
18th.—Steady rain from 0 A.M. to 10 A.M , and from noon to 1 P M,: overcast with drizzle 
at other times. 
19th.—Fine, but cloudy at times in afternoon, and heavy rain from 4 45 to 6 30 P.M, 
20th.—Bright early : overca'^t. showery day, and heavy rain from 11 to noon. 
2lst.—Wet from 1 A.M. to 8 A.M ,and overcast and showery all day. 
22nd.—Gloomy and damp a’l morning; generally bright in afternoon, but slight shower 
at 5 P.M., and cloudy evening. 
23rd^—Fine and bright early; generally clondy after 11 A.M , and at times threatening. 
A. tvild, cold, wet week, noteworthy for the frosts on the 17th and 19th.— 
Cj. J« SYMONS. 
