m nirrnhTTT'* 
1 WHOLE NO. 241 
ROCHESTER, N. Y. - SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 1854 
rennet perfectly clear. Its great prominence 
in the process of cheese making, and the im¬ 
portance of a clear knowledge of the princi¬ 
ples of its action, justify the space we have 
devoted to its consideration. 
The transformation of sngar into lactic acid, 
or the souring of milk, is essentially a ferment¬ 
ing process, and like all fermentation, will not 
proceed at a high or low temperature—from 
50° to 130° Fahr. may be considered the 
range; at from 90° to 110° it proceeds with 
great rapidity. The temperature at which it 
is best to have the milk when the rennet is 
added, is a subject upon which there is much 
difference of opinion among practical dairy¬ 
men, from 80° to 100° being the extremea 
At a low temperature the curd is long in com¬ 
ing, but is very sweet and tender; while at a 
high one it comes quickly, but there is danger 
of its being tough, hard and sour. At a low 
temperature more rennet is required, and there 
is danger that some of the curd will be left in 
the whey. This, however, may easily be ascer¬ 
tained by adding a little strong vinegar to a 
wine-glass of whey, and heating it a little. If 
it does not curdle, the coagulation of the milk 
has been complete. Whey, however, always 
contains a little curd. In the celebrated 
Cheshire cheese district of England, when 
none of the cream is skimmed off, the milk is 
raised to 95° before the rennet is added.— 
When it is set by mistake at a lower tempera¬ 
ture, it is raised by adding heated whey after¬ 
wards, but in such a case the quality of the 
cheese is thought to be materially injured.— 
Speaking on tkiji point, Johns oy, in his Ag¬ 
ricultural Chemistry, pag^ 575, says:—“To 
make the best cheese, the true temperature 
[he has previously given it at 95°J should al¬ 
ways be attained, as nearly as possible, before 
the rennet is added.” In this country, howev¬ 
er, it is thought preferable to add the rennet 
at a low temperature, and “ scald ” the curd 
afterwards; that is to say, increase the tem¬ 
perature of the milk after it is coagulated and 
the curd broken. It is probably owing to this 
that American cheese is softer and more but¬ 
tery-looking than the English. We have seeu 
American cheese sell for one cent per lb. more 
than the best Cheshire in the English market, 
simply for this very reason. We do not sup¬ 
pose there was any more butter in the Ameri¬ 
can than in the Cheshire cheese, but as it 
looked better, and sold for a higher price, it is 
fair to infer that the American process of 
It must be re¬ 
great drought and heat of the past month, are 
growing finely. The lettuce seed is a fine crop, 
and a large yield of potato onions has just been 
gathered. Half an acre of carrots, sown in 
drills without any manure, are growing luxuri¬ 
antly; and the beets, especially the long blood¬ 
ed beet, mangel wurzel, &c., look well, though 
somewhat injured by drought. 
The Messrs. Hayward sow clover with all 
their wheat and barley, oven though they in¬ 
tend to plow up the land next spring. They 
plow deep, and have sub-soiled much of the 
land, and stone drained the lower parts of the 
farm. The horse cultivator and hand hoes 
are kept constantly at work, not merely for the 
purpose of killing weeds, but for stirring the 
soil and exposing it to the decomposing, disin¬ 
tegrating, moistening influences of the atmos¬ 
phere. It is to these several practices that we 
attribute the great fertility of this farm. 
They have a fine orchard of the best varie¬ 
ties of apples, peaches, apricots, pears, necta¬ 
rines, quinces, &c., which, besides affording an 
abundunt supply for family use, brings in the 
snug little sum of six or eight hundred dollars 
per annum. Raspberries, strawberries, &c., 
are grown in rich abundance; and a consider¬ 
able number of currant bushes flourish ram¬ 
pantly in the corners of a “ worm ” or Virginia 
fence. When properly ripened, mashed and 
pressed, with the aid of a little sugar and the 
mysterious agencies of fermentation, these cur¬ 
rants are converted into a peculiar kind of 
liquid, “ which none but they who taste it 
know” how good it is —-for medicinal purposes. 
O. FT. Kelley, Esq., Secretary of the Agri¬ 
cultural Society of Benton Co., Minnesota, 
writes: 
“ The package of ‘ Rurals ’ came safely to 
hand, for which accept my thanks. I shall 
make proper mention of them at our next 
meeting. I am sorry to say ‘ book farmers’ are 
few and far between; besides, they say it costs 
too much to take the papers. Yet I find that 
some of my papers (Agricultural in particular) 
sometimes do not teach me under six weeks 
after they are due, and then they come all cut 
and stitched, the pages badly soiled, and pre¬ 
senting the appearance of having been tho¬ 
roughly read. However, our country is rapid¬ 
ly filling up, and everything relative to agri¬ 
culture bids fair to improve. We are about 
starting a paper here, as I intend to try and 
improve matters somewhat—stop them from 
reading my papers first, at any rate. 
Our territory is rapidly filling up, and I am 
thankful that I am one of the “ oldest settlers," 
having been here for upwards of five years. 
I commenced farming four and a half years 
since, and though neighbors were some six and 
ten miles apart then, I find it impossible to 
travel a half-mile now without seeing evidence 
of increase in population and improvement; 
and I don’t know but I shall have to cut my 
farm in two parts, so as to make a village of 
one-half. The excitement of Progress has in¬ 
terest in it for me, but sometimes I wish neigh¬ 
bors were as far off as they used to be. I 
love the quiet of frontier life, though we are 
deprived of many comforts and privileges.— 
Yet, if a man is so situated that he cannot 
help improving his condition and his purse, 
why, he ought to grin and bear it. 
I am anxious to see tfce time when every 
farmer can boast of his fruitful orchard, neat 
buildings, good fences, improved stock, &c.— 
There is one great error committed by farmers, 
and that is this:—they place themselves too 
much in the power of speculators. The farm¬ 
ers ought to be so joined together in their ag¬ 
ricultural societies, as to fix the prices for 
their crops themselves, and not be compelled 
to sell at ruiuous rates—for, I believe if any 
class is entitled to the best pay and largest 
profits, it is that of the farming community. 
Now I make it a point, and have done so for 
nearly five years, to haul nothing to market. 
If any one wishes to buy my crop, it is in my 
store, or barn, where I sell at wholesale or re¬ 
tail; and if any one wants, they must come 
and buy it, as they go to the store of the 
merchant for his commodities. However, it 
would be an endless task to induce men enough 
engaged in agriculture to adopt such a plan. 
They ought, at least, to set their own club 
prices in every neighborhood, and stick to 
them. I have just introduced one of Manny’s 
Reapers and Mowers, which has opened the 
eyes of some of my neighbors, and I think I 
can induce them to use machinery upon their 
farms. If I could ouce get them earnestly in¬ 
terested in reading agricultural papers, labor- 
saving inventions must follow in due time.” 
A QUARTO WKKKI.Y 
Agricultural, Literary, and Family Newspaper 
CONDUCTED EY D. D. T. MOORE, 
ASSISTS]) BY 
JOSEPH HARRIS, in the Practical Department*: 
EDWARD WEBSTER, in tho Literary and Nowh Dcp’ta. 
Corresponding Editors: 
J. H. Bixby, —H. C. White, —T. E. Wetmork. 
Tub Rurat, Nkw-Yorkkb is designed to be unique and 
beautiful in appoarance, and unsurpassed in Value, Purity 
and Variety of Contents. Its conductors earnestly labor 
to make it a Reliable Guide on tho important Practical 
Subjects connected with the business of those whose in¬ 
terests it advocates. It embraces more Agricultural, Horti¬ 
cultural, Scientific, Mechanical, Literary and News Matter, 
interspersed with many appropriate and haudsome engrav¬ 
ings, than any other paper published in this Country,— 
rendering it a complete Agricultural, Literary and 
Family Newspaper. 
r IT For Terms, bo., skk last facie. JL 1 
Progress and Improvement. 
WESTERN NEW YORE AGRICULTURE 
Some time since we received a request from 
an eminent English writer on the science and 
art of agriculture, to furnish him with an ac¬ 
count of the expenses, profits, and general 
management of some of our best American 
farmers. We conceive Western New York to ' 
contain at least as good farms and as good . 
farmers as any other district in the Union; and 
propose to give him, through the Rural, some 
account of the management of such farms as 
it may be our good fortune to visit this fall, 
and whose owuers will be kind enough to 
furnish us with the desired information. 
Last week we visited the farm of the Messrs. 
Hayward, of Brighton, in this county. In 
1851 these gentlemen were awarded the first 
premium for the best managed farm in the 
State, by the New York State Agricultural 
Society. In England large farms are generally 
the best managed, but the reverse is almost 
invariably true in this country. This farm 
contains only 78 acres, seven of which are in 
woods, and three iu roads, buildings, &c., leav¬ 
ing G8 under cultivation. In 1851 the total 
receipts were $2,725.79. The total amount of 
expenses was $770.17, leaving a net profit of 
$1,956.62, or $28.77 per acre. Of course the 
interest on the money value of the land, or the 
“ rent,” has to be deducted from this. 
We found tho Messrs. Hayward busily oc¬ 
cupied in drawing from the field an excellent 
crop of Poland oats, and thrashing them with 
a Railroad Horse-power Thrashing Machine, 
which, with two horses, thrashed the oats, car¬ 
ried tho straw on to the stack, and winnowed 
the oats ready for market. Shortly afterwards 
they commenced drawing in and thrashing some 
Fife wheat, a somewhat new kind of spring 
wheat in this district, which appears to be 
superior to most other varieties. The winter 
wheat on this farm this year, was injured at 
least one-third by the weevil, and yielded only 
some fifteen bushels per acre. This spring 
wheat was but slightly affected, and will turn 
out better. Nothing can better indicate the 
difference in English and American climate, 
than the fact that wheat can be cut, thrashed, 
drawn to market, grouud into flour, made into 
bread and eaten, iu less time than most Eng¬ 
lish wheat requires to he left in the field to 
season, before it is ready to stack, and where 
generally it must remain for several months 
before it is dry enough to grind. 
To those well acquainted with the business, 
tho cultivation of onions, lettuce, tomatoes, 
squashes, beets, mangel wurzel, parsnips, &c., 
for seed, is quite profitable, and tho Messrs. 
Hayward devote a considerable portion of 
their farm to this branch of rural industry. 
They have now growing some two acres of 
black onion seed, which looks exceedingly well, 
and will probably yield about R00 lbs. per acre. 
An acre of beqf|seed is now ripe, and, as it is a 
very superior crop, it is expected to yield 
about 1000 fts. Tho bug destroyed nearly all 
the early sown squashes, but they have an acre 
and a half of later sown wh ite scallop and crook- 
neck squashes which, notwithstanding the 
CHEESE-MAKING — NO. 3, 
No opinion is more general among dairymen 
than that the value of rennet depends on the 
gastric juice it is supposed to contain. It is 
never pleasant, and seldom politic, to attempt 
to controvert an old and fully established com¬ 
mon opinion, but in this case truth requires a 
different explanation of the action of rennet 
We have said that the casein, or curd of milk, 
will itself convert the sn gar into acid and cur¬ 
dle the milk. Before it does this, the casein 
must have been exposed to the air, and hence 
the change, even at the proper temperature, 
proceeds slowly. If, however, curd be exposed 
to the atmosphere for a few days, and then 
added to milk, it coagulates it as quickly as 
rennet. Milk is also curdled by the juice of 
tho fig or thistle, by a decoction of the dried 
flowers of the artichoke or thistle, and a va¬ 
riety of similar vegetable substances. All ani¬ 
mal substances in a certain state of decompo¬ 
sition, act like rennet in curdling milk, and 
dried pigs’ bladder is commonly used iu some 
European countries, instead of the stomach of 
the calf, as in fact are a number of other sub¬ 
stances in which it is impossible for gastric 
juice to exist Gastric juice is a soluble sub¬ 
stance, and when the stomachs are washed as 
they generally are, it would be dissolved and 
removed in the water. They are afterwards 
frequently kept for several months in a solu¬ 
tion of salt, which is poured away, and a fresh 
quantity added several times. l)oes it not ap¬ 
pear impossible that any gastric juice should 
remain in the stomach after such a course of 
treatment? It is known, too, that the stomach 
may be used over and over again for several 
years, simply by repeating the process of prep¬ 
aration, and after such treatment, it is certain¬ 
ly impossible that any gastric juice should re¬ 
main in it. 
When fresh, the membrane of the stomach 
is insoluble in water, but when it is salted and 
kept for several months, a portion of its sur¬ 
face is decomposed. This transformed, or 
more properly transforming portion, is solu¬ 
ble in water, and it is this portion of rennet 
which is the active agent in converting the 
sugar iuto lactic acid—in other words, of curd- 
liug the milk. It is a soluble, highly nitro¬ 
genous substance, having its elements in a dis¬ 
turbed state, and therefore highly effective in 
inducing change in the elements of other bodies 
with which it is brought iu contact We 
might mention many familiar instances of this 
transforming action, but they will readily pre¬ 
sent themselves to the reader. We trust that 
we have said enough to make tho action of 
RECIPE FOR MAKING GRAPE WINE 
Grape Wine. It may be affirmed that from 
the days of Noah down to the present time, 
good wine, either from the juice of grapes or 
any other fruit, has been obtained only through 
the simple process of fermentation. My prac¬ 
tice in making wiue for the past twenty years, 
has been as follows : 
When the grapes are fully ripe, and have 
been removed from the vineyard to the place 
assigned for making the wine, they should be 
assorted, and all the green and decayed ones 
removed. Then put them into a barrel, about 
a bushel at a time, stems and grapes, and pound 
them thoroughly till all the grapes are mashed. 
Continue the process till all are finished that 
yon wish to make up at that time. The next 
process is to press out the juice or must. Then 
to every gallon add two pounds of sugar, and 
stir it thoroughly till all the sugar is dissolved. 
It is then put into barrels for the purpose of 
fermentation, there to remain, with frequent 
filling up to supply the waste, till the pomace 
is all fermented off. A supply of the must 
should be on hand for that purpose. The bar¬ 
rels should not be bunged up until the ferment¬ 
ing process is about completed. This may be 
easily ascertained by placing your ear to the 
bung. If in April or May the wine should be 
found clear, it may be racked off, but if unset¬ 
tled it should bo left till full. If the wine is 
found to be just what you want it at the time 
of racking, bottle as much as you choose; but 
if not, let it remain on the lees, and the article 
will increase in character and strength. 
I would remark that all grapes raised in this 
j section of the country, do not contain enough 
sugar or saccharine matter to make good wiue 
without the addition of sugar. H. n. l. 
Near Rochester, Auguat, 1854. 
cheese-making is the best, 
marked, however, that the American cheese 
found in England is far superior to that gen¬ 
erally seen in this country. 
The wheat crop has suffered so extensively 
and seriously from the midge or red weevil the 
present year, that many farmers are thinking 
pretty dubiously of their prospects for “ bread 
timber” hereafter, and will read with interest— 
an interest which good crops of “ pure Gene¬ 
see” have prevented them from feeling hereto¬ 
fore— a few items on Rye and its cultivation. 
In the Eastern States it is of second impor¬ 
tance only to the corn crop, and with that, 
enters largely into consumption as “rye and 
Indian” bread, the real “staff of life” to thou¬ 
sands of the inhabitants. It is grown pretty 
extensively among the Germans in Pennsylva¬ 
nia, and also on the light lands of Ohio and 
Michigan, but many of the younger inhabitants 
of Western New Y r ork never saw a field of it 
in cultivation. 
Rye succeeds best on rich sandy loams, the 
strong clays iu which wheat delights, seldom 
producing the best crops of this grain. In 
such soils there is too much water—it prefers 
a lighter, better-drained soil, and will grow 
freely on light sands and gravels, where oats 
and barley fail. Loamy soils on which wheat 
lodges will frequently produce excellent rye, 
its stronger stem enabling it to sustain itself 
under its luxuriant growth. The yield is iu 
proportion to the adaptation of the soil and 
season, and varies from five to forty bushels 
per acre. 
The preparation of the soil for rye is the 
same as that for wheat, but it is a less exhaust- 
A correspondent at Fishkill, N. Y., W. B. 
Waldo, Esq., thus speaks of the want of 
proper means iu farming: 
“ A certain amount of capital is necessary 
and indispensable to success in farming, and I 
can fully appreciate the feelings of him, who, 
with an ambition to excel in his calling, is 
cramped down for the want of it Pecuniary 
means are as necessary for successful opera¬ 
tions as sweat and breath, and the want of 
them too often occasions a sort of mental 
quagmire, from which vapors and fogs of dis¬ 
couragement rise to chill ami dampen the am¬ 
bition, and engender a reckless carelessness of 
the concerns of life. Such persous are doom¬ 
ed to grub along slowly until they acquire the 
capital, yet often when they do it is only in 
time to buy a coffin, through which to escape 
from, perhaps, a long life shorn of its pleasures.’’ 
Speaking of small farms, he adds:—“Thirty 
acres of good land is enough for one man to 
till. I should uot worry about hay, which is 
a costly feed, and I do not believe as good as 
corn-stalks grown so thickly as not to ear; 
[ hence for provender I should sow corn in drills, 
Clay or marl on peaty or sandy soil not 
only benefits it by rendering it more compact, 
but also by introducing valuable mineral ele¬ 
ments. 
