^GR’CULTURe 
ROCHESTER, N.Y.-FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 1862 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
THE LEADING AMERICAN WEEKLY 
RURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER, 
possible, make an arrangement to have all the waste 
water from the house thrown upon it, and in the 
fall yon will have a pile of rich manure. 
By all means fence off a spot for a vegetable 
garden, for lettuce, radishes, peas, beans, &c., and 
for the small fruits and vinos. There is no reason 
why the farmer should not live well and enjoy 
luxuries which others obtain only at a great cost. 
And if you should spade up the front yard, so that 
mother and daughters could plant some flower 
seeds, if only a few asters, or stocks, or sweet, 
peas, or mignonette, and a cluster of morning 
glories to climb over the porch, nobody would be 
any poorer, and some folks you love would be a 
great deal happier. 
stone or two of salt; stirring the whole well about, 
now and then, lor a couple of hours, and afterwards 
straining it through a clean cloth. The water 
which runs through is a saturated solution of salt, 
and contains all the impurities, but may be used for 
common culinary purposes, or may lie mixed with 
the food of cattle, The salt which remains in the 
cloth is free from the soluble salts of lime and mag¬ 
nesia, and may be bung up in the cloth till it is dry 
enough to lie used for mixing with the butter, or 
with cheese." The salt must, be rendered as tine as 
possible, which may be done by crushing it with a 
rolling-pin, and the niter and sugar well mixed 
with the salt, when these ingredients are used along 
with it. In salting, the butter is spread our thin in 
the tub. and the salt, Ac., carefully sprinkled over 
it, anti worked in with 1 the heel of the hand,’ until 
the whole is uniformly and thoroughly intermixed. 
Some only work in half the salt at first, and then 
lay the butter aside until next day, when the 
remainder is added, after pouring off any brine 
which has come from the butter. A great deal of 
Irish butter is spoilt by over salting. 
“ When the salting process is completed, the but¬ 
ter is packed into 4 crocks’ — earthenware jars — or 
into small casks. The former answers well enough 
when the butler is intended for home use, but when 
it is to be sent by rail or steamboat, it should be 
packed in firkins. These are made of ash or oak, 
and previous to being filled with butler, they must 
lie lirst filled with boiling water, which will be 
allowed to remain In them fur twenty or twenty- 
four hours; they are then well rinsed in clean, cold 
water, and filled with*strong, hot pickle, which may 
remain in them until they are required for use. 
The firkins are weighed before the butter is put in, 
and half a poundiieing allowed for any additional 
soak age that may take place, the weight of the 
firkin is branded upon it. A little line salt is then 
sprinkled in the jjottom, and the butter packed 
tightly With a wooden rammer, or with the knuckles, 
and the greatest attention must be paid to this oper¬ 
ation, so (hat there shall not be any vacant point 
left, ns the air contained in that vacant space, no 
matter how small, would soon spoil the butter. If 
the firkin or jar is not filled at one churning, the 
butter must bo covered with pickle, or some salt is 
sprinkled over if. and a. clean cloth pressed close 
upon it, to keep out the air, until the next churning 
is ready, when the pickle is poured oft’, or the salt 
carefully removed with a spoon, and the smooth 
surface is roughened or raised into furrows, for tbo 
purpose of allowing the last packed butter to 
become perfectly united to the first, without any 
appearance ot seam, which would be the case were 
this precaution neglected. When the lirkin or jar 
is filled, a little salt is strewed on the surface, and a 
piece of linen, dipped in strong salt and water, is 
spread equally over the top, when the cask may bo 
headed, and is then ready for market, to which it 
should be sent with as little delay as possible. 
'“Butter which has been improperly packed, or 
otherwise affected by the air, becomes rancid; but 
this may be cured by beating it in water into which 
from twelve to fifteen drops of chloride of lime to 
the pound of butter have been added. After work¬ 
ing it well, leave it lying in the water for two hours, 
and then wash it in pure cold water, when it w ill bo 
found to have become sweetened.” 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
With an Able Corps of Assistants and Contributors. 
CHAS. D. BRAQDON, Western Corresponding Editor. 
Titb Rural New-Yorker is designed to he unsurpassed io 
Value. Purity, Usefulness and Variety of Contents, and unique 
and beautiful in Appearance. Its Conductor devotes bis per¬ 
sonal attention to the supervision of its various departments, 
and earnestly labors to render the Rural an eminently Reliable 
Guide on all the Important Practical. Scientific, and other 
Subjects intimately connected with the business of those whose 
interests it zealously advocates. As a Family Journal it is 
eminently Instructive and Entertaining;—being so conducted 
that it can be safely taken to the Hearts and Homes of people of 
intelligence, taste and diseri mlnntiom It embraces more Agri¬ 
cultural, Horticultural, Scientific, Educational, Literary and 
NeWB Matter, interspersed with appropriate and beautiful 
Engravings, than any other journal,—rendering it the most 
complete Agricultural, Literary and Family Newspaper 
in America. 
For Terms and other particulars, see last page. 
BUTTER-MAKING, 
I\ our last we commenced a valuable article on 
Butter-Making, from the [risk Fanners' Gazelle, 
which we now purpose to conclude. We also 
endeavored to show the importance of this subject, 
and the loss to the State of New York by a depre¬ 
ciation of only two cents per pound on the whole 
amount produced, in consequence of improper 
treatment, and the production of an inferior article. 
The last New York market report, shows a wide 
difference in the value of butter, the range being 
from seven to Iwenty-five cents per pound. A 
short time since an extensive dealer in that city 
informed us that more than three-fourths of the 
butter sent to that market ranked second and third 
rate, that the average on the whole was at least live 
cents below the price paid for a first class article, 
and that this loss resulted mainly from improper 
manufacture, but partly from bad packing. Wo 
have no reason to believe (hat the butter manufac¬ 
tured in this State is inferior to that of any other, 
while there are probably few large markets in the 
country where the average quality is as good as in 
Now York. Most of our extensive dairymen pro¬ 
vide themselves with the necessary conveniences, 
and take pains to learn and practice the best meth¬ 
ods, and produce butter that would be considered 
superior in any part of tbo world. Any one will lie 
convinced of this fact who examines specimens pre¬ 
sented at our State Fairs. It is their main business, 
and one in which they are eminently successful. 
But not ope-quarter of the butter sold is produced 
by the professional dairyman. Those with whom 
butter-making is an incidental business, and who 
depend upon other branches of farming for a main 
support, supply our markets mainly, and it is for 
tlie benefit of these that we are anxious to give all 
possible information: 
“ There is a difference of opinion as to the best 
mode of handling butter after it is taken from the 
churn. Some put it into a small, flat tub, and wash 
tlm buttermilk out of it by kneading it among clear, 
cold spring water, the milky water being occasion¬ 
ally poured off, and fresh supplies added, until it 
ceases to become tinged with milk; others knead 
and beat it in a clean cloth, which absorbs the 
buttermilk, and is frequently wrung dry, until the 
buttermilk is entirely taken away; while a third 
set of butter makers say that it ought to bo worked 
by mean8of' a wooden skimming dish, and that to 
work it in any degree by the hand is to spoil it, 
from the heat and perspiration, which is said to 
render the butter waxy. Mr. Ballantine's method, 
as detailed in the prize report in the Transactions 
of the Highland Society, was to extract the milk by 
working it with the cool hand, but the butter itself 
was not washed or worked in water. Mr. Dillon 
Croker, who paid great attention to the manage¬ 
ment of butter, recommended that, after finishing 
the churning, the milk should be drawn off by a 
ping from the bottom of the churn, and replaced by 
a quantity of pure spring water. A few turns of the 
wheel is then given, and the water run off; this is to 
lie repeated until the water appears as clean as 
when it is put into the churn, showing that the milk 
has been all extracted. A strong pickle, well 
strained, is now put on the butter, and several turns 
ol the paddles given, so that every part will feel the 
effect, which finishes the operation. If the weather 
should prove warm, it will be advisable, he consid¬ 
ered, to let the butter lie in the churn for a few 
hours, which will render it firmer than it was when 
the washing was finished. 
“The salting process should commence directly 
after the buttermilk has been all extracted from the 
butter, ami the quantity of salt must be regulated 
by the purpose for which the butter is intended. 
cSi-nr/L i 
moke: OR I3IOVIN PLOW, 
clear idea of the construction and operation of this 
plow, we add the inventovVclaim and description: 
44 The accompanying cur illustrates a Drain Plow 
patented by mo in March, 1850. Lclaim the combi¬ 
nation and arrangement of a re-placeable pointed 
coulter, with a continuous plate or solid standard 
carrying the mole, (which is simply a round piece 
ot cast iron nearly four inches in diameter,) and a 
brace in the rear, connecting the said mole to the 
beam, and also to the handles, as represented in the 
engraving. It can be so gauged as to make a drain 
from one to throe feet deep, as desired. It works 
admirably in clay or hard-pan soil, making a com¬ 
plete tunnel (drain.) leaving its sides smooth and 
compact, so that it will remain open for many years.” 
Rural readers.” In compliance we give a cut and 
brief description of an implement patented in 185!) by 
Mr. J. Car ring ton, .of Steuben Co., N. Y., and which 
has met with much favor from practical farmers. 
Among others, Hon. A. B. Dickinson, ol' Steuben, 
has thoroughly tested this Drain Plow, and strongly 
commended it to the agricultural public. We pre¬ 
sume it is still manufactured in that region, but. are 
not aware that. It is made hr sold in other sections. 
'The cost of the plow is $25. we believe—that being 
the price at which it was advertised in the Rural 
some two years ago. 
To give our inquiring friend, and other readers, a 
SPRING NOTES 
The season in this section is unusually late. The 
soil is far too wot for working, and we have every 
night six or eight degrees of frost. There is, there¬ 
fore, no chance for early spring work; and even 
our nurserymen, who are always ready to take 
advantage of a fine day, have had to suspend opera¬ 
tions and wait for more favorable weather. At the 
present writing (April 10) the weather is bright, 
but freezing in the shade. When (tie snow left the 
ground, only.a few days since, the soil was found 
free I'rorn frost, and parsnips and other hardy roots 
were got up to some extent, but they were soon 
blockaded by frost. The poplars, that usually show 
their catkins in March, have scarcely made a start, 
and the botanist may search in vain for our usual 
early spring flowers. 
Potatoes burled in the ground have suffered 
severely from water, even in places usually con¬ 
sidered high and dry, and the loss from rot will he 
very great. Whether this will affect prices, we 
cannot say, as shippers from the Eastern market 
have hardly commenced their spring operations. 
We understand that fifty and fifty-five cents are 
offered for good marketable potatoes, such as Peach 
Blows, Mercers, &o. 
We do not think a late season any disadvantage 
to the farmer, if he will only properly prepare for a 
vigorous campaign when the time comes for action. 
Usually we are in too great a hurry; a few fine days 
tempts ns to sow and plant, and the result is rotton 
seed and second planting. A lew days since an 
extensive dealer in field and garden seeds expressed 
his regret at the backwardness of the season, as it 
would curtail his sales at least one-third. When 
the spring opens early, there is so much second 
planting that sales are good. We took a note of 
this for the benefit of our readers. We like to have 
the seeds wo commit to the ground germinate early, 
and make a vigorous and constant growth until the 
plant is matured. 
The grass starts but slowly, and it will be long 
before the cattle will obtain any good from the 
pastures. There will be a great temptation to do a 
very unwise thing — turn the cattle out before tbo 
ground is well settled and the grass has a good start. 
A little patience here will be of great advantage 
and no small profit. A top-dressing of ashes will 
do the meadows a great deal of good, and if you 
have a good compost, it will not be wasted, if used 
as a top-dressing for grass laud! 
There would be very little objection to a late 
spring if farmers would improve the time while 
they are waiting for genial weather. They should 
learn to labor and wait. Much needs to be done 
after the winter and much must be done before 
the regular spring work can progress with any 
of manure; they have as much as they can do to 
plow, and sow. and reap, and attend to the thousand- 
und-one things ot the farm, to say nothing ot the 
ex'ra work of drainage, and under-plowing, and so 
on.—for there is no end to the labor of such farmers. 
And it is severe labor,—- dirty work,”— at that, and 
how discouraging, the grumbler has already con¬ 
fessed,— lor lie admits ii takes all his time to keep up 
with the work; ho is never ahead of his work. In a 
word, he is an unhappy man; he looks so; his premi¬ 
ses do; his family. He would Consider it a slander 
if he were called a slovenly farmer; and yet, if he is 
not the slovenly farmer, who is? 
It is not that these men are lazy. They are active 
enough, many of them; but they are so deeply 
prejudiced—they are so inveterate in the grooves of 
I heir fathers and forefathers. •• Book-farming!” The 
mention gives them a shake of the bead. They dread 
it as they do a lawyer or a doctor. And it has be¬ 
come fashionable among the elite farmers to shrug 
the shoulder at these quacks. They pass them by 
with a silent sneer,and their premises with “a pity.” 
The “pity” will do. but not the shrug. .Yu man 
will, kmwirajly , throw away his money. Ignorance 
is simply darkness where other men see light. A 
man, therefore. is not so much lu be blamed as his 
circumstances. 
A farmer is not to bo made a scientific farmer in a 
day or a year. He must work himself into it grad¬ 
ually, as his circumstances and means will permit, 
and he must persist in this; he must never relax it. 
The farm is constantly wearing out; hence, it wants 
constant care, a constant supply, tt is with forming 
as with religion—there is no 44 standing still.” Your 
farm will either go to thistles, or you will make it 
bear “ fruit.” 
Farming is a speculation, and people should 
view it more in this light. It is putting the raw ma¬ 
terial (manure, &c,,J into the earth, and drawing it 
out again at a certain per centage of profit. That is 
all,— that is the whole of farming. You put a dol¬ 
lar's worth of manure in, and get two dollars from 
it, or more, according to the success of your man¬ 
agement. Your manure may be permitted to waste; 
for it will do this of its own accord, unless you 
attend to it. It will go into the atmosphere, or lol- 
low the rain water, enriching some other man’s 
farm. Oryou may plow it in so,deep that your grain 
cannot, reach it, and it will go deeper still. The 
experience of the best farmers, which yot* find in 
(heir papers, tells you you must have your manure 
where the sun and the roots ot your grain can reach 
it. Now, it takes but little to learn this,—it is only 
to read it and do it,—and this is the most, important 
thing in all farming. Of such simple things is 
“book-farming made up—telling you how to do it. 
But you must believe in it and do it. We are so 
apt to read and then forget—we are so apt to keep 
up old habits—to stick to what we have been accus¬ 
tomed from year to year. But we must break away; 
and if the first trial is discouraging, the next may be 
better. If not, try the third, and never yield. Be 
sure the majority is right, though you are wrong. 
But bo careful, and do your work well, and there 
will be no wrong. Of this one thing—and it is the 
main thing, as 1 have said—you may be sure, that 
manure applied as above stated, on poor soil, will 
bo beneficial. 
But the dollars are not seen in the manure. 
Hence, manure is permitted to waste, and when 
carried off, it is done to get it out of the way—or, 
what is thought better by many, is sold, and permit¬ 
ted to be carted off the farm; and then the poor 
farm, deprived of its substance, is t,o be skinned and 
tortured till life is all but extinct, and the farmer 
becomes desperate and endeavors to make up by 
hard labor what he has lost by imprudence, till the 
shiftless man is at last compelled to transfer his 
laud, piece by piece, or perhaps the whole farm, to 
better hands, and then liow soon the rejuvenating 
effect is seen. Such cases are numerous every¬ 
where. It does one good to see such worn-out 
lands green over, as in better days. So we see the 
effect in a horse, when it leaves the hands of a des¬ 
pot (a greater brute than the horse.) and goes to 
the ownership of a humane mail. 
As to papers; the world is full of them. The 
farmer is often humbugged by them. But he should 
not, therefore, condemn the whole. Are there not 
spurious issues among all classes of papers? .And 
yet who would dispense with newspapers because 
they sometimes mistake, or scurrilous sheets are 
issued? Take the best papers. If you are not a 
judge, go to the man who is, in whom you have con¬ 
fidence, and he will he glad enough to tell you the 
truth if he is an honest man. Then stick to your 
paper. The harder the times, the closer stick to it; 
for depend upon it, it is your friend; and when you 
cast it oil’, you sacrifice your best friend—atrieml that 
It is in farming precisely as in every 
other department; the smartest men, the best intel¬ 
lects, carry the palm. Still, circumstances have 
much to do. Are all old-fashioned farmers fools? 
Far from It, as everybody will testily; though what 
fools there are, must, of necessity, he among this 
class of tillers (killers) of the earth. 
What, then, shall he done? And this is a question 
which has been a thousand times asked. There is 
but one answer,—instruct the ignorant farmer. This 
answer is applicable to all the departments of life. 
Instruct your man. The means—money—is never 
mentirfned. Means are only a matter of proportion. 
Largo means will yield large profit; small means 
small profit, — still, profit. The difference between 
the two modes of farming turns all upon this: — Is 
the labor or means judiciously applied? The man 
who works hard the year through in the old way, 
will barely make a living; whereas, the same amount 
of labor judiciously expended, would have made a 
living and something over. It is much in knowing 
how. It is the shrewd men that cat tho cream of the 
world; the rest lap the buttermilk. It is so in all 
classes. Each generation, iu this progressive ago, 
is wiser and richer than its predecessor. So with 
farming. The old farmers drop off with tlivir old 
notions and prejudices, buried together in the soil 
they (ignorantly) dishonored; their sous take their 
place, imbued with the new spirit of the age; and 
the earth’s capacity is more thoroughly tested. But 
how is this brought about? By book-fanning,— 
which means, more than anything else, the knowl¬ 
edge contained in our agricultural papers, one part 
of the great press, which is the mighty lever of the 
advancement of the day. Here is recorded what is 
done in the farming world; here the uses of all im¬ 
plements are advertised and explained; here the 
results ot" different modes of farming are given: 
here what is talked of and done by farmers is 
.reported. The agricultural journal is a farm diary. 
It is simply the successful farmer talking to the 
public, and telling them how he became successful. 
If we heed what he says, we cannot avoid success,— 
a success equal to the labor employed, whether that 
labor be large or small, whether performed by tho , 
farmer himself or by his hired help. 
BOOK-FARMING, 
to do wi(h “book-farming,” and so they plod on in 
the track of their ancestors, as if determined the 
world should not move. Yet these very farmers 
are, from necessity, adopting the improvements. It 
would be difficult now for a farmer to get hold of a 
wooden plow. He has laid aside tho sickle of his 
forefathers, and uses the cradle, which he will also 
lay aside soon, though he has his foot set against that. 
He has been compelled to acknowledge the corn on 
the horse-rake; mid so he has one; but it is the old- 
fashioned revolver, which he says surpasses all the 
new-fangled rakes. But his time is coming tor the 
new rake also. IIo is ashamed of treading out his 
grain with oxen as in the days of Adam and Eve, 
and has hung up the flail. He bends to the thrash¬ 
ing machine, and even to the wood-saw. He is thus 
following the improvements, — or rather, they drag 
him on, as a man does a net with stupid fishes. 
Why not be in the van, shoulder to shoulder with 
those who get tlm first benefits, and, consequently, 
the greatest profit of inventions? Why lag behind? 
But be still doubts w ith the testimony before him— 
with the improvements in his hand. Let him ask 
himself this question:—Do scientific farmers ever 
give up their science, and fall back on tho old 
method? If not, is it suppOsablo they would con¬ 
tinue what is a damage to them? Further; ate they 
not sensible men? and are the old-fashioned farmers 
not generally the reverse? And yet, wby doubt? 
But it is this habit—the habit of running iu the same 
rut. until it is hard to gel your wagon out of it. But 
it must come out ; for every day in it is a damage 
more and more easily seen. 
But a man must have tho means. What can a 
poor farmer do with the “improvements,” who has 
as much as he can attend to iu order to get a living, 
or meet his ends? This is, perhaps, the most com¬ 
mon cry. They are too poor to buy the implements; 
to lay out money for guano, or labor for the saving 
molten, or so worn that it must be replaced. The 
team will have hard work as soon as plowing com¬ 
mences, and they should be in “good heart,” so that 
they can be pushed a little when necessary. The 
farmer that has all his implements in order, the 
outside work all done up, and plenty of horse 
power, will not be much behind the first of June, 
no matter what may bo the character ot the spring. 
A good deal of cleaning up about the yard is 
necessary in the spring, and the farmer’s better-halt 
would delight to have it done just now, but she has 
suggested Dio thing so many times that perhaps she 
has become discouraged. To see a woman iu the 
farmers door-yard with a rake and shovel clearing 
up the chips and other accumulations of the winter, 
is a great disgrace to somebody. The. cleanings of 
yards and lawns are worth more than they cost for 
manure. Place them in a pile, as near the house as 
