men would not command here in Herkimer 
(an oJd dairy district, where every farmer's 
family knows something of the art,) salaries 
of $1,500 and more for the season. Com¬ 
mon or ordinary cheese makers can he had 
cheap enough, but those who have the ca¬ 
pacity of making a prime article can always 
command large salaries. 
We should say that cheese making could 
not be well learned in less time than one 
year's experience. The outlines of manu¬ 
facture may he learned in a month, so that 
perhaps an ordinary or low grade article 
may he made; hut to make a uniform dairy 
of fine oheese requires Jong and varied ex¬ 
perience. Indeed our best cheese makers 
have been yearn at the business, and are 
constantly improving in their manufacture. 
In new districts, the cheapest as well as 
the best way to introduce dairying is for 
neighbors to associate together, build a 
cheese factory and employ an experienced 
manufacturer. In this way the business is 
more likely to pay, because there is less lia¬ 
bility of losses from poor cheese and had 
If a farm dairy is to he estab- 
uncleanly milkers, we hardly think they 
would he willing to taste milk filtered 
through such material. 
pent, and then dissolved and passed away 
in the atmosphere. We heard that one 
somewhat similar appeared and burst at 
Mount Washington, coming apparently from 
the north.” 
The Detroit Post, August 25th, says: 
“ About ten o'clock last evening a belt of 
light was visible in the sky, extending from 
the horizon, at about the point of sunset, 
nearly to the moon, in the opposite quarter 
of the heavens. It was six or eight degrees 
broad, aud at its brightest point, wkioh wa 9 
a little west of the zenith, was not dense 
enough to hide entirely the light of the stars. 
For half an hour or more it was qulto bril¬ 
liant, and then gradually faded away, that 
portion nearest the horizon being the last to 
disappear. A portion of the belt was at one 
tirno hidden by clouds, showing that it must 
have been beyond them,” 
The London, Ontario, Free Press of the 
25th, thus describes what is doubtless the 
same phenomenon" It is worthy of rec¬ 
ord that, ou the night of Tuesday, Aug. 24, 
about ten o’clock, a 
usbaithrn 
cirntific antr 
X. A. WILLA1U>, A. M., EDITOR, 
Op Lrm.i Fali.% Hckkimer County, Nkjy Voj:k. 
PREPARING RENNET FOR USE 
A CELESTIAL PHENOMENON. 
Tuesday evening, August 24, there was 
seen in the heavens, from different localities 
east and west, a remarkable meteor. We 
hear of it having been noticed at Washing¬ 
ton, Baltimore, Lancaster and Philadelphia, 
Pa., Detroit, at several points in New Jer¬ 
sey and New York, and in Ontario, Canada. 
We give herewith illustrations showing us 
how it appeared to a party of excursionists, 
who were returning from Red Bank to Key- 
port, N. J., furnished us by Edward Sears, 
the engraver, who was one of the party. 
Figure 1 shows the relative position of 
the Earth, Venus and the meteor, as the last 
shot up from a point a few degrees above 
the horizon about eight o’clock in the even¬ 
ing. At first the parly supposed it a rocket. 
C. L. Sheldon, Esq., of Lowville, Lewis 
Go., N. Y., writes us in regard to preparing 
rennet for cheese manufacture as follows: 
I notice In the Rural of August 14th, an 
wherein is 
THE DAIRY IN NEW DISTRICTS. 
article ou “cheese manufacture,' 
stated tbo importance of an exact measure of 
rennet for n given quantity of milk. Wo do not 
propose to give this measure, but think we can 
give a method or preparing rennets that will 
greatly facilitate accuracy and uniformity of 
result In this particular and important part of 
choose manufacture. 
Ou r mot hod is as follows:—Procure t wo twel vo 
gallon Jars and one three-gallon Jar; take Bay 
thirty rennets for a factory or tiro hundred 
cows, put them in the small Jar, and add water 
or whey, (wo use water,) the next day rub thorn 
out with the bands and turn inside out. empty 
tholiquid into No. J Jar as before; repeat rids 
process daily, or oftoner if desired, and until the 
liquid in the small Jar will not coagulate milk. 
Hufllelont suit must bo added during the process 
to keep the rennets from tainting. No. 1 Jar, if 
not sufficiently tilled, can now be filled with pure 
water, and the rennet ie ready for use. Its exact 
strength is not known; but by using a fewtimes 
It can be ascertained what amount is needed for 
a given quantity of milk, and you have a rule 
whereby (the conditions of the milk being tbe 
same) yoit inuy produce uniformity of result 
while this Jar of rennet 1st being used. Porform 
tbe same operations with the small Jar and Jar 
No. Sat such time that It shall be ready for use 
when Jar No. 1 is expended. Stir thoroughly be¬ 
fore using. 
Last year by this method 231 rennets, ns fur¬ 
nished by my patrons, coagulated 3,279,578 
pouudsof milk; or 6,78» poundsol' milk required 
but one ronnot. Our usual rule lor usiug rennet 
is oue teaeupful to 800 or 1,000 pounds of tniik. 
I have seen ho published statement of this man¬ 
ner of preparing rennets. With us the process 
has been attended with satisfactory results. 
The quantity of cheese made for the num¬ 
ber of rennets used is a good average—much 
lunar rainbow spanned 
the heavens from the moon’s position in tho 
east, diverging to tlio northwest. This phe¬ 
nomenon is of very rare occurrence, and 
forms a beautiful spectacle, appearing like a 
misty streak of white cloud, through which 
the stars are visible. The cause of the lunar 
rainbow is sometimes the refraction of the 
moon’s rays in drops of rain, hut as tho sky 
last night was bright and clear, the cause of 
this instance must ho the simple reflection of 
the ray9 of light from the moon. The phe¬ 
nomenon is very seldom observed, and never 
except when the moon is at or near the full; 
it lasted about ten minutes. The total eclipse 
of the sun, and the rare occurrence of the 
lunar how during the same month are sub¬ 
lime phenomena in nature which may never 
again happen in this century on the Amer¬ 
ican continent.” 
management, 
lishod we should advise the proprietor to 
come here, or to some other old dairy dis¬ 
trict, and look over the dairy establishments 
and see how they are managed and what 
apparatus is needed for conducting the busi¬ 
ness. Having provided all the necessary 
arrangements, the next best step would ho 
to employ a dairy maid that has had some 
experience iu manufacturing, aud then learn 
the business at the home dairy. This, we 
think, would turnout more satisfactorily than 
to attempt to learn tho art here in a short 
time, and then try to worry through with so 
small nn amount of experience. But if one 
has plenty of time and can afford to give it 
in becoming posted among our best manu¬ 
facturers, that is another matter. What wo 
wish to impress on the minds of those who 
have no experience in dairy matters is that 
cheese manufacture cannot bo learned in a 
day or a week, and that it requires more 
study and experience than those unacquaint¬ 
ed with the art are apt to imagine. 
On lands adapted to the business, dairying, 
we think, can bo made as profitable as most 
kinds of farming; hut the profits are often 
overestimated. The returns are generally 
very reliable, one year with another; but 
they are not so wonderfully in excess of 
other branches of farming, and if any one 
Figure 1. 
It exploded with a noise like, and the ap¬ 
pearance of, a rocket. Boon after the ex¬ 
plosion, what appeared to the party to he 
the illuminated stick of the rocket, in its de¬ 
scent, gave off an illuminated, fleecy cloud, 
the form of which is shown in Figure 2. 
From the time of the first appearance of 
the meteor to that of its explosion the period 
was very brief; hut to the final disappear¬ 
ance of tho illuminated cloud full twenty 
minutes elapsed. 
As seen at Cazenovia, N. Y., it is described 
as “ a bar of light starting a little above the 
horizon at the point where the sun sets at 
this season, thence sweeping, like the train 
of a comet, a little cast of south to the zenith, 
and beyond nearly to tho moon, which was 
about an hour high. It appeared about the 
width of the moon, with clearly defined 
USEFUL AND SCIENTIFIC ITEMS. 
Percussion CV/ps —The copper percussion 
cap, which has wrought such a revolution in 
the whole art of gunnery, was the invention 
of Joshua Shaw, in the year 1614. Shaw 
was a native of England, was left an orphan 
at the age of seven years, and was very poor. 
He became a painter, and made the acquaint¬ 
ance of many distinguished men, among the 
rest, of our countryman West. For his in¬ 
vention of percussion caps, and their appli¬ 
cation to the discharge of cannon, he received 
a handsome remuneration, but not such 
as his eminent services demanded. He died 
in 1860. 
The Next Total Solar Eclipse .—The sun 
will be totally eclipsed on December 21, 22, 
j 1870. The central line or lino of totality of 
this eclipse will pass over the extreme north¬ 
ern pan of Africa, as Algiers ancl Tunis. 
The next total solar eclipse visible in the 
United States —viz., in Virginia and North 
Carolina—will occur on May 28, 1900. The 
next eclipse to he seen in New York will be 
the pnrtial eclipse of the moon, on January 
6, 1871. As soon as January 17,1870, there 
will he a total eclipse of the moon, visible 
here, partly visible at Greenwich. 
IIow to Find the Value of a Greenback .— 
Take the price of gold as the divisor, pur or 
one hundred as the dividend, and the quotient 
will give the gold value of the greenback. 
For example, with gold at about one hundred 
and thirty-five; by dividing this into one 
hundred, we find that a dollar greenback is 
worth about, seventy-four cents in gold. It is 
a common impression that if the premium on 
gold be subtracted from par, it will give tho 
discount of paper, but as w ill be seen above, 
the impressiou is as erroneous as it is 
common. 
The Bermuda Floating Dock .—This im¬ 
mense structure which recently left England 
in tow of a steamer aud convoyed by man- 
of-war is in length three hundred eighty-one 
feet, in width inside eighty-three feet, and 
over all one hundred and twenty-throe feet. 
This is the first structure of the kind which 
has been built, ready to he transported whole 
to its destination. Floating docks have been 
built in England before for distant places, 
but they have been carried out in pieces. 
Coal for Burning Lime .—Iu Rockland, 
Maine, some of the lime makers are burning 
bituminous coal and wood in their kilns, and 
the experiment is proving very satisfactory. 
It Is thought a saving of six or eight cents 
per barrel may be made in the cost of lime 
by the use of coal for burning. 
Sources of Nitrogen .—A French chemist 
says that thirty pounds of flesh, thirty-two 
pounds of blood, and sixty-two pounds of 
bone, contain as much nitrogen as one thou¬ 
sand pounds of farm manure; and hence 
that the carcass of a dead horse is worth more 
than a ton of the best farm yard manure, for 
the purpose of vegetation. 
been still larger. The rennets were un¬ 
doubtedly not only selected and cured in a 
good manner for retaining their strength, 
but judiciously used by the manufacturer. 
Aud perhaps to the latter rather than the 
former cause may he ascribed the more than 
average quantity of milk coagulated. We 
are w r ell aware that a considerable propor¬ 
tion of rennets used in factories and farm 
dairies Is of poor quality, lacking iu strength 
and otherwise defective. Still we are con¬ 
vinced that there is a great waste of rennets 
going on annually from a careless applica¬ 
tion of the umteriaTTvyi' its faulty preparation. 
If the loss from using too large a quantity of 
rennet oould be chargeable only to the ren¬ 
nets themselves, it would bo comparatively 
light, but when we. acid to this the loss from 
faulty cheese and the w aste consequent upon 
a misapplication of tho material used for 
coagulating the milk, the account becomes 
a serious one to the dairy interest. 
We shall bo glad at all times to get the ex¬ 
perience of dairymen on any of the questions 
touching this branch of farming. It often 
proves of great value w hen presented to the 
dairy public, for it is from actual experience 
and results that we learn lessons of improve¬ 
ment. 
MILKING WITH WET HANDS. 
here, in Herkimer Go., N. Y., will carry 
twenty-five cows one year with another, and 
perhaps a trifle over, together with a pair of 
horses. Now, say that the twenty-five cow's 
make an average annual yield of four hun¬ 
dred pounds of cheese per head, (and this is 
only a moderate estimate,) and we have 
10,000 pounds of cheese as the product of 
1 lie dairy. This, at fifteen cents per pound, 
will amount to $1,500. 
Except for tho manufacture of cheese, 
there is probably no great difference iu the 
expense of running a dairy farm or one em¬ 
ployed in grazing. Dairying is less specula¬ 
tive than the other, and therefore we should 
say less liable to losses, 
Some people are in the liahit, when first 
setting down to milk, of drawing a little 
milk to wot their hands and the teals of the 
cows. It is not a cleanly practice, and 
should always be avoided. We have seen 
milkers with their hands gummed up wdtlx 
filth, and the reeking compound of milk, 
dirt and manure oozing out from between 
the Angel's aud dropping into the pall, as the 
result of ibis bad habit referred to. 
Iu dairies, a groat deal of milk otherwise 
good is tainted in this way, and not unfre- 
quently this taint show's itsedf in a very 
marked degree in tho butter and cheese 
manufactured. Many thoughtloss persons 
have the impression that milk in some way 
purities itself, and that taint9 imparted in 
the way we have named cannot be carried 
into the butler and cheese. Such ideas are 
very erroneous, and tbo sooner correct no¬ 
tions are had in regard to the purity and 
cleanliness of milk for dairy purposes, the 
sooner shall we arrive at a high standard of 
excellence in dairy products, and, as a con- 
scqnenoo, better prices be obtained. 
Cows do not milk any easier with wet 
hands than with dry hands. If the udder 
or teats are muddy or covered with filth, 
they should bo washed with clean water 
and wiped dry. Then milk with dry hands, 
and it w’ill soon be found easier and pleas¬ 
anter, even with those who have been accus¬ 
tomed to wetting tho hands and teats with 
milk while milking. In summer, when cows 
are running upon clean, upland pastures, the 
udder aud teats will generally be clean, ex¬ 
cept perhaps in wet weather. If there is no 
occasion to wash the udder and teats, it is 
always well to brush over the parts with the 
hands, to remove any particles of dust or 
loose hairs adhering, aud then set the pail 
in position and commence to milk with dry 
hands. 
Undeauliness in milkin 
Tho gains from 
dairying, if not remarkably large, aun year 
with another, are for tho most part steady, 
and can be calculated upon generally with 
more certainty than other kinds of farming. 
Tho business requires experience and close 
attention to details. The eows must bo well 
cared for. They must be milked with regu¬ 
larity, and milked clean. The dairy pro¬ 
ducts must bo well made, and sent to market 
at tho proper time. There are many things 
about the business which can only he learned 
by experience, but upon which success in a 
great measure depends. There is nothing 
about it so very difficult to acquire; but no 
amount of verbal or w r ritton instruction can 
wholly take tho place of that obtained by 
experience. 
II. The length of time which it will take 
a person to learn cheese making will depend 
upon the aptuesa nr facility with which 
essential points in the art are catchod, and 
the Judgment and resource displayed in dis¬ 
posing of the different phases or conditions 
of the material upon which he is employed. 
While th« main features of the art arc sim¬ 
ilar from day to day, ohnnges are constantly 
occurring which will require a quick eye to 
detect, with good Judgment and rapid exe¬ 
cution to counteract. The treatment of the 
milk and curds must be continually varying, 
and out of this variation the skillful cheese 
maker must so time LU operations as to get 
a uniform good product. Some persons 
appear to taka naturally to the work, and 
make good clmese makers In a short time. 
Others work all their lives at the business, 
and never acquire tbe art of making a first I 
class dairy. There are to-day a large num- 
Figuke 2. 
At Buffalo, N. Y., between seven and 
eight o’clock in the evening, was seen what 
“ was in appearance a fleecy cloud spanning 
the firmament, and was thought by many to 
be a lunar bow. Tbe display lasted about 
twenty minutes.” 
At Baltimore, Md., it was seen at 7:80 
P. M. The Baltimore American says;—“ It, 
descended vertically, appearing to come from 
the cast, with a slight variation t* the south. 
It burst upon the country seat of Dr. J. K. 
Polk, Medficld, on the Falls road, between 
the villages of Hampton and Cross Keys. 
It came to within thirty feet of the ground, 
when it left its phosphorescent train, and 
with a thud similar to the bursting of a 
rocket it discharged into the earth. It ap¬ 
peared to be an elliptical sphere of fire, and 
left at the discharging point of the train a 
shell similar to cast-iron when dropped from 
the puddlfe. The train was about ten feet 
long and about four inches in diameter. 
For about five minutes from the time of dis¬ 
charge the train appeared to be in a glow¬ 
ing heated state, when it turned white like 
a dense mass of smoke, 
ig is one of the 
great faults iu the dairies of this country, 
and it is one of the causes of bad flavor in 
dairy products. 
Every dairyman should fully explain this 
matter to hired help, and insist upon cleanly 
Habits in milking. That, the fault referred 
to is a serious one, and more general than 
some would at first imagine, can very easily 
be demonstrated by visiting any of tbe facto¬ 
ries at tbo time milk is being delivered. Let 
the milk strainers there be closely scrutin¬ 
ized. and they will often be found to present 
a most disgustingly filthy appearance. If 
this mass of filth could b» shown to soma 
Congress Water.—Will you or some of your 
correspondents give tbe proportion of sup. car¬ 
bonate of soda and tartRrlc acid which, when 
mixed in water, and after eirervesclntf. imi¬ 
tates nearest Congress Water, of the Saratoga 
springof that name? There ts a proportion, but 
it Is not to hand for the moment. Perhaps Dr. 
Harris could give the desired information.—M. 
W. Brown, Paris, &nt. 
It remained for 
fifteen minutes, waving like a writhing ser- | 
For Sore Teats on Cows fried pork fat Is as 
good as anything I ever tried.—A Farmer. 
