Pure annatto, when properly prepared, is 
very successfully used for imparting a good 
color to fall and winter butter. Annatto, of 
course, adds nothing to the flavor or quality 
of butter, but as the pure article when thus 
employed is quite harmless, there can be no 
serious objection to its use. In coloring but¬ 
ter with annatto it is important that a prime 
article be used, and to have it prepared so 
that it shall be free from sediment. Nich- 
OLL's English liquid annatto is a very good 
article for this purpose, but the anuattoine, 
or dry extract of aimutto, prepared as for 
cheese-making, is the best material for color¬ 
ing butter artificially that I have seen. 
It gives a rich shade of color, is quite free 
from sediment, and from any deleterious 
adulteration. Doubtless the best way of 
coloring butter late in fall and spring, is to 
feed the cow upon early cut hay, nicely 
cured, with the addition of a daily mess of 
caiTots, oat and corn meal, etc., us no arti¬ 
ficial coloring will then be required, while the 
flavor and quality of the butter approximates 
more nearly to that made when the cows are 
at pasture. But as the kind of hay I have 
named may not be at hand, something, of 
course, must be done to take away that tal¬ 
lowy look which winter and spring butter is 
apt to have. 
I have Been a rich yellow color imparted 
to butter by coloring with carrots. The car¬ 
rots should be thoroughly cleaned, then with 
a knife scrape off the yellow exterior only, 
and soak it in boiling milk ten or fifteen min¬ 
utes. It is then strained t hrough a flue cloth, 
and the liquid added to the cream before 
churning. It not only gives a nice color, but 
some think it imparts ft sweetness of flavor 
to the butter, somewhat resembling that 
obtained when the cows are feeding upon 
grass. When carrots are used for the pur¬ 
pose indicated, the outer or yellow portion of 
the root only is employed, r have heard it 
suggested that batter colored in this way 
(with carrots), is injured somewhat in its 
keeping qualities, but in my own experience 
I have not found this to be the case. in* the 
use of annatto it is understood, of course, 
that the coloring is to be added to the cream 
before churning. 
turn to the sides, shoulders, etc., aa they 
come through the sluices from the upper 
floor. The trimmed sides and shoulders arc 
first rubbed over with salt, then put up in 
piles from four to Bix or more feet in hight, 
with layers of Onondaga or Liverpool salt, 
where they are permitted to remain five or 
six days before overhauling and subjecting 
to another rubbing over with salt. This 
overhauling is repeated three or four times, 
when tboy are retriramed, cleaned, weighed 
and pressed into boxes, containing, on an av¬ 
erage, from five hundred and twenty to five 
hundred and forty poundB, in which it is 
shipped to market. 
The greater part of the packing houses do 
not smoke any hams, selling them fresh at 
present; but some are intending to erect 
smoke-houses in addition to the packing 
house. Geo. R. Drake. 
Pliny, Saline Co., Kan. 
DAIRYING IN SCOTLAND AND NEW 
YORK COMPARED. 
THE CHICAGO PORK-PACKING HOUSE, 
According to Gilbert Murray, there are 
some interesting features in dairy manage¬ 
ment peculiar to the southwestern counties 
of Scotland, The cows are frequently let to 
men who either pay a fixed rent per cow, or 
deliver over to the farmer a stated weight of 
cheese; these men are principally called 
“bowers.” The fanner owns the cows and- 
furnishes a stated quantity of food, the 
“bower” and his family performing the 
whole of the manual labor of feeding and at¬ 
tending to the cows and making the cheese. 
In Ayrshiro many dairy farms have a very 
limited area of permanent pasture, many of 
the farms being under arable culture, and 
managed on a five or six course rotation. 
The cows are principally pastured on I lie one 
or two years “seed layers,” which on good 
land keep a large quantity of stock. Not (in¬ 
frequently, 24 imperial acres of second years' 
seed will pasture 22 Ayrshire cows and a bull 
from the 1st of May to the end of September. 
The Scotch dairy fanners, as a rule, use hay 
very sparingly. On most farms oat straw is 
substituted, and of this they have an abuu- 
dant supply, When cows are let to a “bow¬ 
er,” the usual allowance is from five to six 
tons of roots per cow, in about equal propor¬ 
tions of Swede and common Aberdeen tur¬ 
nips, and %% hundred weight of bean meal 
to each animal. The rent per cow varies in 
accordance with the quality of the pastures 
and the merits of the herd, from 3 cwt. to -I 
cwt. (536 to 448 pounds) per cow, or when 
paid in cash, £13 to £14 (§60 to §70) per cow. 
The present price for ordinary daily cows 
ranges from £14 to £21 or $70 to $105. Show 
cows, or such as are selected for exportation, 
command from £50 to £70, equal to $250 and 
$350 American gold. 
Some of the best Ayrshire herds, it is said, 
will, when in their best condition and well 
fed, produce a total of 800 gallons per cow 
during the season ; but on the whole, 600 gal¬ 
lons per cow during the year is thought to be 
a fair average. # From this it will beseen that 
the Ayrshire herds yield at the rate of 500 to 
600 pounds of cheese for the season. The 
rent per cow, it will be observed, is very 
much more than is obtained In America; 
while it is evident the cost of keeping the 
oow, under the peculiar management of the 
Scotch farmer, is less than with us. In the 
daily regions of New York, dairy farms 
stocked with cows are rented on shares, the 
landlord getting three-fifths of the butter and 
cheese and one-half the grain and vegetables 
raised and one-lialf the pork. Mo3t of the 
grain, however, is fed out on tho farm, and 
if grain is to b© purchased, each party fur¬ 
nishes one-half. Eaeh party alRo furnishes 
equal shares of swine for fattening. 
The best rented dairies of New York turn 
off during the season from 406 to 50!) pounds 
of cheese per cow. Probably 400 pounds per 
cow would be a large average, taking the 
whole of such herds. At this rate, the land¬ 
lord gets 240 pounds of cheese as his'share 
for the rent; which, if 13 cents per pound be 
assumed as the average net price, will amount 
to a little less than $20 per cow. Thus, it will 
be seen that tho American farmer who rents 
his farm and cows gets only about half as 
much rent as the farmers in Scotland. 
There is no doubt that one of the leading 
faults in American dairying to-day is the low 
yield of cheese per cow, and this results not 
altogether from the breed of cows, but from 
the manner in which they are managed and 
from the negligent way in which they are 
often milked. Wo know of herds of the so- 
called “native cattle” which, wheumanaged 
by careful Herkimer county dairymen, have 
been made to yield during the summer from 
600 to 700 pounds of cheese per cow. These 
dairymen, however, are not tenants, but are 
the owners of the herds they milk. We ap¬ 
prehend the Scotch 11 bower” is a more care¬ 
ful manager and better milker than is usually 
found among the American tenant dairymen, 
and this makes a wide difference in the yield 
of milk, whether the herd be first-class or 
only ordinary. 
AMATEUR FARMING, 
There are many amateur farmers around 
the great cities of the States. They do a vast 
deal of good in several ways, for they employ 
a number of hands and try a great many ex¬ 
periments which the common farmer bene¬ 
fits by when one of the results proves to be 
good for the county, climate and profits of 
the form, which encourages this class and 
sets the brains working more vigorously. 
These amateur farmore are often merchants 
who have succeeded in making an independ¬ 
ency; and any man having sufficient busi¬ 
ness tact to accumulate a fortune is a valu¬ 
able adjunction to the agricultural com¬ 
munity. Mr. Mkghi, the English farmer, 
who is at the present day su often quoted 
from, commenced his career as an agricul¬ 
turist when I was young. I recollect his at¬ 
tendance at the agricultural shows when 
they first formed in England, and the laugh¬ 
ing there was, every now and then, at the 
blunders he made in his fanning operations 
and also at his mistakes in his speeches; for 
lie spoke a good deal, to the great amuse¬ 
ment of the old fanners, who were quick to 
detect aught proving his inexperience and 
in many instances, thirty years ago, his rash 
and Un remunerating expenditure. The ten¬ 
ant farmers of those davB were jealous of 
any claimed success by trio uninitiated, and 
ufraid that improvements which Mr. MKCHI 
published, as causing extraordinary crops, 
would act on the landowners’ mind inju¬ 
riously to the tenants, inasmuch as they 
might expect to receive more from their es¬ 
tates; however, in time a good feeling was 
brought about, and Mr. Mkchi, by his annual 
gathering and liberal hospitality (such din¬ 
ners !). gained the counsel of great practical 
agriculturists; for those occasions brought 
out the ideas from the guests, which so 
shrewd a man as Mr. M. acted on in his own 
peculiar way, and by his accounts the costly 
expenditure lifts been made to pay interest 
of money, though a long one. 
However, what is not generally known on 
lliis side the Atlantic has been accomplished 
by the notoriety brought about by this cele¬ 
brated “Giptree Hall” farm; the business 
which Mr. MEcm was engaged in so Increased 
that he has made au immense fortune in that 
way, Amateurs in America will continue to 
enter the agricultural arena and will doubt¬ 
less still further assist, in developing the taste 
for high farming, which, when carried out 
systematically, upon a sound, common-sense 
standing, must put on one side all the poor, 
trembling, over-cautious laud suckers. 
A Working Farmer. 
NEW DEVICES FOR MAKING AND 
PACKING BUTTER. 
It is said that tho Patent Office records 
show that more than 8,000 different patents 
have been taken out for churns, and yet our 
inventors go on, bringing out .something new 
in this line from year to year. Of tho recent 
inventions, Whipple’s rectangular churn de¬ 
serves mention from the peculiar manner in 
which it is hung. It is simply a cubical box, 
and hangs suspended on gudgeons from the 
two diagonal corners of the cube. As the 
box Is revolved, the cream constantly falls 
from corner to corner, thus giving a more di¬ 
versified agitation than when in the box 
chum os ordinarily arranged. It is more 
easily operated than the ordinary revolving 
box churn, and the butter forms in coarse 
grains, its operation in this respect being su¬ 
perior for a first-class product. Tho ease 
with which the churn is operated, tho uni¬ 
form manner in which the milk or cream Is 
agitated in all parts, together with the con¬ 
venience of the machine for being cleaned, 
all make it preferable to any revolving box 
or barrel churn we have seen. 
The McComb churn is also a box chum in 
form, in which two dashers operate. The 
dashers work alternately up and down, being 
suspended from an iron crank above the 
churn and resting on supports rising at each 
end of the box. The crank is accelerated in 
its motion by gearing, and as it revolves the 
dashers are operated up and clown. The new 
feature of this machine is in the manner 
which the dashers are made to operate. We 
did not see it tested in churning cream or 
milk, but presume the choraoter of batter it 
would produce is similar to that where the 
old dash churn is used. 
A new device for butter packages has also 
been brought out. It consists of a cylinder 
of glass, stone, or galvanized iron, with wood¬ 
en heads grooved so as to receive the ends of 
the cylinder. Then there are four or five 
icon rods which go through the headings out 
side the cylinder with nut and screw, by 
which tl^ heads may be drawn together, 
thus making the packages water-tight, Tho 
inventor claims that the packages can be 
made very cheaply, and may be used for 
other purposes than butter after they have 
been sent to market and served once as but¬ 
ter packages. The device does not strike us 
favorably, and we do not believe galvanized 
sheet iron will make a good material to be 
used for butter packages. 
AGRICULTURE IN GREECE 
In Northern Greece, agricultural imple¬ 
ments are of the rudest character. On the 
rich, Crisaaean plains, within an hour of tho 
bay of Corinth, the Homeric plow still turns 
the earth. A stick of hard wood, sharpened 
and held point downward, is drawn by ox or 
donkey. 11’ tlic form of a plow Is giveii, with 
rude coulter, the acme is obtained. Whore 
wealth exists and intelligence is more ad¬ 
vanced, it is difficult to introduce modern 
implements. The attempt was made near 
Livadhia to use an iron plow of the pattern 
approved elsewhere, anil the peasants reject¬ 
ed it and clung to the fashions of their ances¬ 
tors. Only the sickle is used iu reaping. 
Grain is threshed on earth-hardened or atono 
doors, by the treading of cattle, horses or 
men, as the Old Testament describes the 
process in the days of the patriarchs. It is 
winnowed by tossing it into the air, and al¬ 
lowing the wind to carry off the chaff, while 
i lie kernel falls into a sieve shaken by hand. 
These methods prevailoven under the shadow 
of the Acropolis of Athens. It is no wonder 
that the donkeys have not much burden of 
harvest to carry to distant markets, even 
from fruitful Boeotia. 
Nor is it strange that out of four million 
acres of arable land iu the kingdom, only one 
million and a half are under cult ivation at all. 
The government tax is one-tenth of the pro¬ 
duct in kind. Notwithstanding all these 
drawbacks, the value of cereals produced in 
Greece, according to the official figures of 
last year, was $7,532,333, and tin; principal 
products exported amounted to $8,348,864. 
Of currants, the crop ranges from 70,000 to 
82,000 tons a year, valued at from $5 to $6 
per ton.—Ellis 11. Roberts, 
COLORING BUTTER 
J. W. Jaggau, St. Paul, Minn,, writes: 
“ If you can uid me iu getting a simple recipe 
for coloring salted butter so as to make a 
uniform color with the agency of some harm¬ 
less substance please to do so.” In response 
we copy the following from Willard’s Prac¬ 
tical Dairy Husbandry (for sale at this office ; 
price $3.) page 499, 
