Be careful to do this in a workmanlike man¬ 
ner and not haggle it in any way ; then cut 
into quarters. Leave all Ike ribs on the fore¬ 
quarters. Divide it so as to cut directly in 
front of the kidneys, but not through them. 
Cover with strong muslin, mark plain, and 
ship by express. Beef w eighing 200 lbs. and 
over to the quarter sells best . 
Hog-Dressed Calves .—After killing, the 
calf should be hung up by the hind legs, and 
entrails, haslet (liver, etc.) and gullet re¬ 
moved. The skin should be left on. Do not 
split the calf through the breast-bone or hind 
quarters; cut off the head, also the legs, 
close to the knee joint. Carefully wipe out 
the blood with a damp cloth. Let the calf 
hang until perfectly cool. Fasten a tag be¬ 
tween the hind legs and ship by express. 
Mutton should be dressed the. same as veal, 
with the exception that the slcin should be 
removed. The remarks in regard to covering 
and shipping beef will also apply to mutton. 
Dressed Hog *.—Take particular pains to 
have them thoroughly scraped. Split all 
: the way down from the throat to the tail. 
J Don’t cut into the back bone, remove all the 
entrails, haslet and tongue. Small hogs sell 
best. 
TAltOW. 
Great care should be taken to prevent its 
burning. Have it clean and white. Pack in 
clean, solid barrels and ship by freight. 
DRIE.0 FRUITS. 
Apples to be sold as sliced should be cut as 
thin as ordinary pasteboard. Peaches should 
be peeled and quartered, although unpeeled 
I sell moderately well. There are a number of 
new processes for drying fruit, all possessing 
lever or other mechanical power, thus hold¬ 
ing the contents firm, so that they will not 
loosen in the barrel. Eggs are often broken 
by crowding too many in a barrel : 60 to 65 
doz. ure quite sufficient. Put 4)<j do/., in the 
first layer; increase proportionately until 
you get *>.' > do/, in the two middle layers ; 
then decrease t he number. The count should 
be carefully and honestly made and plainly 
marked on the barrel. Short count Is al 
ways detected and dealers avoid fraudulent 
brands. Mark your name and shipping di¬ 
rections plainly and neatly on every barrel, 
aud ship by express or fast freight. Send 
shipping receipts by mail. Don't send any 
slate eggs ; they trill lose you money and in¬ 
jure the reputation of your brand. 
DRESSED POULTRY. 
Secure plump, well-fatted birds. Bleed 
them in the mouth or throat. Scald enough 
to make the feathers come off easily ; pick 
both feathers and pin-feathers all off nicely, 
taking great care not to bruise or break the 
skin in any u-ay. If any get accidentally 
bruised or have the skin broken, sell or use 
at home, as they would hurt the sale of the 
whole lot. Leave, all the entrails in end 
heads and feet on. Immediately after they 
are dressed dip once or twice in hot. water, 
then in ice water, then hang in a cool place 
where they will dry off and get stiff before 
packing. Pack in boxes or barrels, in nice, 
clean rye straw. If this cannot be obtained, 
dry oat straw will do. Old dry goods boxes, 
holding from 100 to 200 pounds, are the most 
desirable style of package. Very fancy 
poultry presents a better appearance, and 
sells more readily, if each bird is wrapped 
up separately in ntce white wrapping paper 
before being packed in strf.w. Be sure to 
pack solid, so they will not bruise in transit. 
Park with breast down. Poultry prepared 
in this wav always finds a ready market, 
than one color ; if a churning is accidentally 
scalded, or from aDy ether cause is lightci 
than the balance of the package, it should 
be left out, as a single pound of light-colored 
butter will decrease the value of a whole 
package 5 to 10c. per lb.—quite an item. 
Half-firkin tub?, made throughout of w hite 
oak, with flat covers and round hickory 
hoops, are daeidcdly the best packages for 
choice butter, and sell as well as fancy pails, 
provided the butter is as good. Butter may 
be adva-'tageously kept under brine while in 
the dtiry, but when finally closed up for , 
market the pickle should bo carefully turned 
off and a cloth wet with strong brine laid j 
over the top. The lid should never touch 
the butter. As soon as a tub is full It should 
be sent to market; it is then new and sweet, 
and the chances aro it will never be worth 
any more than it then is ; even if the market 
price advances, the quality deteriorates pro¬ 
portionately. Persons, however, who are dis¬ 
posed to speculate and hold their butter for 
winter market should use firkins and head 
them up tight when full. 
A few words in regard to the care of cows 
will not be amiss. Too many farmers allow 
their cows to be brought home by dogs for 
milking. This is all wrong ; any unusual ex¬ 
citement makes the milk feverish, out of 
which it is impossible to make good butter 
or cheese. Cows should have access to pure 
water at all times. There should be shade 
trees in their pasture in summer, and in win¬ 
ter they should be kept in warm, clean and 
well-ventilated stables. In milkiig use tin 
pails only. 
* CHEESE. 
Cheese-making having been reduced to a 
science by our factory system, there is but 
little left for us to say on the subject. There 
are. a few points, however, which wo shall 
notice. The tendency of the times is to 
make cheese that ripen quickly and spoil 
soon after they ripen. This is seriously in¬ 
juring the sale of American Cheese abroad, 
preparing produce for market. 
Thk following letter from the Agents of 
the Patrons of Husbandry in New York City, 
to the Chairman of the Executive Com¬ 
mittee of that Order, contain* 80 m;m >' valu ' 
able suggestions on the subject of I icparing 
Produce for Market, that we think thousands 
of our readers, near and distant, will l»e 
benefited by its perusal. All interested in 
sending Butter, Cheese, Poultry, Game, Fresh 
Meats, Dried Fruit, &c., to this market, will 
find the hints and suggestions of special 
value: 
Wm. Sacnders, Esq., Chairman &*■< Com. 
Nat'l Orange, Patrons of Husbandry, 
Washington, D. C. 
Dear Sir Having been appointed as 
Agents for the sale of Produce for your Or¬ 
der, we naturally feel interested in its pros¬ 
perity and wish to give you a few sugges¬ 
tions, which we trust will be of practical 
benefit to your members. 
Your object in securing united action 
against Transportation monopolies is decid¬ 
edly a praiseworthy one. also your system of 
purchasing farming utensils and machinery 
from first hands is a want long felt supplied. 
But there is another, and believe ns a greater, 
reform needed, and ono that begins nearer 
We refer to 
home than either of the above, 
the shabby manner in which too many of the 
farm products are sent to market. Every 
farmer should learn how to prepare the pro¬ 
ducts of his farm ao as to sell for the highest 
price in the market for which it is intended. 
We venture the assertion, if all the produce 
received in New York was properly prepared 
it would net the farmers at least 50 per cent, 
more than it now does and save the farming 
community millions of dollars annually— 
more than t he tot al amount paid for freight. 
Popular opinion varies in different locali¬ 
ties. What will sell to the fancy upper-ted- 
dom in one market will sometimes find no 
customers above the hucksters in another. 
Let us illustrate : Take dressed poultry for j 
instance. For the New York market the 
entrails must bo left In and heads and feet 
on. If they are removed, it sells to the 
lower classes at 3 to 5c. per lh. less than it j 
would have sold tor lmd it been dressed ac¬ 
cording to the popular ideas and to suit the 
taste of the fastidious Gothamites, thus 
making a direct loss of at least 50 per cent, 
to the farmers—loss in weight and price be¬ 
ing considered. On the other hand, we find 
that in some of our neighboring cities they 
reverse this order, and the better elasses of 
society require their poultry drawn and all 
ready for cooking, and pay for it accordingly. 
The cause of this, in both cases, is prejudice 
—nothing more nor less. The one claims 
that by exposing the insides to the air the 
poultry spoils quickly, while the others 
claim the entrails spoil the meat if left in any 
length of time after killing. 
Another Illustration : In Philadelphia rolls 
and fancy print butter sell readily at the 
highest prices, while with us it is slow sale 
at 5 a 6c. per lb. less than solid packed. So 
we might go on through almost every variety 
of farm produce. In order that the require¬ 
ments of our trade may be known, we ap¬ 
pend the following directions, which, if 
closely followed, will secure good prices : 
■UTTER. 
Great car© should be taken to have every 
thing where the butter is made and milk 
kept perfectly clean and no offensive odors 
of any kiud around, as nothing is more easily 
impregnated by impure air than milk and 
butter. A great many theories are ad- 
by 15 inches in diameter). This is, we thins, 
the most desirable kind to make. The per¬ 
centage of shrinkage is not so heavy, nor 
the expense of boxing so great ns on smaller 
sizes. There is another saving of fractions 
of pounds. For instance, take two small 
cheese, weighing 30} „ lbs.; fractions not be¬ 
ing allowed, they would sell for only 60 lbs., 
while the same curd in one cheese would sell 
for 61 lbs. 
A great many cheese-makers scald too 
high. This has a similar effect as skimming 
the milk, the cream passing off into the 
whey. Our best makers cook slowly and at 
a temperature not over 94 to 07% and use 
sufficient acid to give the cheese solidity. 
The Southern trade prefer small, flat cheese, 
about SO lbs. each, high colored, and don’t 
object to their being open made. This trade 
takes but a limited amount, for which they 
pay good prices ; but the supply is always in 
excess of the demand, and the overstock 
Advise your consignors, when you star., no 
have a customer ready to buy the load on 
arrlVl1 ' 0AM. 
Wild Game of every description should not 
be dressed, either picked or skinned. Quail, 
partridge, prairie chickens and woodcock 
should be wrapped in paper to keep the 
plumage smooth and straight. Pack same 
as poultry. Venison .—The intestines should 
be taken out clean, and the earcass hung up, 
thoroughly washed with cold water, and 
left hanging until dry. The skin should be 
left on. Fasten a tag between the hind legs, 
with name and address of both consignor 
and consignee thereon. 
FRESH HEATS. 
Experienced butchers are, as a rule, the 
only persons competent to properly dress 
meats for market, and unless properly dress¬ 
ed, no matter how fat and desirable it nmy 
be, it is impossible to obtain anything like 
full price. The following directions will be 
useful to novices in the trade r 
Be£f .—Hang up by the hind leg. When 
taking off the skin, great care should be 
taken not to get any hairs on the meat. As 
soon as dressed take a damp cloth aud care- 
fully wipe off all the blood, and then take 
some tallow from the inside and grease it all 
over on the outside. Do this while the ani¬ 
mal heat is still in the body. When you cut 
' it up split it in the middle all the way up. 
for, can be sent from the Far West and suc¬ 
cessfully compete, with “ Jerseys,’’ which al¬ 
ways bring top prices. If the following di¬ 
rections are carried out there is but little 
doubt of success : 
Be sure■ the eggs have been recently laid. 
They may appear sound, but if they have 
been laid over a week or two the motion of 
the cars muddles them and renders a large 
proportion unfit for use. If possible they 
should be shipped within a week after they 
are laid. Procure strong, new barrels ; pack 
in ldln-dried, fine-cut straw or wheat chaff. 
Never use buckwheat, or oat chaff. Cats may 
be used for packing, but some customers will 
not buy them, and they increase the rate 
of freight or expressage, so we advise the 
use of straw or chaff. Put about six inches 
of the packing in the bottom of the barrel, 
then a layer of eggs on their sides, with 
the large ends toward Ike sides of the barrel, 
about an inch from the staves ; rover each 
layer with about an inch of packing ; rub 
well between the eggs with the hand ; pack 
j to within about five inches of the top ; then 
fill up with packing so high that the head 
1 will have to be pressed into its place by a 
cream. Uur experience on a uaiq wm 
leads us to the belief that the milk should 
be strained into flat pans and placed in a cool 
cellar—each cow’s milk being kept separate. 
In this way we get more cream from # the 
same amount of milk than any other we ever 
saw tried. Skim soon after it begins to sour 
(about the time it begins to thicken in the 
bottom) and churn the cream. In churning 
use as little warm water as possible ; during 
hot weather none is required. It will be 
found advisable to add as much cold water 
as you Lave cream at the commencement of 
the churning. When taken from the churn 
the butter should ue nrefully washed in 
order to remove all the buttermilk, which, 
if left in, soon sours and spoils the butter. 
After washing, it should be salted with fine 
salt (Ashton’s “factory filled” is the best) 
and allowed to stand several hours in a cool 
place before it is worked and packed. Work 
only enough to thoroughly mix in the salt, 
as too much working spoils the grain. Don’t 
send any butter to market that has more 
NEWS AND NOTES FOR PATRONS, 
TrTERE are 63 Granges in Maine. 
Matters have been arranged for fraternal 
relations between the National Grange and 
the Dominion Grange of Canada. 
The Missouri State Grange publishes its 
quarterly report, showing receipts from the 
subordinate Granges of £6.675.48. 
The Grange, has a good foundatien in Can¬ 
ada. There is one Dominion Grange, five di¬ 
vision and eigty-three subordinate Grange 
in Ontario. 
