JULY 24 
THE BUBAL WEW-YORKEB. 
s 
vatcb the process closely, and to notice jnst 
when this change is to take place. At this time 
a<l<l enough cold water (not ice) to reduce the 
temperature of the mass to about fifty-six or 
fifty-eight degrees, and then complete thoohnru- 
iug, which will be as soon as the butter is in a 
granulated form, with particles about the size of 
peas. Then draw off the buttermilk and dish in 
cold water, repeating the washing until the wa¬ 
ter drawn off appears clear. Now, take out a 
layer of butter into the tray, and sprinkle on 
finely sifted salt, at the rate of about an ounce 
of salt, to the pound (more or less as consumers 
may wish.) Then take out another layer of but¬ 
ter and salt as before. After the butter is 
salted, sot it away for about tbreo hours for it 
“ to take salt " and “harden tho grain." Now 
work it a little with a wooden paddle, and set it 
away again until the next day, when it will 
need but little working before preparing it for 
market. 
By handling in this way you will get a clean, 
bright article, with a perfect or unbroken grain, 
which will keep sweet whether consumed imme¬ 
diately or packed down for future marketing, 
ir the butter is soft and white, it is from a lack 
cf proper cooling before churning and it may be 
hardened by putting in about three times the 
usual amount of salt, and working it a little for 
two or three mornings. Many of our very best 
dairymen, and buttermakors of Philadelphia gilt- 
edged butter, use from 2 to 3 ounces of salt to 
five pounds of butter. In this case the salt is 
usually added at tho final working, and, of course, 
all remains in the batter. 
COMMENCING SHEEP FARMING. 
Ik tho object is to sell mutton, lambs and wool, 
it will require but little capital to commence 
sheep farming because, if a ptiro-brod ram be 
used, in purchasing tho ewes it will not bo of 
great consequence of what breed they are, so 
that they are healthy and not more than three 
years old. 
There is a great deal of loss sustained by 
many in consequence 0 f giving the ewes nothing 
but dry hay. This causes them to have very 
weak limbs and to yield no milk--a mishap that 
might be obviated by giving them some bran, or 
by letting them run out on some pasture where 
grass, of a variety to bo oaten in the dead of 
• winter, was growing in the autumn. Thus old 
pastures, having been a long timo undisturbed 
by the plow, will have native grasses established, 
many of which will be palatable and will sustain 
no injury from beiug grazed. It would also be 
well to give a few roots to ewes, but when they 
are given in a very lavish way, they cause an 
unnatural growth of the fotu.s, and honoo a diffi¬ 
culty arises at tho birth, which endangers tho 
life of both dam and offspring. 
Again, there are fully a year's growth and 
many pounds of wool lost through not feeding 
roots freely to the lambs tho first winter after 
being woaued; we should Bay the tegs, for in 
England the tegs, which lie out in tho turnip 
fields all winter, exposed to all weather, day and 
night, come to market woiglxing quite as lioavy 
when one year old, as any sheep two years old in 
this country, and the fleece of wool from a teg, 
after tho winter’s exposuro and tho lying upon 
plowed land, with nothing undor them but tbo 
bare earth, will be worth as much as the two 
fleeces cut from the American aheep of two 
years. Thus it may be readily understood how- 
very absurd is the idea with some farmers in tho 
United States, that all cattle and sheep are in¬ 
jured by common rain, aud I have known mares 
in foal, with only onb-third of their time gone, 
and other horses, fetched out of field to be 
stabled in summer rains. 
SHEEP - SHEARING. 
About tho middle of June is the right time for 
sheep-shearing in the Northern States. In En¬ 
gland it is the custom always to wash them be¬ 
fore the operation. Even when shorn early to 
be slaughtered or taken to market, they are 
washed, but it is done there without any han¬ 
dling, exoepting the tossing of the sheep into 
the pool. There are different ways of washing; 
but it is a custom almost universal to have a 
pipe running from a largo reservoir and dis¬ 
charging, by means of a spout, into a small pool 
made for the purpose, tho whole being so ar- 
ranged that the water falls three or four feet 
onto the sheep, as, one at a time, they are pushed 
under it by hooks made for the purpose. These 
ha\ a a long handle and are furnished with two 
iron crooks at the end, one to push. the sheep 
into the water and the other to pull it out, as the 
holder stands on the bank. When a large flock 
is brought to the wash-pool, they are put in a 
pen close to one side of the pond, aud two men 
uive a short, thick stick which they put under 
tho belly nf each animal, as they take hold of it 
on each side of the neck. They then step to the 
pool and throw the animal gently in, another 
man being close at hand, armed with one of the 
hooked poles, to prevent the sheep from passing 
from under the spout till they have soaked a 
short timo. Then another man, or one of those 
who threw them in. goes to tho opposite side of 
the running water, and the two men with tho 
hooks push, pull and turn over each sheep, as 
it comes under the spout, till they sco that all 
tbu dirt is washed out; and this is effected, in 
this way, in ono-fourth of the timo iu which it 
could be douo by band, yet no one has to get 
wet-footed, or even havo his clothos wet. 
I havo had two hundred washed at a timo, and 
five hundred are often washed in a day at ono of 
these little washing places, which are sometimes 
at a mill-dam, the miller only charging six cents 
a score for tho use of the pen. It often hap¬ 
pens, however, that the largo farmers have a 
good place made on the farm, and walled up so 
as to last, a life-time, for everything in that old 
country is made most, substantially and lasts 
generation after generation. 
The genera] waslung of the flocks takes place 
from the latter end of May to the middle of 
Juno, aud the shearing is performed from four 
to ten days after the washing, according to the 
character of the weather. In this way I havo 
washed my father's sheep, or rather helped to do 
so. In my boyhood, and afterwards, for many 
years, I have had several hundreds, and some¬ 
times as many as a thousand, washed in like 
manner, some in February, others in March and 
April, yet I have never had one of them die from 
cold and exposure. I havo known thousands of 
them, after having been shorn in March, to 
travel by road from tbo vicinity of the Ootswold 
Hills to London — a distance of from SO to 100 
miles. But shoep that have been fattened on 
Swedish turnips to the oxteut to which the thing 
is done nowadays in England, cannot walk far iu 
their wool. 
The reason why sheep, in the United States* 
feel the loss of their fleeces much more sensi¬ 
tively than those in England, is on account of 
tho stabling used for them here. Over yonder 
the animals are kept out in all sorts of weather, 
while in this country they are kept coniinod in tho 
spring through fear of dogs, and from having so 
much artificial shelter they become tender, and 
a rain storm, just after the fleece has been shorn 
off, will make them suffer severely aud, accord¬ 
ing to some accounts, many have been known to 
die outright from tho visitation, 
Tho dog nuisance is a very groat one, and 
ought to roceivo tho serious attention of every 
sensible mind. Every evil ought to havo a cure, 
and if mild remedies fail, why not resort to those 
that cannot ? Do away with all the useless curs, 
and put upon all others a tax so boavy, that none 
hut very valuable animals can be kept. More¬ 
over, give a reward of $10 for the capture of 
every dog at large without an owner. This done, 
sheep could remain on their pasture iu safety, 
grass-land would not become poor from losing 
the dung and urine in consequence of tho shoep 
being away during tho night, and every farmer 
would then acknowledge the expediency of sheep 
husbandry. 
There are gentlemen who are lino business 
characters, well-moaning and good at heart, but 
who, in spite of all this, set bail examples, and 
keep a number of dogs which are of no use what¬ 
ever, not even as watch dogs. For from their 
numbors and their constant barking iu answer to 
each other, nobody heeds the noise. Tho poor 
people in each neighborhood, seeing tho rich 
encouraging the multiplication of dogs, obtain 
some too, and thus whole townships are infested 
and overrun with the caniuo race. Bettor far to 
destroy tho last shepherd dog than to have h 
country, like tho Unitod States, obliged to buy 
sixty millions dollars’ worth of wool ovory year, 
because tho useless dogs prevent tho growth ol 
it at home. A Working Farmer. 
AMERICAN BEEF AGAIN. 
Prof. Gamgee, in a late address before the 
Nottinghamshire Chamber of Agriculture, says : 
“The American meat came in very large size, 
and so much had been done even in the very 
imperfect state of knowledge upon the subject. 
But tho Americans had no foot-and-mouth dis¬ 
ease, and their meat came over in splendid con¬ 
dition, owing to its absolute and common sound¬ 
ness. It was difficult to bring over large quan¬ 
tities of American meat, and a great deal of it 
went to decay almost immediately it was landed. 
It was good only for the knife-and-fork trade. 
People wanted to land it aud then eat it. The 
important matter would be to have the trade in 
meat so regulated as to prevent gluts on the 
markets and prevent, also, the possibility of a 
pound of meat beiug Hold for anything less than 
a fair and remunerative price. Farmers did not 
care for fair competition with foroign meat — 
that they were prepared to encounter ; Lut they 
feared unfair competition.” 
He tlion proceeds to develop a plan for build¬ 
ing a glaciarium iu which the temperature can 
be kept at 3 :> 1 aud moat preserved indefinitely. 
This question of Amoricau competition appears to 
bo agitating the Euglisb mind very thoroughly, 
and it is to bo hoped that its solution will pro¬ 
duce beuelioial rosults to tho English working, 
man, whose meat diet has heretofore been but 
meager. 
--- 
LOOK TO YOUR STOCK. 
A seasonable reminder, it is hopod, may iu- 
dueo those who havo hitherto been careless about 
attending to tboir stock, at this busy season, to 
pay due hoed to the requirements of ono of tho 
most important branches of agricultural econ¬ 
omy. Lot ua once moro impress ou all that 
cows, to givo the greatest amount of milk, 
should, during the hot weather, have an abun¬ 
dance of good, clean water. On the importance, 
causes and consequences of this we havo lately 
dwelt at length. 
The hot sun of these days renders the grass 
less succulent as it matures, and dries up tho 
natural supply of water, so that it will stand tho 
farmer in pocket to pump a liberal supply for 
his stock, four, or oven iivo times a day, wher¬ 
ever there is not an abuudance of clean, fresh 
water supplied by natural means. Tho use of 
surface water from stagnant pools is at once in¬ 
jurious to the animals themsolves and to the 
milk they yield. 
jSriciififk ant) toful. 
JUTE AND ITS USES. 
Ho much has been said of .Tuto, iu tho last few 
years, that we are constantly on the lookout for 
developments in regard to its culture or uses. 
Tho following pleasant story, from All the Year 
Bound, throws some light upon the history of 
this somewhat remarkable plant, although but 
little on the method of its cultivation or prepara¬ 
tion for market. 
Jute, in commercial parlance, is the name of a 
comparatively now importation ; In botany it 
rises to the stylo of Corchorus capsularis, It is 
Asiatic chiefly—though some two or three out of 
its forty or fifty species are found in most tropi¬ 
cal countries of both hemispheres, or in tho lati¬ 
tudes bordering close upon them—and it is of 
tho farthest antiquity, indeed, thero is little 
reason to dismiss tho surmise that when Delilah 
bound Samson with “tho seven green withes 
that had never boon dried," the Philistines had 
given her jute withes, and she waB just using an 
ordinary appliance, tho one most ready to hand. 
The basis for this supposition is the fact that tho 
word translated “withes" is, in tho Hebrew 
reading, joter—that means cordage, or roping 
stuff or any kind. It is quite common for tho 
name of a specified individual thing to be affixed 
to a whole race or tribe : and jute happens to bo 
precisely oue of these cordages or roping stuffs 
used for all manuer of tying purposes all over 
the East, right down to the present day. It 
grows full 12 feot iu bight, tho thickness of the 
little linger, of the cane or cylindrical form; and 
cords aro mado of it (and of other fibrous plants) 
by simply twisting a duster of tho stalks to¬ 
gether, as English farm servants twist bands of 
hay. Used as it is being supposed Delilah used 
it, just as it grows, new and raw, “green” and 
full of sap, it is by nature a tough band or liga¬ 
ture, and it is tied as a tothor rotiud the legs of 
now-caught elephants and other boasts of tho 
chase, it is bound round packages, it makes 
rough harnessing—in short, it is a rope, and can 
have occasions found for it just the same as for 
ropes of any other kind. It is the length of jute 
that pointed it out in this special mauner for 
cordage. A soft, silky fiber, pliable as a troHS of 
hair, of annual growth, (like a magnified and 
flowering ear of wheat or oats,) beiug twelve feet 
in bight—think of four yards of roady-mado 
ribbon at a stretch !—as thick as a finger if oue 
stalk were used, or as an arm if a great many 
were woven or made into a plait, it was little 
likely it would bo overlooked when dawning 
civilization brought tho need of tying, without 
much chanco of handicraft or selection. 
Asa fabric fiber,Jute iscultivatedin Malacca and 
China, aH well as by the Hindoos; as a plant, it 
is grown in Egypt, Syria, tho West Indies, and 
South Amorica. From tho Corchorus capsularis 
of Hindostan, taking the waste ends of the stem, 
there has been distilled a kind of whisky resem¬ 
bling a corn spirit; from tho Corchorus olttorins, 
(also yielding some part of the jute of com¬ 
merce,) taking the young Bhoota as they come, 
there is obtaiued a pot-herb, of so much use 
aruoug tho Jews that it has been uick-uamed 
Jews-mallows ; from the Corchorus siliquosus of 
the Western Hemisphere the natives got besoms 
and mako an infusion of the young leaves that 
they use as a drink and call by the Ohiuesename 
of tea. Corchorus itself, with its some half a 
hundred species, includes the British plant pim¬ 
pernel or chickwecd; but although that other 
species has had the Bccond name given to it of 
Jews-mallows, it is iu no way Identical with tho 
British mallow, or marsh mallow, or Malta syl- 
testris, nor is it. tho same plant referred to in 
Job, “ they cut up mallows by tho bushes," sot 
down to lie a variety of niosambryanthomum or 
ice-plant, much valued in hot countries for its 
power of retaining moisture. The true Cor- 
chot'us capsularis, or ordinary jute, has beon 
grown in England, under glass, as a curiosity. 
It attained tho rare bight of 14 feet, too, and 
its seeds formed; but as these would not ripen, 
aud it is of no peculiar beauty in a single speci¬ 
men, tho growth was abandoned. Iu India, at 
certain seasons, under its native skies, aud in 
the mass, Jnto affords a magnificent sight. Tho 
railroad, driving through tho land from Calcutta 
to Bombay, takes its travelers past, fields and 
fields of it, with all the beautiful effect of being 
driven through fields of newly-fallen snow. 
- « » » 
SCIENTIFIC AND USEFUL NOTES. 
Borax, put in tho water used for washing ging¬ 
hams and highly colored prints, will preserve the 
colors. 
A French machinist, has discovered that by 
keeping his turning tools constantly wotted with 
petroleum, he was able to out metals and alloys 
with thorn, although when the tools were used 
without tho oils their odges wero turned and 
dulled. The hardest steel can bo turned easily 
if the tools ho thus wet with a mixture of two 
parts of petroleum with one part of turpentine. 
Barrels mado of pasteboard havo been intro¬ 
duced, this spring, for the packing away of wool¬ 
lens and furs. Those are seamless and regarded 
as moth-proof. Tho head, which fits down 
snngly, is tho ouly available entrance for the 
moth, and directions are given to paste a layer 
of brown paper over this almost invisible lino 
whoa tho barrel is packed. Hell your camphor 
aud ruin tho drug stores. 
Tm: account of tho burning of tho Southern 
Hotel, St. I iOuis, elicits, from a correspondent of 
Tho London Times, a suggestion for tho preven¬ 
tion of suffocation by smoko, no says that a 
pillow-case, well saturated with water, and hav¬ 
ing a small hole torn in it to look through, placed 
loosely over the bead, will bo found an admirable 
impromptu respirator in tho densest smoke. 
Vice-Admiral Jornlngham, while iu command of 
the Cambridge gunnery training ship at Ply¬ 
mouth, mado tho first experiment with this 
pillnw-caso respirator, lie had 12 pounds of 
loose powder exploded in a confined part of tho 
ship, which although Beroenod off with fear¬ 
nought, omitted so denso a smoke that those 
outside had to Uo down ou the deck. A common 
pillow-case, with a small eyo-hole, was plaocd 
over tho head or a man, who, with tho hose in 
his hand, wont inside and remained 10 minutes, 
when, to assure his friends outside of his safoty, 
ho sang a comic song. 
A French authority recommends the use of 
saiv-dust Instead of hair in mortar to prevent its 
pooling off, Jlis own house, exposed to pro¬ 
longed storms on the aoa coast, had patches of 
mortar to bo renewed every spring, and after 
trying without cffoct a number of substitutes, 
ho found saw-dust perfectly satisfactory It 
was first thoroughly dried and sifted ttirongti an 
ordinary grain sieve to romovo tho larger par¬ 
ticles. The mortar was mado by mixing ono 
part comont, two lime, two saw-dust, and five 
sharp sand, tho saw-dust being first well mixed 
dry with the cement and saud. 
A French engineer has proposed to establish 
tramways with granite tracks in lieu of rails in 
Finisterro. lie is of opinion that this system is 
far preferable to tho ordinary railroads. Thero 
already exists a vast network of what aro in 
truth tramways with granite rails, worked by 
horse traction in Northern Italy. In the streets 
of the principal towns and sometimes ou tho 
roads, tracks of grauito are laid in the highways. 
The surface of those tracks beiug fiat, aud per¬ 
fectly smooth, tho wheels of the vehicles glide 
over them with the least possible friction. The 
conductor of each vehicle takes care so to guide 
it that the wheels always remain on tho granite. 
The author of the project maintains that there 
is nothing to prevent the grauito lines from 
being used by carriages driven by steam-power 
in like manner as though drawn by horses. 
One of the late inventions for naval attack is 
tho rocket float. This is & small vessel which is 
propelled by a rocket along the surface of the 
water at a speed of 275 miles per hour, and to a 
distance of four miles. In the how of this 
vessel thoreis a quantity of gun-cotton, arranged 
with a percussion cap, so as to explode upon 
striking an obstacle. If ono of these rocket 
floats wero started and accurately directed toward 
a ship at a distance, there is a clear certainty 
that it would arrive before the ship could be 
moved out of range. The charge of gun-cotton 
could easily be made snfticienc to sink, on explo¬ 
sion, any ship that can be built. 
