JULY 23 
THE RURAL NEW-YOBKER. 
PRESERVING BUTTER. 
Several years ago. I read an account in the 
Rural of a method of preserving butter for 
months in excellent condition, and every year 
since then 1 have practiced it with satisfactory 
results. Not only have I, by this means, pre¬ 
served an abundance of summer and fall butter 
all through the winter for the uso of my own 
large family, but, during the last two years, I 
have kept enough to sell a considerable amount 
iu winter, at fair figures, to my less provident 
neighbors. Our best and richest hotter is made 
in May, June, and -Tnly, when the cows’ milk is 
rich, and before llies trouble them too much. 
This can bo easily kept, even until the following 
spring, by the method formerly given in the 
Rural, and which I repeat here: 
First, the butter must bo good when made, all 
the butter-milk must be worked out, and in doing 
this, keep it out of water; don't have any water 
come in contact with it, for it sjsjils it. Butter 
that is washed in working, as it is termed, if 
good, would be much better if it bad not been 
washed. Balt to suit the taste of those who are 
to eat it. Half an ounce of salt to a pound of 
butter is about right- Keep out all your saltpe¬ 
ter. sugar, or other curative ingredients ; it will 
keep better without them, and perhaps, too, 
without salt, but, then, it would not be so pala¬ 
table. Do up the butter each week, churning in 
one or more neat, round rolls of two or three 
pounds each, just what, you havo to put down; 
cover each roll with a clean muslin cloth large 
enough to go round it twice or more, so that it 
will be completely enveloped, and sink it m a 
strong brine, as strong as the best salt will make 
it. Stone vessels are the best, and each roll as 
it is put in may be sunk by placing a clean stone 
on it. Continue to add mure rolls until the ves¬ 
sel is full, always keeping the whole completely 
covered with brine; and to insure strength, add 
more salt when full. Keep it in your cellar or in 
your Bpring-house, and see if it iB not worth, in 
winter or spring, ono hundred per cent, more 
than any winter-made butter. But mark ! the 
butter must bo good, woll made by one who un¬ 
derstands how; must bo well worked, and should, 
by all means, be wrapped up and sunk under 
the brine the same day it is churned, not kept 
lying about for two or three days after churning. 
A good spring, with the water at 56°, is indis¬ 
pensable to make the best No. 1 butter in the 
summer months, and then it must ho churned 
Blow, that, it may oome solid, 
Seneca Co., N. V. Matkheamiliah. 
-- 
THE AMERICAN DAIRY BELT. 
In one of his late lectures, Mr. X. A. Willard 
said concisely what has often been stated more 
at large in these pages, that the American dairy 
belt lies between the fortieth and forty-fifth 
parallels of latitude. It stretches from the At¬ 
lantic to the Mississippi, and possibly to the 
Pacific. Witbin its limits are New York, Penn¬ 
sylvania, New England, tbe northern parts of 
Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, the greater portion 
of Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and a 
part of the Canadas. Of all this belt, probably 
not more than a third of this land is adapted to 
dairying. The duiry lands are quite irregular in 
outline, not always continuously together, hut 
often detached, and not uufrequently, if repre¬ 
sented on the map, they would have the appear¬ 
ance of islands. 
The characteristics of a good 
a nigh, undulating sin-face, numerous springs 
and streams of never-failing water; a soil reten¬ 
tive of moisture, a sweet and nutritious herbage 
that springs up spontaneously and continues to 
grow with great tenacity; a rather low average 
temperature, frequent showers rather than peri¬ 
odical rains or droughts; snflioient covering of 
the ground in winter to protect tho grass roots, 
so that the herbage may be permanent and en¬ 
during. 
--—»-«-♦-- 
DEEP SETTING OF MILK, &c. 
I shall not myself give a decided opinion on 
the above matter, but wish to hear from some 
who have tried it in ice. Mr. Cbozieb’s name is 
used aH approving and lauding the plan, and it 
would he very satisfactory to know if he contin¬ 
ues this system of parlor dairying, for certainly 
it saves a vast deal of labor and is a great boon 
to those haviag charge of milk and butter- 
making. But oi r refrigerator uses up a deal of 
ice, and as there are a great many visitors just 
now, it is necessary to take cream from the milk 
every twelve hours. Very little, howover, rises 
after that, and certainly some milk, set in pans 
in the usual way in the dairy, has given much 
more cream iu proportion to the quantity of 
milk, It would bo very satisfactory to see the 
opinions of several who have used either Ilard- 
iu s Refrigerator or any other, or of those who 
have tried experiments in setting milk and keep¬ 
ing it covered up. 
Those great changes in the manner of dispos¬ 
ing of tho milk, are as startling as the one in 
feeding cows on a small quantity of meal with¬ 
out any hay, and it will oblige mo very much if 
those who have cows which were wintered exclu¬ 
sively on meal, will say, through the columns of 
the Ritual, how their cows have gone on of late. 
We are making and hauling in some very prime 
hay, which it may be advantageous to dispose of, 
and give our cows meal all through tho coming 
winter. 
It is strange so many years should have rolled 
by without discovering that there was no cause 
for so much trouble with milk, or that there was 
no use whatever in giving hay to cows while fed 
on a small quantity of meal. It is equally as¬ 
tonishing that the systems are not universally 
adopted. How is it? Oeokue Gardner. 
Wo have already, more than ouco, stated in 
these pages our own opinion with regard to tho 
various methods of setting milk, but the matter 
is ono of much importance to all with a few 
oows ormauy, and wo shall, therefore, be pleased 
to givo space in our columns to all communica¬ 
tions intended to determine the relative rnorits 
of the different systems.— Eds. 
®|f |oultrjj fjadr. 
by experience that wo are right. It is but 
proper to add, however, that the grinding and 
cooking of tho food for fowls produce such an 
effect that, while tho actual quantity required is 
not increased, the e fleets of this quantity are 
greatly increased. a. r. n. 
EAT POULTRY. 
Mucn misapprehension exists with regard to 
the evil effects of fattening poultry. The old 
theory that fowls can be over-fed so as to cause 
them to coase laying has still many advocates in 
rural districts. Experience, however, does not 
bear out this idea, although there certainly are 
some reasons why poultry-keepers should have 
fallen into the mistake. For pleasant as the 
sight is to soe a yard filled with good fat hens, 
and overjoyed as tho heart of tho henwife may 
bo, when she sees them growing more plump 
every day, still we venture to affirm that in the 
case of hens, as in many others, the old proverb 
:h applicable—’’ H is just possible to have too 
much of a good thing.” It may sound at first 
somewhat like an anomaly when we say that the 
fattest ben in the yard maybe tho most unprofit¬ 
able, but it is quite true ; and unless it bo about 
Christmas time, and it he required for the table, 
it has every chance of remaining ho until it gets 
thinner. Wo all know that cattle may be too fat 
to breed, and certainly it. is no uncommon sight 
to see very fat lieus which do not lay; but as to 
the cause of the latter, much misconception pre¬ 
vails. A bon-wife, on seeing an extra fat bird 
cease laying, will exclaim, “Oh, it is too fat to 
lay,” and this opinion is common among very 
many of those who deal in poultry matters. 
Our experience has shown us that the more a 
hen gets to oat the more she will lay; and as a 
hen weighing about five or six pounds, lays her 
own weight in six weeks, tho process is a very ex¬ 
haustive one. Our doctrine, heuce, is that hens 
become fat because they cease to lay, not that 
they coase to lay because they become fat In 
the case of fowls shut up this does not hold 
good; they have not the same drain on their 
system as those running about, consequently 
they become so fat that the oggH are not prop¬ 
erly fertilized, and it is quite possible that fowls 
confined in small spoco and very highly fed, will 
cease laying, but whore hens havo plenty of 
scopo for exercise, and ordinary good feeding, 
there is uo reason why they should not lay regu¬ 
larly ; or at least there is very little fear of then- 
becoming too fat to lay. 
Instead, therefore, of reducing the quantity 
of food given to hens, the wisest plan of egg- 
getting would be to give them more than they 
ordinarily consume. This would appear, at first 
sight, to be almost an impossibility; for, “al¬ 
though we take a horse to the well we cannot 
make him driuk,” no more can we compel fowls 
to eat more than they want; but if we reflect 
that one cause which limits their appetite is 
their iuability to digest more than a certain 
quantity of tbe hard grain which forms their 
regular diet, it will be obvious to many that by 
softening the food, either by grinding or cook¬ 
ing, we rnay enable them to dispose of a little 
more. Some people will be likely to say to this: 
“ Well, but my hens are able to dispose of more 
meat than I care to give." Quite true, but sup¬ 
posing you have thirty hens, and giving them an 
average amount of food, you will get a certain 
number of eggs. If now you kill ten of them, 
and give to the remaining twenty, half the 
amount ol food that these ten would have con¬ 
sumed, yon will get more eggs and save grain. 
Or, if you feed one bushel of corn per week to a 
certain number of fowls, and get four dozen 
eggs, by feeding a bushel and a quarter you will 
probably got six dozeu of eggs. Here, while 
one bushel gives four dozen, tho extra quarter 
bushel gives the full equivalent of half a bushel. 
This is not mere theory or speculation, for we 
have practically tested this very thing, and know 
-m 
SUMMER MANAGEMENT OF PIGS. 
Considering the almost universal presence of 
swine on every farm, the constant use made of 
their meat in every family, and tho euormous 
income that flows into this country from the 
exportation of our surplus hog products, there 
are few items of agricultural economy of more 
interest or importance than the proper manage¬ 
ment of the pig-pen. On this subject the Boston 
Cultivator opportunely says that dining the 
summer the breeding sows that have not little 
ones will need nothing but grass and water. 
Do not, howover, forgot tho water. 
The hows that are in the pens nursing their 
pigs should be fed at least throe times a day. 
As long as the mangels last, give each sow two or 
throe roots every day. Let their food be very 
sloppy—say half corn meal and half tine mid¬ 
dlings or malt combs. It is not necessary to cook 
the malt combs or middlings. Tf tho meal is 
cooked at all, let it be well cooked. I would 
rather not cook at all than to cook it well for a 
few days and then feed with half-cooked meal. 
Cooked food swells up so much that a given 
quantity of meal iu a pail of water, looks thick 
and rich, and tho day the meal is only partially 
cooked you will be pretty sure to give the sow 
more meal than usual. And this will derange 
her stomach and affect tho milk, aud tbe little 
pigs will have an attack of scours. Tbe man 
who can raise a dozen litters of pigs without 
some of them having the scours is entitled to 
great credit. 
For scours there is little that can be done ex¬ 
cept to lot tho pigB have plenty of straw to bury 
themselves In. Lot the pen be woll ventilated 
and let the pigs lie as quiet as possible. If the 
pigs eat for themselves, give a very small quan¬ 
tity of glaubor salts (sulphate of soda) iu their 
food. Dissolve, say two tablespoonfuls of glaubor 
salts in a pint of water Of this give half a 
tabluBpoonful to each little pig in tho food every 
time you feed them. A two-months-old pig 
might havo a teaspoon fill and tho larger the pig 
the larger the dose. Givo the mother of the 
little pigs that havo the scours a plentiful supply 
of water, with only just enough food iu it to in¬ 
duce her t<> driuk jt. Givo hor a tahlospoonful 
of tho above glauber salt mixture in hor food 
three times a day. Scours are usually preceded 
by costiveuoss. By close observation you can 
detect tho trouble iu its earliest stages and do 
much toward preventing it. 
If you Hee a pig that looks “dumpish," that 
cats but little, that goes to tho bod and nestles 
under tho straw while tho rest are at the trough ; 
if the hair is rough and staring ; if ho looks 
gaunt, or has oven the faintest indication of 
“humps” or heating flanks; if, in short,there 
is anything the matter with the pig, in nine 
cases out of ten he is troubled with costiveness, 
and the first thing to he done, and done prompt¬ 
ly, is to give him an injection or warm water 
with a little castor oil in it, or if you have no oil 
give water alone, and if yon cannot get warm 
water use cold water. If this does not afford 
relief give a tcaspoonful of castor oil for a pig 
four to six weeks old, or a tablespoouful for a 
pig ten to twelve weeks old. A warm bath is a 
capital thing for a dumpish pig. If it does 
nothing else it makes him clean, and that is a 
good deal. Itnb him dry and let him havo plenty 
of water to lie in. 
(Sufrist, 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
J. W. S., Owensboro, Ay.—Thanks for past 
favors, and more light wanted How can I keep 
weevil out of grain. Please tell us plainly how 
to bud, aud when to do it. By so doing you will 
oblige a member of the “ R. B.” 
The only way to get rid of weevil in barns or 
granaries is to starve it out by keeping all grain 
out of its reach for several years. If in a tight 
barn, one that oau be shut up closely, fumigat¬ 
ing w ith sulphur will destroy them. To describe 
the operation of budding at length would, we 
fear, prove a t hrice-told tale to a majority of our 
readers. We givo, however, the main points for 
the benefit of the minority in general, and of J. 
W. K. in particular, iu another column of this 
issue. 
II. H.—Oslrya Viryinica— American; Hop- 
Hur abeam—Iron-wood. 
L. Marlin , Long Islam!. -We prefer the Ex¬ 
celsior for heavy and the Philadelphia Lawn 
Mower for light work. But this is really an 
almost individual expression of opinion since, 
upon inquiry, we find among tho Rural people 
votes in favor of others. We recommend Mr. 
Martin to investigate tho question carefully for 
himself and purchase accordingly. He will uot 
go far astray. 
F. J. ft.—It is the invariable rule of this 
oflico not to name plauts or publish communica¬ 
tions without the full address of the writer. 
Rural Subscriber, Seneca Falls, N. F.—In¬ 
closed you will please liud a leaf and the (lower 
of a plant for a name. Lust spring tho parent 
Htalk came up at the foot of a grave iu one of 
the Tyre cemeteries. Said grave 1ms been made 
for thirty years. No one about here haH ever 
seen anything like it. It lias attained a growth 
of nearly nine foot, the stalk is wine-colored, 
perfectly smooth betweeu tho leaves. They 
(the leaves) are in sets of four, I think, anil 
with each loaf is a cluster of those flowers. 
Anh. Tho plant is Frasera Oarolbiensis be¬ 
longing to the Gentian family, It is found in 
rich, dry soil from W. Now York to Wisconsin 
and southward. Familiar name is Amorioan 
Columbo. 
B. IF ./.—The expense of a trip to Europe 
varies like everything else. By joining a party 
you and your wife can take a three mouths tour, 
hastily visiting tho moBt prominent places on 
the Continent for five hundred dollars each. 
This sum is expected to cover all necessary 
expenses. There will always be some personal 
or incidental expenses beHide. If you desire to 
remain longer you can arrange to do so for ono 
hundred dollars a month each. Gontiomen can 
travel alone for considerably less than when ac¬ 
companied by ladies. We suppose a young man 
who was willing to rough it occasionally, could 
make a year’s trip very satisfactorily for a thou¬ 
sand dollars. Of course, we exclude from these 
estimates all expenditure tor purchases of cloth¬ 
ing or other merchandise. 
J. 0. ft. A., UoveUsville, Ya. — T herewith send 
you a twig of what I have growing for the Irish 
Juniper, I havo tho Swedish Juniper also. I 
see the Irish at other places growing up compact 
and smooth, a mere column. With me it grows 
branchy, and the limbs fall apart very similar to 
the Swedish. In winter it browns slightly ; tlio 
Swedish keeps green, I have no trees over two 
and a-half feet iu bight, I find the same dispo¬ 
sition to grow branchy in all my ot her ever¬ 
greens. Please inform me, in the columns of 
the Ritual, if you can toll, by the slip I send you 
and what I have written, if I have the true vari¬ 
ety ; and also if trees started in this habit, when 
transplanted into other soil, assume their natural 
or wonted shapo. 
Anh. The branch is from the common J nniper. 
■luniptrus eonlmunis. A symmetrical form can 
only be preserved by cutting back yearly, leav¬ 
ing the lower branches to take caro of them¬ 
selves. 
ft. J. Boswell. —(1.) Having a few lemon and 
orange trees under cultivation, I would inquire 
about their care. In what kind of soil will they 
thrive best ? (2.) How old or what, bight ought 
they to bo before grafting? (3.) What season of 
the year is it necessary to graft them, and should 
they be exposed to the sun all day, or otherwise ? 
(I ) Please give me some information in regard 
to tho Homestead Law, aud whether a soldier’s 
children can got the land that the TI. S. Govern¬ 
ment gives their father, and how must they go 
about it? (;>.) What will it cost for one copy of 
the Rural for the first live months of this year ? 
L in any good garden soil. 
2. Tho second year from seed. 
3. Any season in the house; spring (June 1st) 
out of doors. Tt is better to shade or, if ex¬ 
posed to sun, wrap with oiled paper. 
L We have not this information at hand. 
Write to tho Department of the Interior for in¬ 
structions as to the manner of soldiers' pre-empt¬ 
ing lands. 
5. One dollar and ten cents. 
I. S. /., Warren, Wis .— Please send me price 
of best book on butter-making. 
Willard’s Practical Butter Book, 81; Orange 
Judd Co., New York. 
John y, Childs.— Steamers leave this port by 
New York time. Every day at noon, an observa¬ 
tion is taken, the latitude aud longitude deter¬ 
mined, and the ship’s olock moved to show tho 
correct time for its position. The nautical day 
commences at noon, twelve hours after the be¬ 
ginning of the day as recorded on land. 
IF. II. IT .—Will you please inform mo which 
are tho best manuals upon the following sub¬ 
jects i (1.) Sheep Husbandry. (2.) Domestic 
manures, with especial reference to composting 
with muck? 
1. Randall's Practical Shepherd; Stewart’s 
Shepherd’s Manual. 
2 . Bummer's Method of Making Manures ; 
Buckner’s American Manures; Dana’s Muck 
Manual. 
•^Tpuii 
