THE 
BUBAL. WEW-YOBKEB 
are also equally good for flavor. Alsike clover 
(Trifolium hybridmn) produces a large yield 
of food and gives a fine flavor to the milk. 
Mr. Chamberlain, of Maine, whose expe¬ 
rience with this clover has been of many years’ 
duration, says it bears cropping by cattle well, 
proving its adaptability to pasturage. He 
also pronounces it the best honey plant knowu. 
This would prove its quality for flavor in milk, 
as the beet honey plants are found to give an 
agreeable flavor to milk—white clover stand¬ 
ing very high both for the production of 
honey and milk. These two clovers are so im¬ 
portant in a perfect dairy pasture that they 
should not be omitted where the soil is suita¬ 
ble. 
A flavoring plant not much grown in this 
country, but well worthy of trial upon light 
soils, is the raelilot—the yellow (Melilotus 
officinalis) and white (Melilotus alba), the 
former sometimes called French Clover, and 
the latter Sweet Clover. The stems have very 
numerous branches, and, when thrifty, grow 
from two to four feet high. It is woody when 
it reaches the blossom, and should, therefore, 
be cut before blossoming. It becomes very 
fragrant in drying. A species of thiB plant is 
used in Switzerland to give the peculiar flavor 
of Schabzicger cheese (called here Sapsago 
cheese). When quite young, cattle are fond 
of a small portion of it mixed with other 
grasses. It might easily be dried and a small 
proportion mixed with other fodders iu 
winter to give flavor. Its nutritive value 
is nearly the same as that of red clover. 
Sweet-sceutcd Vernal GrasB is valuable as a 
flavoring plant, although not well relished as 
a single food. There is not space to mention 
many of the highly flavored plants, but dairy¬ 
men will have no practical difficulty in finding 
plenty of them to give an agreeable flavor to 
milk when they shall make an effort. 
In winter feeding, the dairyman is often 
obliged to feed some straw, cured corn fodder 
and the like, which arc quite negative as re¬ 
gards flavor. These foods must, of course, bo 
fed with some kind of grain, bran, or some 
other concentrated food if milk is to be pro¬ 
duced profitably, and with this grain food may 
be mingled some flavoring materials, such as 
Fenugreek seed, which is used in the composi¬ 
tion of coudiruental c attle foods. Fenugreek 
means Greek hay, and was used by the Greeks 
as fodder. There is probably no difficulty in 
raising this plant iu this country. Aniseed, 
carroway-seed, coriander seed, ginger,tumeric- 
root, are all used for flavoring sueh condi- 
mental foods and condition powders, sold 
usually at six prices to those who do not ex¬ 
amine foods for themselves. A small amount 
of these flavoring materials mixed with corn 
meal or wheat middlings, may be kept ou 
baud to be mixed iu small quantities with 
other grain food vis used. We pay a good deal 
of attention to flavors iu the preparation of hu¬ 
man food, and it would undoubtedly pay us 
well to give more attention to flavoring the 
foods lor the production of milk. 
-■ ■ 
SMALL CHEESES FOR HOME USE. 
There is no necessity to say anything in 
favor of pmall cheeses for domestic use. The 
housewife “ who looketh well to the ways of 
her household ” will at ouce appreciate the 
value of a choice aud uncommon—“ ’tie true, 
*tia pity, and pity ’tis 'tis true.” that it should 
be an uncommon—manner of using a few 
quarts of milk to advantage. The difficulty 
lies in not knowing how to work the milk up 
into toothsome cheeses which may be eaten 
fresh at any meal, or even “ between times,” 
when one “ pieces out ” the cravings of a vig¬ 
orous farm appetite. To make a short Btory of 
the modus operand), let us begin with 
THE RENNET. 
This is made of the empty stomach of a suck¬ 
ing calf, salted and dried upon a bent twig in 
any airy place (Fig. 283). The rennet is at its 
best when 18 months old. A stock of these 
should be kept in every farm-house; or, the 
stomach, fresh or dry, may be put into a quart 
of salt water and left for three weeks, when 
the liquid is ready for use. Of this liquid ren¬ 
net one tablespoonful is enough for 40 quarts 
pf milk, and one teaspoonful for 12 or 13 
quarts. Too much rennet will make the curd 
hard; and as this kind of cheese should be 
BOft, rennet should be used sparingly. About 
four quarts of milk will make a pound of 
cheese. 
THE CHEESES 
should be used fresh and before it has cooled. 
If it has cooled it should be warmed up to 00 
degrees. The curd of 12 or 15 quarts may he 
made in a large tin pan. The rennet is stirred 
in the milk and the milk is left in a warm 
place for au hour when the curd is set. A 
convenient method of setting the curd is to 
lay a square of ttne muslin in the pan, securing 
the ends on the edge and pouring the milk into 
the muslin ; when the curd is set, the corners 
and edges of this arc. drawn together and tied 
aud the.whole lifted out and hungup to drain. 
(Fig 284 ) As soou as the whey is drained off 
the curd iB put into 
THE MOLDS. 
These are made of thin veneers of some sweet 
wood, as maple or beech, or of tin. They may 
be round, of any shape to suit the taste, and 
without bottom or top, about three inches by 
two and one and one-half deep, or larger if 
desired. Mats made of clean rye or wheat 
fio. 2:5. 
straw sewn together (Fig. 285) are used to rest 
the molds upon while the ehoese is making, 
aud the mats are placed upon a towel which 
absorbs the moisture. The molds and their 
contents are turned daily for three days, and, 
if desired, are sprinkled with salt at each 
turning. 
THE MILK 
are ready for eating fresh in three days ; or, 
they may be taken to an airy dairy house or 
cellar and kept for curing for six weeks or two 
mouths, being turned every day and laid upon 
a layer of sweet straw upon a lattice shelf 
(Fig. 280). The curing process may be so man- 
fhj. 286 . 
aged as to give a great variety of flavors to 
the cheese. If mold gathers upon them it is 
scraped off occasionally. Clothes dipped in 
vinegar may be wrapped around the cheeses, 
or these may be covered with pulverized sweet 
herbs. Much ingenuity may be exercised in 
this way to vary the character of the cheese, 
aud doubtless in time some discoveries may be 
made through which one may hit upon a de¬ 
sirable market product that will furnish a pro¬ 
fitable industry for the family. This is au un¬ 
developed possibility with us. In other 
countries millions of cheeses of this kind, but 
iu great variety, are rnadu and sold yearly and 
some persons have made in past years a wido 
reputation which has descended with its com¬ 
fortable profits to their children. This is an 
uncultivated field the culture of which is open 
to farmers’ wives and daught :rB of enterprising 
mind. 
CREAM CHEESE. 
A delicious morsel for tea or dessert is a 
fresh cream cheese. This is made of the thick 
cream which rises on shallow pans, aud which 
can be taken off almost in a solid piece. No 
rennet is used. This thick cream is either put 
at once into the molds liued with fiue muslin, 
or is hung up to drain as with the curd previ¬ 
ously described, for 24 hours. It then becomes 
semi-solid and is put into the molds and cov¬ 
ered with a follower which Is pressed down by 
a light weight for two or three days, when U 
should be eateu at once. Either no salt is 
added, or the cheese is lightly sprinkled once 
a day when it is turned by reversing the mold. 
This cheese may be eaten with bread, biscuits, 
crackers, or as an adjunct to apple pie or 
fruit. Cheese and apple pie go very well to¬ 
gether, and •* pippins and cheese ” was a stan¬ 
dard dessert dish in the time of Bhakspeare, 
in whose works it iB referred to. The cheese 
of those days, however,wa.. a genuine delicacy 
and had not suffered the disgrace of the evil 
communications and corruptions of oleomar¬ 
garine. But at least home'made cheese may 
be free from guile and be eaten without fear or 
reproach. It 1 b much to be desired that far - 
tners should make more UBe of their many op¬ 
portunities for increasing the comfort and well¬ 
being of their households, both by raising for 
domestic use a wider range of products, es¬ 
pecially in the garden, and by utilizing for the 
same purpose more of the commodities now 
raised by them chiefly for market. 
ortintl total, 
IMPROVED ASPARAGUS CULTURE. 
WILLIAM ROBINSON, 
EDITOR AND FOUNDER OF THE LONDON GARDEN. 
Thanks for your letter. Ab to the Aspara¬ 
gus regarding which you have kindly writ¬ 
ten to ask my opinion there is little to be said 
but a good deal to be done. 
In this country wc have always gone on 
the wrong principle, as regards planting 
asparagus—putting 10, frequently more, plants 
on the space of ground that, should be occu¬ 
pied by one, and compensating for this folly 
by putting as much manure as cau possibly be 
spared under the plant. To such an absurd 
extent was this carried on that it was not an 
uncommon thing in large places to place from 
three to six feet of thoroughly manured soil 
under the beds; the result was that it was the 
rarest thing in the world to see a good dish of 
asparagus, even in the best places. Another 
consequence of the system was it was so costly 
that it could only be carried out on a very 
small scale, and thus in the majority of gardens 
with us, not one quarter the area is occupied 
with asparagus which the importance of that 
vegetable calls for. 
The question of kind is altogether of less 
consequence than the question of culture, 
which, however, is simple enough. Here we 
have only one kind, the common kind—aud 
pretend to have no more. At Argenteuil they 
claim to have three distinct kinds, the early and 
the late, ami also au intermediate kind. The 
Dutch also have their sort, which, certainly, 
as they grow it, is most excellent, judging 
from samples I have this year had sent me by 
Messrs Van Eeden of Haarlem. 
As yet, no experiments of the slightest im¬ 
portance have been carried out in this country 
to iletermine the differences, if there be much 
or uny, between the various kinds, both French 
and American. Such a trial would not be dif¬ 
ficult- and It Is my intention to make it, when 
I can do it under favorable conditions. Far 
before the question of kinds, however, is for us 
that of the proper supply of our tables and 
markets wffh good asparagus. Every year 
larger supplies are coming from France, aud 
there was scarcely a day this year when, for 
one bundle of English asparagus to be found 
in Covent Garden, oue could not find Here 
400 of French growth ! 
Iu France the culture is Bpreading very 
rapidly from the old center, Argenteuil. Large 
supplies now come to us from Dijon, and 
places much further south, and alBo from Ver¬ 
sailles. Earlier, a good deal comes, some 
from Spain. You can imagine how well it 
“eats" after traveling that enormous distance- 
No doubt we are a little “later” than the north 
of France, but I am not speaking of early 
supplies so much as of those that come in at 
about the same time as our own. 
English asparagus, when well grown, is 
cultivated on such a costly system, and also on 
such dear land that a much higher price is 
asked for it than for the French. The supplies 
in private gardens are so wretchedly grown 
generally that they are no aid at all to the 
market supply, and when any does chance to 
come it is used as “sprue" in soup-making. 
The old Idea of sticking the plants close 
together iu beds is so firmly rooted that it will 
be difficult to get it out of the public mind. 
Only last week I saw in a calendar of opera¬ 
tions written by a practical gardener, instruc¬ 
tions that the plants should be put a foot apart 
in the line! However, I have no doubt by 
continually agitating the question we shall get 
the right way carried out some day, and then, 
when people see a few good plantations me do 
after the rational manner, they will ull follow 
suit. 
The plan which 1 seek to make known every¬ 
where is that of planting well chosen yearling 
roots at a distance of about three and a half 
feet each way, and when the soil is of fairly good 
character, such as most of our garden land is, 
not making any special preparation at all in 
planting, bnt simply opening a shallow trench 
(eight inches deep) and putting the plants on 
tluy mounds at the bottom of it. The dis¬ 
tance seems wasteful to our growers bnt it is 
really not so, because a light crop ean be 
taken off between the lines, until the roots 
and stools fill the ground. Any necessary 
manure may be given when the plants get 
strong and begin to need it. 
Next year begins a series of competition 
for prizes which I offered for the encourage¬ 
ment of this simple mode of planting in the 
hope that our own people may some day sup¬ 
ply our own tables and markets. These prizes 
will bo given for a number of years, and each 
year be held iu a different center, so that at¬ 
tention may be called as much as possiblo to 
the right mode of culture and to its results. 
In these enterprising days I shall expect to see 
some American asparagus sent toour markets. 
So far as l can judge by preserved specimens, 
you have a good idea of growing it in your 
market gardens. If some specimens could be 
sent ever to one of our exhibitions, it would 
be very interesti'g. You, I believe, cultivate 
it with the plow. We have not come to that 
yet, though the demand in our markets should 
encourage asparagus culture on a large scale. 
Abont Paris in certain districts they begin to 
grow it in that way, but not at Argenteoii, 
the old home of asparagus eulturo, and where 
all the finest specimens are yet grown. 11 
must not be supposed from the preced 
ing statements that the culture in onr gardens 
is equally singular in other respects. Aspara¬ 
gus Is the only vegetable that is absurdly and 
systematically maltreated with us. and this 
results from the perpetuation of the wrong sys¬ 
tem in books for many generations past. 
■--- 
INFLUENCE OF THE STOCK ON THE 
GRAFT. 
PROFESSOR THOMAS MEEHAN. 
I often see in the Rural items that interest 
me very much. Its pages have had much to 
say lately of the influence of the stock on the 
graft, and apple roots in the nursery rows are 
referred to. It is true each variety—or at 
least many varieties of apples have different 
looking roots, according to the variety 
grafted on the stoek. But I have never been 
able to see that this bore on the question of 
change of character in fruit by grafting, which 
is the great point, involved in this controversy. 
The form and character of ull roots are more 
or less influenced by the amount of food they 
receive, and the food of plants In a great 
measure depends on the foliage. A tree with 
a given amount of foliage and, say, a hundred 
square feet of leaves, will have different roots 
from one with the same amount of roots and 
two hundred square feet of foliage. A variety 
of apple, therefore, with limited leaf surface 
will turn out in the nursery rows different 
looking roots from varieties which have dif¬ 
ferent conditions. In other words, the differ¬ 
ence is the result of nutritive advantages, aud 
not of any constitutional changes as we under¬ 
stand by hybridization through grafting. 
There is evidence, I think, which sustains the 
view that graft hybrids do occur in nature, 
but I do Dot think tbe varying roots in nursery 
rows is one of these evidences. 
I am glad to know that the Fojbal New- 
Yorker is prospering. It deserves success. 
-»-♦-*- 
RURALISM8. 
This being the season of fairs and horticul¬ 
tural exhibitions, I wish to say a few words 
about some bad practices that obtain at many 
of them. The hall or tent is supposed to be 
cleared for the judges, but you seldom see any¬ 
thing of tbe kind. It is too often the ease that 
some of the competitors hang uround the 
judges, listening to the discussions, aud even 
volunteering advice when their own articles 
arc reached. This is all wrong and should dis¬ 
qualify any ongguilty of the practice. 1 have 
been annoyed almost beyond endurance in this 
way. Modesty would suggest that competi¬ 
tors should at least retire .o some remote purt 
of the hall when it Is not convenient to go 
out of It altogether. No wrong may be meant, 
bnt it looks bad, aud is annoying to the 
judges, 
I have a word, too, lor the managers of fairs 
and exhibitions. There is always a rule in the 
premium list that exhibitors must have their 
articles on the table by a certain hour ready 
for the judges. The judges arc requested to 
meet at that hour, and often come fifty or a 
hundred miles, taking an early start to be ou 
time. Do they find the exhibits ready for in¬ 
spection ? Not very often. On the contrary, 
they are frequently kept waiting three and 
four hours, and must then peform their duties 
in a hurried, imperfect, and very unsatisfac¬ 
tory manner—unsatisfactory, sometimes, to 
all concerned. This should not be so, and 
would uot bo so if the officers and committees 
performed their duties in any thing like a 
faithful manner. But what can be expected 
when most of the officers shirk their duties, 
an! leave ull ihe labor and burden of tho day 
to one or two alone, with some volunteer help 
at last from a few wbo compassionate their 
worn and wearied looks ? Unless tho rules are 
strictly enforced, exhibitors will come at last 
to nndertand that they cau enter almost a lien 
they please, no matter at what inconvenience 
to others; and unless officers and committees 
petform their duties, noLhing will be arranged 
iu lime, no matter how promptly sent iu. This 
condition of things is much too common and 
calls for reform. 
M r Japan lilies (Lilium specie sum) are now 
in .he hight of their bloom, and they are very 
besntiful- These are the lilies for the masses, 
being hardy, easy to grow, profuse in bloom, 
and presenting a charming variety of color. 
It i i commonly recommended to lift the bulbs 
and divide them about every three years. This 
I consider a mistake, at least for the amateur. 
Plaat them about four inches deep in well pre¬ 
pared ground, give them plenty of room to in- 
