437 
MARCH 4 
Dainj i^usbatuJrij. 
DAIRY NOTES FROM ENGLAND. 
PROF. J. P. SHELDON. 
ENGLISH CHEESES. 
We have many distinct kinds of cheese 
made in England, some of which have a 
world-wide reputation. With one single ex¬ 
ception, they are all of the class known as 
‘‘hard cheese,” in distinction from the many 
kinds of “soft cheese” which are so generally 
made in France and Germany and which are 
now being imported iu rather considerable 
volume into London. That one exception is 
the Slipcote cheese, and it is made in Rutland¬ 
shire. There is an odd conjunction of little¬ 
nesses about this cheese, viz., it is tne smallest 
cheese made in England, it is made in the 
smallest quantity, and its home is in the small¬ 
est county of the Kingdom. There is, of course, 
cream cheese, which is also very small, but it 
is not a cheese properly so called, because it is 
made from cream only, and is not coagulated 
artificially, and it is made in small quantities 
iu various counties. 
The Slipcote cheese is made from milk, 
which is coagulated in the ordinary manner 
by the aid of rennet; the coagulum is placed 
in a strainer to drain, and afterwards in quan¬ 
tities of about one pound each, on plates, 
where it drains still more, and next it is placed 
between cabbage leaves, which are regularly 
changed, and there it ripens. The ripeniug 
takes from one to three weeks, according to 
the weather, and is completed when the cheese 
begins to ooze out a thick, curdy liquid, and 
when the skin or coat of the cheese is ready to 
slip off—beuoe the name of “Slipcote.” This 
singular cheese is purely local and has a very 
limited reputation. Few’ people in England 
have heard of it, and fewer still have seen or 
eaten it. It has been on exhibition once or 
twice at our London Dairy Shows. 
Cream cheese is made by pouring cream 
into muslin which is placed in a small box or 
wicker mold; here the cream coagulates by 
reason of its own accumulating acidity, and 
forms itself into shape as the whey drains 
from it It is ready for consumption as soon 
as it is firm enough. A limited demand exists 
for it in London and elsewhere, but it will 
probably give way to the Camembert, the 
Neuchatel and other Continental soft cheeses. 
The Stilton is at once the most modern and 
the most famous of English cheeses, and has 
no antiquity to compare with that of the 
Cheshire, the Derby, the Gloucester, the 
Wilts, or the Cheddar. Records appertaining 
to our ancient methods of cheese-making are, 
unfortunately, very scanty, and only inci¬ 
dental allusions are made to them in a few- 
old books here and there. It is a matter for 
regret, in this age ot interesting investiga¬ 
tion, that so little is known about the habits 
and customs of our agricultural forefathers; 
and yet it is probable that a good deal might 
be learned from the musty and mildewed 
parchments ou which the archives ot counties 
and ancient families are inscribed, if only a 
search were made. The search, however, 
would involve enormous trouble, and prac¬ 
tically, could never be completed; foriu many 
cases such archives are not accessible, while 
in others they are probably more or less 
illegible. We must be content, therefore, to 
rely ou the nebulous tale of traditiou, the rest 
l>eiug buried in the grave of the centuries. 
But in any case it is tolerably certain that 
several of our systems of cream-making, as 
w e have them to-day, date back to a very 
early period, and these systems, owing to lo¬ 
cal practices, and to the influence of soil 
and climate in given localities, are well de- 
flued and clearly distinct from each other. 
It may be said, moreover, that certain kinds 
of English cheese, to wit, the Stilton, the 
Cheshire, the Derby, the Leicester, the Wilts 
Truckless, etc., can only be produced in integ¬ 
rity of character, flavor and quality in the 
districts to which they are peculiar. The 
cheese of Leicestershire, when we get a good 
sample of it, is proltahly the best cheese iu 
Euglaud, a ml it lias certain peculiarities 
which, so far as my observation and inquiry 
go, have not been successfully imitated iu any 
other sections of the countxy. This is true 
also of the Cheshire cheese, which, like the 
Leicester, cannot be made with completd suc¬ 
cess on any other soil than the buuter sand¬ 
stone and the keuper marl. It is t rue also of 
the Derby cheese, which is made from a car¬ 
boniferous limestone soil, and of the Glouces¬ 
ter, which belongs to the oolitic formation. 
It is true most of all, perhaps, of the Stilton, 
which belongs to the deep marly clay of 
Leicestershire—a soil which communicates a 
quality and flavor that, so far as I am aware, 
cannot be obtained iu any other soil, be it 
never so rich. Stilton cheese is made iu va¬ 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
rious parts of England, and in other countries 
too, but I have yet to find any samples of it 
equal in all respects to that made in the Mel¬ 
ton Mowbray district. 
In subsequent communications I propose 
describing the methods employed in making 
the various kinds of cheese I have named. 
(£l)t ijeriismafi. 
NOTES BY A STOCKMAN. 
“Anglo” misquotes me. I said the United 
States were our world and did not commit the 
folly he charges me with saying they are 
the world. I am not in the habit of “spread- 
eagling” myself in such an absurd way. 
Moreover, he denies me the right, which he as¬ 
sumes himself, that of having an opinion. 
Moreover, he assumes that I know nothing of 
what I talked about in regard to quality of 
meat and fat, etc., etc. 1 beg to assure “An¬ 
glo” that he is mistaken. He and I may look 
at this thing from different points of view. I 
from that of the farmer who rears beef for 
market, and of the consumer; and he from 
that of the fat cattle show. But I give him 
credit for having some knowledge and some 
common sense although he differs from me in 
my views and opinions, and beg he will not 
think me a fool because I differ from him. 
What a world this would be if there were no 
differences of opinion! No one would then 
look at the Rural, and indeed there would be 
no need for it, and as “Anglo” thinks, there 
would be no beef cattle but Short-horns. 
The Cattle Commission keep on insisting that 
there is no pleuro-pneumonia in the West. 
How do they know ? Why should the East 
always be held up as the frightful example? 
And why should there be no disease in Mis¬ 
souri, as one of the Missouri Congressmen 
stated a few days ago? It is not so long since 
several hundred imported cattle were taken 
into Missouri. If foreign cattle cannot be im¬ 
ported iDto an Eastern State without danger 
of bringing the disease, how can Missouri es¬ 
cape it? Ninety days’ quarantine is not suffi¬ 
cient, if we are to believe the recent statement 
that cases occurred after six months’ incuba¬ 
tion. Veterinary surgeons make blunders as 
well, or as bad, as other men and sometimes 
more so when they become a little stuck up 
with professional vanity. 
I recently saw a farmer cleaning out a cow 
stable with a grub hoe, and removing the 
frozen dung which was over a foot thick, and 
the question occurred tome if that man was a 
righteous mau or a sinner. If It is true, as we 
are told, that “ the righteous man is merciful 
to his beast,” the man was clearly a sinner, aud 
of no inferior type, because the accumulated 
sufferings of the poor cattle who had shivered 
through a severe Winter in that cold and 
filthy stable must have been exceedingly great. 
Unfortunately the farmer suffers in pocket 
only—a spot that is very callous and insensi¬ 
ble among many farmers, if one might judge 
from the common way of doing business. 
A small boy once made a bright remark 
ubout such a stable, when he saw the hard 
frozen balls of manure iu it. and called it “ a 
cannon ball factory.” 
One of the most profitable returns from 
cattle is the manure, no doubt. But the profit 
is not made without work. The word is a 
corruption of the old Norman-French words 
main-outre, literally hand-work. This is a 
quite expressive and strictly tree term to 
designate the refuse of the stables, which is 
of little use until it is worked over aud made 
Ot for use. The farmer who spends some 
time in keeping his stables and peus clean, 
and thus makes his stock comfortable and 
thrifty, actually fulfils the ancient idea of 
making main-ouvre; which is the very word 
now used by the Pennsylvania Dutch farmers. 
The modern French word, fumier , for 
manure, has also a similar significance, be¬ 
cause the root of it is the same as that of 
fumer, to smoke; and the manure cannot be 
made to smoke or steam until it is heaped and 
worked and stirred over by main-ouvre. A 
further hint iu this dineetiou may be taken 
from the other French word for manure, viz : 
en (pufssa—which is fat or fatness—as well; 
and a farmer really fattens his land—and 
himself toil—by giviug bis work and labor to 
his mauure heap; and at the same time mak¬ 
ing his stock comfortable, thrifty aud profita¬ 
ble; and at the same time too enlarging his 
means for feeding them liberally. This mat¬ 
ter is by no means wholly unconnected with 
live stock, ami so I make a note of it. 
-•»» 
remedy for protrusion of intestines. 
A short time ago an inquirer asked in the 
Rural a remedy for protruding intestines in 
au auiinal. For the benefit of those who may 
have beasts so affected, I will state that the 
smoke of two ordinary-sized puff-balls 
squeezed into a quart of milk and given to a 
colt, produced a cure in 12 hours, after the 
animal bad been suffering for two days. Half 
the amount will cure a pig. A “horse farrier" 
living two miles from me had exhausted all 
his skill on a hog afflicted iu this way; but the 
animal got worse instead of better. 1 sent 
him word of the above “cure” by a neighbor, 
but the latter, instead of telling him the rem¬ 
edy, bought for a dollar the hog which had 
been “given up,” and then by using this 
remedy cured him. H. J. smith. 
RAYS. 
Beans. —Last Fall I saved a lot of beans— 
Snap, Horticultural and Lima—and stored 
them in a dry room in an out-house. We 
shelled them on wet days. Some of the beans 
are in open baskets and others hung up in 
calico bags. No effort has been made to ex¬ 
clude frost, and once or twice the thermome¬ 
ter has indicated as much as 20 fc of frost. But 
the beans are quite good. A few days ago. I 
sowed some of each sort in pots of earth in a 
warm greenhouse, for trial, aud every bean 
has grown—February 1. 
Limas are excellent Winter beans. You 
cannot reasonably expect them to be as good 
in the ripe as in the green state; but, let me 
assure you, they are, to my taste, “just splen¬ 
did.” I have them at dinner about three times 
a week. They require to be boiled nearly two 
hours to have them tender. 
Locust.— I, too, want to say a word about 
locust trees. They abound in this vicinity, in 
groves, by the roadsides, in fact, every where. 
They are tall, straight, naked, uncouth-ap¬ 
pearing trees 10 to 18 inches in diameter, and 
they grow very close to one another. But in¬ 
sect enemies prevent their longevity or much 
greater maturity. Even when of these mod¬ 
erate dimensions their economic value for 
posts, construction, fuel and other uses, is 
great. And they seem to luxuriate in all 
manner of soils,—in our rich loamy levels, up 
the sides of dry hills, and in sand. On part of 
this island (Dosoris) where the earth is pure 
sand man}- feet deep with a two-inch skin of 
loamy soil ou the surface, the locusts appear 
as much at home and thrifty as they do else¬ 
where. But when once established they are 
hard to get rid of, as their roots run out a 
long way and sneker. This suckering is more 
apparent after the trees have been cut down 
or the roots have otherwise been separated 
from the trees, and the spreading roots live 
in the ground for some years after the trees 
have been rooted out. The locust is a useful 
tree but, as a rule, far from a handsome one. 
The Colorado Blue Spruce shown 
in the Rural on p. 55, is, in my opinion, the 
finest ornamental conifer grown. It is a good 
grower, very hardy-, and for the first ten years 
of its growth is very compact and well fur¬ 
nished with branches from the ground up. 
And you can by timely and judicious pruning 
maintain it in this dense form as long as you 
please. Do not be afraid to shorten back its 
leader or cut in any too far-projecting 
branches, but unless it br necessary to cut in 
the branches to obtain symmetry’ of form, do 
not do it; instead rub off the terminal buds 
of the projecting branches just as they begin 
to grow. This Blue Spruce is not now an un¬ 
common tree in nurseries; but it differs ex¬ 
ceedingly in variety. While some are of the 
same beautiful bluish color as Prof. Sargent’s 
specimen, others vary from that to plain 
green. Those who wish to get a Colorado 
Blue Spruce should select it at the nursery, or 
iu oi'dering it be prepared to pay a little more 
and specify what they want; then they will 
have a tree they shall be always proud of. 
The White Spruce.— But the Colorado 
Blue Spruce is not alone in this blue color: 
there are some forms of White Spruce of a 
beautiful bluish color, and they are handsome 
garden ornaments. Scotch and Austrian 
Pines and Norway Spruces are the recognized 
evergreens for shelter belts, but in some 
eases they are not as good as the W hite Spruce. 
On this place we have a numerous assortment 
of trees and shrubs. On oue side, on moder¬ 
ately high, dry ground that is poor, and on a 
sand and rook boulder subsoil, a few yards 
from the sea bank aud fully exposed to the 
w tvs to rn and northern winds, area number of 
White Spruces and some other trees, aud 
while the others are more or less injured by 
the northwest winds, the White Spruces are 
in good condition. The trees are 30 to 40 feet 
high. Prof. Sargeut was here for a day or 
two a few months ago, and after cousidering 
the situation, the trees upon the place aud 
their condition, he pronounced the White 
Spruce as the best shelter belt tree we can use, 
and! coincide with him, 
Planting White Spruce —And on the 
strength of this decision we have just planted 
a row of White Spruces on each side of a 
newly laid out “blind” carriage road. The 
trees are 25 feet apart and 10 feet from the 
edge of the road. This may seem too near to 
some, but I find that grow-as-they-please 
trees have au average spread of branches of 
22 to 24 feet. The ground under three inches 
from the surface is almost pure sand, so I had 
six feet wide by two feet deep holes made and 
filled up with two two-horse loads of good 
loam in each. In this they should find a good 
living for several years. I do not like mix¬ 
ing manure in the soil. 1 prefer to manure 
well from the surface. Newly-planted trees, 
if in good soil,have not much need of manure; 
it is after a year or two, aud when they 
have made plenty of fresh roots, that they 
seek manure and use it to good advantage. 
Transplanting Trees with Frozen 
Balls, —Our trees are three to five feet high, 
nursery-grown and trimmed, and conveyed 
hither from the nursery in the frozen-ball 
state. The bails are some three feet or more 
across, and 12 to 20 inches deep, and frozen 
through as solid as a rock. No doubt, by 
this means, we secure every root within that 
space and undisturbed, and after being 
planted the tree is likely to grow away with¬ 
out any visible check. Still I am no advo¬ 
cate of the system. I would far rather dig a 
six or seven- foot space around the tree and 
save every root and rootlet within that 
compass, and in transplanting dispose them, 
introduce the soil and pack it firmly among 
them. Well, this last is good enough in the 
case of home lifting and transplanting, and 
the most available method when procuring 
trees from distant places. 
Lawns. —If you top-dressed your lawn in 
the Fall, and there are any lumps of manure 
or compost on it, break and scatter them; if 
there are any bare spots strew some dressing 
from where it is thickest over them. Should 
there be any hollows, such as would be caused 
by sinking in the case of filled-up tree-holes, 
fill them up level with the rest of the lawn, 
and sod or sow them. If there are any un - 
seemly bumps reduce them. Endeavor to 
have a smooth, even surface on your lawn. 
When the frost is leaving the ground and it is 
still moist and soft is the best time to pull up 
deep tap-rootod weeds, like docks or chicory. 
If your lawns have been destroyed by Crab- 
Grass, as soon as the surface is mellow scratch 
it with an iron rake, sow some grass seed and 
roil it in. Sometimes gras borders by means 
of weeds, strong plants overgrowing them, or 
moles throwing them up, have been killed out 
in patches. Dig them over, pack firmly, and 
resod. When I remodelled the Cambridge 
Botanic Garden a few years ago, and laid 
down the great series of grass paths between 
the beds and verges around them, we could 
not afford two-and-one-halt cents a square 
foot for sods, so I sowed them all in April, 
letting them extend on either side a little be • 
yond the required limits. By the middle of 
June I had an excellent sole of grass, and then 
cut the paths and verges to measurement. For 
a year or two these seed verges are rather 
tender to tread on. but when established they 
are as good and strong as any. If you rake, 
sow and roll the bare spots under large deci¬ 
duous trees you will have a nice green carpet 
till the end of June at any rate. Then shade 
and drought may kill it out again. The sooner 
you sow grass seed or resod, after the ground 
is in working condition, the better will be 
your success, as the grass will have a good 
start before dry, hot weather sets in. 
Long Island, N. Y. william falconer. 
THE EYE-OPENER 
We have received a considerable number 
of inquiries about large estates awaiting un¬ 
known or “lost” heirs, chiefly in the Old Coun¬ 
try, and more particularly in the United 
Kingdom, Belgium and Holland. “Where 
can I find information about the Smith estate 
of #300,000,000 awaiting heirs in the Bank of 
England? I think I beloug to that branch of 
the Smith family!” “I learn that old man 
Brown who died in 172S, in Old Mortality St.. 
St. Giles', London, England, left a large estate 
which, under charge of the Court of Chancery, 
has since been steadily increasing by accu¬ 
mulated interest, until - it> now amounts to 
£80,000,000. Now, my gr-gr-gr-grandmother 
who came to this country about 1718 from the 
Parish of St. Giles', was a Brown before her 
marriage, and I believe she was a relative of 
old Brown of Mortality St. ? Where can I 
aud other relatives hereabouts find oat about 
that £80,000,000/”’ Such are specimens of in¬ 
quiries we have often received. Associations 
of supposed heirs to such accumulations have 
been formed iu various places, aud have con¬ 
tributed funds, more or less liberally, for inves¬ 
tigating purposes, but the only persons who 
have ever gained anything by the estates 
have been petty lawyers and fraudulent 
