THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
SEPT 4 
ly is this the case when the cream is allowed 
to remain upon the milk until the latter is 
thick; the heat and air haviug promoted 
ripening, the cream is at its best estate. By 
no means let cream remain u churned until 
bitter water or lactic acid whey forms in the 
bottom of the cream jars. 
Third. Churn as cool as possible (the cream 
does not need to be over 58' J in the Summer), 
and churn in revolving churns. The action of 
churning is not to “smash and gather,” but by 
a more gentle agitation to collect the serum of 
the cream together, and leave the butter fats 
free to unite. The had behavior of cream in 
the Summer may, as a rule, be traced to over- 
suur cream or too violent beating in the 
churn, or both. 
Fourth. Save the grain. The best butter is 
that which has had the least done for it all the 
way through. The aim now of the butter 
maker should be to avoid the salvey, greasy 
condition of store butter, which has had all 
grain and life and flavor washed out of it in 
the churn or mashed out of it in subsequent 
working over. Many fail just here. The ob¬ 
ject is to get solid grains of butter, and this 
is secured with cold water and salt. When 
the buttermilk shows, the churn should be 
stopped and a gallon of cold water and an 
ounce of salt lie added for each supposed six or 
seven pounds of butter. This bardeus the 
globules, and the salt, in the form of weak 
brine, takes the place of the buttermilk as a 
coating or film to the globules. If we agitate 
the mass slightly, and then let it stand a few 
moments, the butter grains will all rise above 
the surface of the fluid. If the buttermilk 
and brine are drawn out from beneath, with¬ 
out disturbing the butter above, then more 
weak brine added, we free the butter from 
buttermilk, and have not disturbed or injured 
the grain. Now add the salt to this very wet 
butter. Tiet it stand for the sale to dissolve 
and work over at once. Then pack aivay 
from the air, and we get very nearly perfect 
butter in August^_ 
Changes in Preparing Flax.— The simul¬ 
taneous introduction of a new process for 
steeping and a new machine for preparing 
flax will probably cause a great increase in 
the cultivation of the crop in England as well 
as in Ireland. Mr. Henly, a gentleman who 
was formerly an owner of large flax works in 
the south of England, has patented a new pro¬ 
cess of steeping, very much simpler and chea¬ 
per than the old process, superseding alto¬ 
gether the use of steam for heating the water 
in the pits He intends shortly to introduce 
his system in the United States, in which he 
has resided during a considerable portion of 
his life. At present he is starting a company 
n Loudon to work his patent, chiefly by 
charging a yearly sum for its use. The new 
maehiue for preparing flax is a French one, 
just brought to Ireland. It allows of almost 
completely dispensing with skilled labor, and 
is said to do its work splendi<Uy. The makers 
will not supply one for under ? 1,000 and they 
say they cannot make the machines fast 
enough. 
Agriculture in Ireland.— The full text 
of the Irish Agricultural Statistics for 1885 
came out at the end of July. They give a 
very encouraging presentment of Irish agri¬ 
culture, There is an increase in the area of 
land under cultivated crops, as compared with 
that of 1884, to the exteut of 84,888 acres, pas¬ 
ture being decreased by 05,756 acres. There 
are increased areas of 18,022 acres under flax 
and 72,281 acres under “meadow” (grass for 
bay) and clover and decreases of 4,710 acres 
under cereals and pulse crops ami 2,104 acres 
under green crops (chiefly roots). There are 
also increases in all classes of live stock except 
pigs. Poultry, asses and goats are included 
in the statistics, as well as horses, mules, cattle 
and sheep. The yield of crops in Ireland in 
1885 was highly satisfactory, but prices were 
low. The fact is that the soil and climate of 
Ireland, on the whole are not surpassed for 
general farming, arable and pastural together 
by those of any country in the world. 
SPICE. 
Western farmers may learn at least one 
thing from Eastern farmers. It’s to cut and 
stack the corn as soon as it is ripe—“ ripe,” 
that is the word. Prof. Sanborn of Missouri 
has done good work in forcibly pointing out 
to the farmers of his State that the coru fod¬ 
der wasted by allowing the corn to stand in 
the hill until it is as dry as parchment, is 
enough to winter the stock. 
“Why,” - rrtnarked a Western man to the 
Editor of the Live-Stock Journal, “many 
Western farmers raise enough to make an 
Eastern farmer rich." . 
The facts regarding the wastes of our West¬ 
ern farmers are indeed startling. The pro¬ 
ducts of the soil, in many parts, are so abun¬ 
dant and low that they seem hardly worth 
saving. But, as the Journal says, the time is 
solved in a gallon of water and thrown on the 
affected foliage with a fine-rased syringe will 
wholly destroy the fungus, and the leaves will 
not be iujured.. . 
Select your seed corn by ma rking the plants 
which please you best. 
Some of the most successful dairymen in the 
great prairie States are strong advocates of 
feeding cows more or less in the Summer on 
crops cut anil carried to them in their stalls, 
says Ed. Cheever in the New Englaml Fanner. 
They find that they can keep double the stock 
that farmers usually keep who pasture exclu¬ 
sively. .. ...... 
They also learn that there is a great saving 
of manure, and of fencing too, if the system 
is extensively adopted. They learn, too, that 
their cows give a more uniform flowthrough 
the season and retain their flesh better. Their 
cows are never starved in a dry period, nor 
bloated when the feed is over-luxuriant, nor 
are they pestered by flies as when running in 
the pastures in hot weather. 
This of course presumes that ample prepar¬ 
ation is made for a succession of field crops 
through the entire Summer, and good comfort¬ 
able stables, sheds or yards for the cows to eat 
and lie in...... 
Mr. Chkkver has never been an advocate of 
indiscriminate full soiling, but would recom¬ 
mend such a system for each farmer as will 
best fit his own particular case. If oue has a 
good pasture it would certainly be the bight 
of folly not to use it, and if one has pasture 
land that is too rocky to cultivate it should be 
kept in pasture or wood iiermaneiitly. 
near, very near at hand when all these wastes 
will hare to hr stopped. Hard times like the 
present are efficient teachers of economy. 
The R. N.-Y., which was the first journal 
seriously and persistently to press upon the 
farming public the necessity of frowning upon 
the sale of intoxicating liquors at agricultural 
fairs, has now many supporters amoug the 
better class of journals throughout the coun¬ 
try. The National Live Stock Journal says 
that ex perii-nee baa proven that, there is no 
benefit in the sale of spirituous liquors oil the 
grounds of our agricultural fail's, while the 
evils resulting therefrom are legion. 
In the category of spirituous liquors must be 
included not only whisky and brandy, but 
even wine ami beer. Any beverage that con¬ 
tains alcohol; auy drink that, while it quenches 
thirst, overheats bad blood and furnishes the 
rowdy, either individually or collectively, 
with the fire that rouses into activity the 
uglier elements of human nature, should be 
absolutely prohibited, even though such pro¬ 
hibition is attended by a loss of revenue to the 
several associations ... 
Better late than never. Now let all good 
journals join us in our opposition to horse¬ 
racing at agricultural fairs, and we may hope 
that these exhibitions may accomplish un¬ 
mixed good. 
Mr. Stew art thinks that three pecks of 
seed-wheat drilled in are equal to six pecks 
sown broadcast., and it is equally true that 
the excess of the yield of a ]0-acre drilled 
crop over a broadcast one may very easily 
pay the whole cost of a drill each year. 
THE ELM LEAF BEETLE. Fig. 847. (See page 577.) 
Neither delude yourself nor allow your 
wife to delude herself that au outing at this 
season will not do you both good, says the 
Orange Co. Farmer... 
Patrons of agriculture will note the dis¬ 
crepancy between the prizes offered for a 
horse that will trot in less than 2.20, and a cow 
that is a credit to her breeder, remarks the 
same journal. The races get more money 
prizes thau all the rest of the show, and they 
rum the usefulness of the society which gives 
them.„. ... 
An examination of higb-class butter offered 
for sale, says the Cultivator, shows that those 
specimens made by the ceutrifugal process are 
soft during the heated term, even when kept 
in refrigerators that harden the lumps of but¬ 
ter made in the ordinary way. We are con¬ 
vinced that the choicest butter cannot be pro¬ 
duced where the milk or cream is subject to 
such violent motion as it receives in the centri¬ 
fugal machine. 
Chickens never worry about their crops, 
says Puck. A good enough joke were it not 
that the chickens’ crops are often bound. 
The following table from the Milling World 
shows the prices of certain farm products in 
1816 and 1886: 
1810 1880. 
Wheat, per bushel...40 .44 $0 .till 
Oats, " “ 15 .41 
Coru, " “ "40 .46 
Barley, " " 25 ,«o 
Butter. “ pouud.12 *82 
Cheese. *• “ 6 .10 
Eitirs. “ doaen.5 .12 
Cows, " head. 15 00 50.00 
Hay, “ ton. 5.00 17.U0 
Straw. *• *• .. 4.00 14.10 
Sheep, “ head.15 2,00 
Farm labor, per month. 8.00 15.U0 
The Times says that oleomargarine is now 
a legalized product, and butter makers have a 
fair race and a clear course before them to 
keep ahead of it. If they are beaten it is their 
own fault .. . 
Vick’s Magazine says tlmt sulphide of potash 
has proved all that has been claimed for it by 
the English press as a destroyer of mildew on 
roses, chrysanthemums, and some other green¬ 
house plants. A quarter of an ounce dis¬ 
CbcnjinljCiT. 
TRANSCONTINENTAL LETTERS.-LXIII 
mary-wager fisher. 
The Petaluma and Santa Rosa Valleys; Pet¬ 
aluma; Sojioma County; a servant's gos- 
sip; a new mode of grafting. 
On March 16 we set out for our trip into the 
Petaluma and Santa Rosa Valleys, on the line 
of the San Francisco and Northern Pacific R. 
14,., which extends as far north as Cloverdale— 
84>£ miles from Sau Francisco. One leaves 
San Francisco by ferry to Tiburou, then by 
rail to Sau Rafael, whpre the road diverges 
from the Coast road, but keeps much the gen¬ 
eral trend of that route. The country through 
which it passes, however, is of quite a differ¬ 
ent character—one of the most beautiful val¬ 
leys I have seen in the State, and lying in 
Sonoma County, which is very well knowu as 
being one of the l>est counties, and its taxes 
are lower than those of uny county in the 
State—about $1.80 on the #100. The county 
has a population of 80,000, and about 400,000 
acres of bottom ami valley lands. In none of 
these valleys is there public laud of any value 
to be taken up ; but there is much unim¬ 
proved land which can be bought at from #10 
to #50 the acre. Improved farms are held at 
figures varying from #80 to 8-0 hi . possibly 
even higher. The car we rode in was the first 
one I have noticed as having been made ill the 
State—at Donahue, a manufacturing place on 
the Petaluma Creek, which is rather an estu¬ 
ary ut that point, and navigable from Peta¬ 
luma to the Sau Francisco Bay, a distance of 
80 miles. At Santa Rosa, 85 miles north of 
Petaluma, there is a divide, the streams run- 
niug Into the sea, and this divide defines the 
boundary of the two valleys, the part, from 
Santa Rosa to Cloverdale, the terminus of the 
road, being the finest. The entire valley is 
very new, the White and Black Oak groves 
in it being about 150 years old, and a man in 
the car said that Sir Francis Drake sailed up 
it as far as Cloverdale. 
From Tiburon to San Rafael, nine miles, 
the country is deeply rolling, a billowy coun¬ 
try, and we passed through four tunnels of 
considerable length. Great bunches of mistle¬ 
toe—a dark green parasitic growth, flourish¬ 
ing as if grafted on the trees, sometimes three 
to four feet in diameter—green moss and the 
dull green moss or lichen depending from the 
branches, gave the oaks a very picturesque ap¬ 
pearance. The valley is from eight to fifteen 
miles in width. Petaluma has a population of 
4,0OU. and is quite a shipping point. It is a 
noted market also for Norman horses, and for 
its live-stock fairs. It is a prett} town—less 
so thau Santa Rosa—but I doubt if there is an 
ugly town in California. The instinct for 
beautiful surroundings is universal—well kept 
grass, trees, flowers, and buildings in excel- 
.lenfc repair. Sonoma County ranks next to 
Marin (pronounced Marree) for its dairy 
product, and next to that are its vineyards. 
The people seem to have gone daft in regard 
to grape-culture. One wonders what,,they are 
to do with so many grapes. One of the tribu¬ 
tary valleys, 25 miles long and called Sonoma, 
has 7,000 acres in vines. The soil is volcanic 
and especially fitted for the growth of light- 
red wine grapes. In Petaluma there is much 
dairying and grazing. The fences are of 
boards or rails; the farm buildings of a most 
attractive character, many of them charming 
villas; and the whole country, improved and 
unimproved land, lay like a garden on that 
leafing, blossoming spring day. 
On the first day we went as far as Santa 
Rosa, where we stopped for the night, finding 
an excellent hotel: but it was too cool for us to 
sit in our parlor without a fire, and 1 asked the 
chambermaid to build one. She was past 
middle-age, agoodlooking.large-eared, Scotch- 
Irish woman, and as she sat on the floor, 
piling the wood on and waiting to see if it 
would burn all right, she began to talk about 
“back East,” saying she was from Philadel¬ 
phia. When I told her that was my home, 
she became especially voluble, and declared 
that it was “ the nicest and cleanest place in 
the world.” “ I always told the people here,” 
she went on, “that the houses there were 
kept asclane on the outside as they are inside 
here, and, Oh! it’s very different living at ser¬ 
vice here where there’s no rale ladies and 
gentleman as there is there. Everybody here 
came here poor and to make money, and it is 
just like worlda’ for another servant who has 
more money than has you. They may be 
good and kind, but they ain’t your born ladies 
and gentlemen. Why, 1 lived sixteen years 
in a banker’s family in Philadelphia, and it 
ivns like home to me. Such a lovely home, it 
was always a pleasure to go through it and 
dust and clone it. I came out here because 
my brothers and my sister came, aud now I 
would go back, but my sister is buried here, 
and I can’t lave her grave behind me. But, 
they do say that all the nice, claue Quakers 
have left Philadelphia," aud she seemed glad to 
have uie assure her such w as not the case. 
On the following morning a heavy rain was 
falling, which, however, had the grace to stop 
in time to give me an hour for walking about 
towu, pretty all over with some very beauti¬ 
ful cottages, a #100,000 court-house, aline pub¬ 
lic hall and in the hotel there were gas and 
water pipes. The hotel, like many another on 
this coast, was so constructed that the main 
stairway to the second floor opeued directly 
from the office and smoking room, so that the 
halls and corridors were filled with the smell 
of the abominable cigar. Oleander and palm 
trees flourish in the open air, but the acacias 
that were past bloom m Oakland, were here 
just beginning to show their yellow beauty. 
Anaximauder paddled out in the rain to ac¬ 
cept the invitation of a nurseryman to visit his 
nursery, which he found of unusual interest. 
The nurseryman, a New Englander, with 
clear-cut, attractive features, had nearly a mil¬ 
lion seedling roses. He also exhibited a method 
of grafting in vogue here, which is different 
from any we have seen in the East, aud worth 
knowing about. An apple-seed is planted, and 
when the young sapling is oue year old it is 
dug up, and the tap-root is cut off to within 
about two inches from where the top begins; the 
top is then cut off and budded, ami the doubly 
shorn little tree is planted; this makes one 
tree. The remainder of the taji-root is then 
cut into two or t hree lengths, according to its 
size and length, and on to these pieces of root 
is grafted a cutting, both root aud twig being 
cut off aslant, with a slant ing gash m each, 
then pressed together, waxed and planted in 
the ground with one bud above the surface. 
In this way one apple seed produces from three 
to four trees. The population of Manta Rosa 
is placed at. 6,000. 
• » • 
RUR AL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Illinois. 
Rockford, Winnebago Co.. Aug. 16.—We 
have had no rain to lay the dust since May 20. 
