Hungarian Grass-German Millet. 
Much has been said in the Iowa papers the past year, 
about a new (as it was supposed) kind of grass, called 
“ Hungarian grass,” from its having been introduced 
there by an emigrant from Hungary. From its de¬ 
scription, we had little doubt that it was a variety of 
Millet. We are indebted to Mr. Buel of Keokuk, for 
a quantity of the seed and stalks of this Hungarian 
grass, which proves to be the well-known German mil¬ 
let, (Setaria germanica,) which has long been success¬ 
fully though by no means extensively grown in various 
parts of this country. There are three varieties of this 
millet, differing we believe in nothing but the color of 
the seed,—the yellow, white, and purple, and the seed 
sent us from Iowa includes all three colors. It is an 
annual plant, and requires a rich, warm and well pul¬ 
verized soil; and we are not at all surprised to hear of 
its extraordinary productiveness on the prairie soils of 
the west, where we doubt not it will be found a much 
better crop for hay than Timothy, which does not suc¬ 
ceed well on the prairies. 
In our last vol. (Co. Gent. vol. X, p. 234—Cult, for 
1857, p. 338,) a Connecticut correspondent gives an ac¬ 
count of an experiment he made in its culture the past 
summer. He sowed one acre—the soil was stiff clay, 
and the seed badly got in, being covered too deep, and 
yet he harvested over three and a half tons to the acre. 
In our vols. for 1855, will be found the statements of 
Hon. A. Y. Moore, President of the Michigan State 
Ag. Society, and Mr. S. M. Bartlett of the same 
State. Mr. M. says—“Millet has been a favorite crop 
with me for the last five or six years. There is no kind 
of hay that my stock of all kinds, prefer to millet.” 
Mr. B. says—“lam greatly pleased with it.” We 
might make similar quotations in relation to it, from 
nearly every one of our vols. for years past. It has 
been thoroughly tested, and we have no hesitation in 
recommending it as a forage crop. 
Butter-Making in Winter. 
“ Winter butter ” has no very enviable reputation 
anywhere, and compared with that made in June, 
seems an entirely different article. Of course there 
are reasons for this—let us enumerate some of them. 
1. The character of the food is changed from green 
and succulent herbage, to dry hay, or more generally 
cornstalks and straw. There is really very little but¬ 
ter in the latter. 
2. The season is changed from mild and warm, to 
cold, bleak, and uncomfortable. There is a constant 
demand for fuel to keep up the animal heat; this is 
partly at the expense of the butter product. 
3. The management of the milk becomes difficult. 
If kept in a cellar, and a little above freezing, the 
milk becomes bitter before the cream rises ; if allowed 
to freeze, the cream rises at once, but is injured in 
quality, and will produce very white butter; if kept 
in the kitchen pantry, when very warm during the day 
and cold at night, it does not rise well, and is apt to be 
bitter and acid. 
Other reasons might be mentioned,. but they will 
readily suggest themselves to the reader. Let us see 
what can be proposed to remedy the difficulties. 
1. Feed well—not dry food alone—but grain and 
roots, as a substitute for grass. Carrots, turnips, beets, 
cabbages, etc., are all useful in keeping up the quality 
of the milk. Let their fodder be cut, and some nutri¬ 
tious slops be provided, if roots are not to be had, and 
it is well to cut the fodder in any case. 
2. The comfort of cows should be carefully attend¬ 
ed to. While they suffer from cold and filth, or foul 
air, they cannot yield as good milk as when in warm, 
clean stables, or in well littered and sheltered yards. 
Water should also be provided—it is the more needed 
when dry forage is consumed—and it should be so ar¬ 
ranged that every animal could drink at will. A sup¬ 
ply of salt is also necessary. 
3. It is difficult to get a proper temperature for rais¬ 
ing cream perfectly in winter. Some butter-makers 
scald their milk when first drawn from the cow—others 
let it stand twelve hours, and then place the pan con¬ 
taining the milk in a larger one filled with boiling 
water—and allowing it to stand twelve hours longer, 
find the cream raised perfectly. It is said that more 
and better butter can be made in this way than in any 
other. 
Churning in winter, as usually managed, is often a 
serious operation. The cream stands too long gene¬ 
rally—becoming very sour and bitter. Or, it is too cold 
and froths up, filling the churn but producing no but¬ 
ter though churned for hours. Let the cream-pot sit 
near the fire for a few hours before churning—stirring 
it occasionally, that all may get warm alike, and when 
it is at a proper temperature, 55°—feeling a little 
warm to the finger—the churning will be an easy half- 
hour’s job, and the butter as yellow and hard as the 
season will admit of. 
We have found that cows generally gave better milk, 
when fed on well cured corn fodder, than on second-rate 
hay, and with “a mess” of roots, apples, or pumpkins, 
would yield milk of very fair quality. Attention to 
securing a supply of proper food for cows, and bet¬ 
ter care of them, would go far to redeem the name of 
winter butter from its present character, j. h. b. 
Ticks oil Sheep. 
Messrs. Tucker —If sheep are fed grain or oil 
cake meal, as they ought to be, I will warrant them 
free from ticks. It will be far more profitable than 
sulphur, (see Co. Gent. Dec. 17, p. 395.1 I have some 
hundreds feeding; let any man come here at the end 
of Mai*ch, and see if he can find two ticks to a hundred 
sheep. I guess he won’t unless I have one that may 
have been sick—possibly it might have some. But 
some will say, we cannot keep stock sheep like men 
who fat sheep for market—but let me tell those far¬ 
mers that they should keep their stock sheep in such 
condition that they won’t breed ticks. Sheep pay badly 
that raise ticks. Sheep farmers, will you take notice 
of that? John Johnston. Near Geneva. 
- 0 — 0—0 - 
Buckwheat Straw for Sheep. 
One word of the benefit of agricultural papers. A 
few weeks since I was looking over some of the back 
volumes of the Cultivator, which I have bound, to find 
something I then wanted to see, when I accidentally 
came across a statement that sheep loved buckwheat 
straw. Having several loads of that straw in my barn, 
which was cut early and got in in good order, and 
which I was intending to let my cattle pick from, and 
use the remainder for litter, I immediately went to 
my barn and tried my sheep, and found they ate the 
straw greedily. I think I shall realize enough from 
this discovery to pay for the paper a number of years. 
R. R. Phelps. Manchester , Ct. 
