408 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
A False Alarm for the Vine Growers. 
There seems to be a misapprehension in certain 
quarters of a peril to grape culture from the spread 
of prohibition views and legislation, in some of 
our Northern States. If prohibition gets into our 
State constitutions, and the dram shops are closed, 
•vve might as well destroy the vat and the wine 
press. Even in wine growing countries, a large 
part of the fruit of the vineyards is consumed in the 
use of the clusters, both in the fresh and in the 
dried state, and in various preparations of grape 
juice that never undergo fermentation. In our 
own country, one-half of our fifty millions of 
people probably have never had a feast of the 
better sort of grapes in all their lives. The grape 
market is fairly supplied only in our cities and in 
the very limited districts where vineyards abound. 
In the cities, the price of the finer sorts of grapes 
places them beyond the reach of the poor. The 
thrifty laboring classes have them as a treat on 
festive occasions. It is only upon the tables of 
the rich that grapes are a common dessert. Except 
in the flush of the market, they are more expensive 
than tropical fruits, and the consumption is much 
less. Grape juice is so scarce, that out of the 
State of California the adulteration of wines is 
almost universal in our country. Recipes for 
making wine of any brand, and of an}’ age, with¬ 
out a drop of grape juice, are well known to some 
wine dealers. The prohibitionists, from Maine 
to California, and from the Lakes to the Gulf, 
want more vineyards and more grape juice, and 
welcome grape culture as well as all other fruit 
culture, as a powerful adjutant in their reform. 
When the villagers and the rural cultivators can 
literally sit under their own vine and fig tree, 
when the tempting clusters of the vine in the 
fresh state, are upon the poor man’s table for six 
months in the year, when grape juice in its various 
preparations is among the family stores in every 
household, the enticements of the grog shop will 
have lost many of their charms. 
Concerning Milk Testers. 
-<$>-- 
Have we a good milk tester ? The cream gauge 
is valueless, except to those who sell cream. The 
writer has tested the cream of many cows, and 
has found sixteen per cent by the gauge to prove 
equal to five and a half per cent of fat, more or 
less. This is equal to about six and one-third per 
cent of butter, which is a pound of butter to less 
than eight quarts of milk. At the same time, and 
under the same circumstances, other milk indi¬ 
cated by the cream gauge twenty, twenty-five, 
thirty-five, and even forty-five per cent of cream, 
and this milk so rich in cream, in actual butter 
production or fat content, often falls below five and 
a half per cent; and the highest fat yiedd, namely, 
six and a half per cent, was found in the case of 
milk indicating a little over thirty per cent of 
cream by the gauge. This six and a half per cent 
of fat indicates about seven aud a half per cent of 
butter, or a po„und of butter to six and a half quarts 
of milk ; but this proportion is often exceeded. 
The lactometer (hydrometer for milk) is of little 
or no practical value. It indicates the specific 
gravity of milk, that is, the relative difference in 
weight between milk and water. In water, the 
lactometer should float at zero—0. In pure average 
milk, it should float at one hundred; but pure 
milk varies immensely, say from ninety to one 
hundred and ten. Good skimmed milk will stand 
at one hundred and ten, more or less. Cream is a 
little heavier than water, but it is always mixed 
with milk when liquid enough to be tested by the 
lactometer. This much is clear : the withdrawal 
of cream increases the weight of the milk ; the 
addition of water decreases the weight of the 
milk ; and the withdrawal of some cream, and the 
addition of some water, may leave the milk poorer, 
but of the same specific gravity that it was at the 
beginning, and this the lactometer will indicate. 
The best instrument for testing the value of 
milk hitherto invented, is the so-called Lactoscope 
of Prof. Feser. This shows, with considerable 
accuracy, the percentage of fat. Butter contains 
about eighty-live per cent of fat. Cream, such as 
rises in a cream gauge, about twenty-two to twenty- 
five per cent, which is equivalent to, perhaps, 
thirty per cent of butter. 
Fat being the most v? luable constituent of milk 
(whether in the form of cream or butter, or as an 
ingredient of cheese, or as giving flavor and money 
value to milk when sold as such), forms a safe 
gauge as to the purity and value of milk, whether 
tested at the creamery as received from the farmer, 
or in the city, or family, where it is used as food. 
The action of this instrument was explained in 
the American Agriculturist in January, 1881. It 
depends upon the fact that the opacity of milk is 
chiefly caused by the globules of cream. So that 
when water is added to milk until we can see 
through a certain portion of it, we are able to do 
so because we separate the cream globules to that 
extent, that light can pass through between them 
with a certain degree of clearness. Now, if w r e 
measure the amount of water added, w'e have quite 
an accurate gauge for comparing different samples 
of milk. These instruments are not made in this 
country, so far as the public is informed, and but 
few have been imported. Yet there seems to be no 
reason why they should not meet with ready sale. 
Cultivating the Black Walnut. 
The demand for Black Walnut timber has so 
increased of late years, not only for home use, but 
"or export, that the trees are rapidly disappearing. 
The high price of the wood, which will increase, 
rather than diminish, now allows it to be brought 
from great distances, and the natural growth is 
disappearing wherever there are means of trans¬ 
portation. It is not surprising that the attention 
of many is turned to the cultivation of Black Wal¬ 
nut, and we receive letters from widely separated 
localities, inquiring as to the probable profits of 
such plantations, and asking for directions for 
establishing them. As to the first point: there can 
be no doubt that, by the time plantings made now, 
afford timber of proper size, the price will have 
reached a point which will afford handsome returns. 
Even at the present price, land-owners in Great 
Britain are contemplating making plantations of 
the trees. Several inquire if the tree will succeed 
in their locality, and these inquiries come from 
Mississippi, New York, and other States. The Black 
Walnut is remarkable for its wide range, it being 
found in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas, at the 
South, all the way to the New’ England and other 
Northern States, attaining its greatest development 
in the fertile soils of the Valley of the Mississippi. 
The experience of the few’ who have made planta¬ 
tions of the tree, shows that in its early growth it 
needs the protection of other trees or “nurse 
trees,” and that it must have cultivation to prevent 
the encroachment of grass. The tree does not 
transplant readily, and like others with a strong- 
tap-root, succeeds better if the seed is planted 
where the tree is to remain. As with other timber 
trees, the value of which consists in having a tall 
clear trunk, this must be planted thickly, to pre¬ 
vent the growth of heavy side branches, and 
thinned out as the trees become crowded. The 
land is marked out in rows four feet apart, and the 
nuts planted eight feet apart in every other row, 
the intermediate rows being devoted to potatoes 
or corn. This cultivation in the alternate rows, is 
continued for two years, when the spaces between 
the rows of walnuts are planted with nurse trees. 
The Silver Maple, the European Larch, and even 
the White Willow, have been used. These are to 
be thinned out as they are found to encroach upon 
the walnuts, and are usefid for poles, or may be 
employed as fuel. If any of the Walnut trees are 
disposed to branch low, they should be pruned 
while small, to secure a tall, clear trunk. When 
the trees crowd one another, each alternate one 
must be cut out ; though not large enough for 
lumber, they will serve for various home uses. The 
seed is planted in spring. It is best preserved 
during the winter, by placing it in heaps of a few 
bushels, upon a dry spot, and covering with sods, 
upon which should be placed several inches of 
earth, as in covering pits of roots. 
-- 
Indian Farmers in North Carolina. 
Our artist has been visiting the Indian farmers 
in Western North Carolina, and presents some il¬ 
lustrations on the opposite page. They are located 
in Swain County, fifty miles from any railroad, and 
comprise one thousand eight hundred men, women 
and children. When the Cherokees were removed 
to their new reservation, these Indians, that is, 
this remnant, absolutely refused to go, and the 
Government finally consented to their remaining. 
They are, most of them, farmers. Their “ farms ” 
run in size from one hundred acres down to ten. 
They own their land, live pretty well, and use the 
same implements as the whites. They raise corii, 
W'heat, small fruits, and vegetables, making a spe¬ 
cialty of sweet potatoes. They plow generally the 
year round, the winters are so mild. Their farms 
present a fair appearance, the fields being enclosed 
with the Virginia rail fence. They do their own 
horse-shoeing, and other work pertaining to the 
blacksmith shop. As a general thing they are 
moral, and do not use intoxicating drinks. 
They are under the leadership of Chief Jarrett 
Smith, of whose house a very good sketch is 
given. Chief Smith is about forty years of age, 
straight as an arrow, and over six feet high. He 
has a wife and eight children. The children have 
been taught English, and two of them are able to 
teach in any school in the country. The people 
go to Chief Smith for advice, and obey him. 
While they observe the Legislative enactments of 
North Carolina, they make laws and regulations 
for themselves. They talk the Cherokee language. 
They have schools conducted by Quakers, of which 
the General Superintendent is a man named Brown. 
The children are taught English. Our artist gives 
an illustration of one of their school houses. It 
is built of logs, aud partially covered with shin¬ 
gles. The Indians are now constructing a new 
building for educational purposes. School is kept 
up the year round. The children are paid a cent a 
day for attendance, and at Christmas they receive 
new clothing from the Quakers. 
Suit Owl, the preacher of these Indian farmers, 
is six feet two inches, and about fifty years old. 
He preaches with great power, and his sermons are 
longer than white people would care to listen to. 
Frequently he will discourse for an hour and a 
half at a time, the listeners remaining until the 
sermon is finished ; and not infrequently after the 
Rev. Mr. Owl has closed his discourse, another 
preacher takes the rostrum and delivers a second 
sermon, the people remaining and listening to the 
finish. The Indians are mainly Methodists and 
Baptists, and are good citizens generally. 
They display a good deal of mechanical ingenui¬ 
ty ; the artist gives an illustration of the convenient 
lathe, invented by one of their tribe, and it is gen¬ 
erally used by them in the manufacture of their 
household goods, etc. Their corn mills, of which 
an illustration is given, are rude in the extreme. 
The mill entire, consists of a section of white oak, 
hollowed out, together with a double-ender pestle, 
very heavy at both ends. A man or woman, as the 
case may be, pounds the corn. 
It is noteworthy, that wherever the half civilized 
tribes of Indians are settled, they compel the 
women to perform all the labor, but here the men 
do their share. The Indian women are very ingen¬ 
ious at making baskets of all kinds, though not so 
skillful in this line of labor as the Passamaquoddies 
of Maine. We publish an illustration of one of the 
Indian women basket makers. One of the interest¬ 
ing characteristics among the females is the Indian 
nurse. She wraps her child in a white sheet, and 
carries it about upon her back, instead of having 
the infant strapped closely to her back in papoose 
style. The settlement ia 'bout sixty miles from 
Ashville, N. C. A new rail Km .. when completed, 
will run within ten miles of here ; then a visit to 
these Indian farmers will interest our readers. 
