1874] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
371 
Taking the whole merchant class of America, 
including their clerks and porters, they would 
probably show at the end of 25 years, less 
actual honest earning than the same number of 
farmers and farm-laborers. The growing ten¬ 
dency to spend money, and to count their 
wealth in dollars and cents, rather than in 
more substantial possessions, is assimilating 
them more and more to the speculative classes, 
whom they are so apt to decry. Let us get all 
the real advantage that we can out of modern 
civilization, but let us at the same time avoid 
so far as we comfortably can all that takes cash 
money, and gives a fleeting pleasure as our 
only return. 
The English Agricultural Gazette has, for a 
number of weeks, been publishing the early 
education and training of successful farmers, 
in different parts of the Kingdom. It is almost 
discouraging, in view of what is so generally 
hoped as the outcome of our agricultural col¬ 
lege system, to see how very few of these men 
had anything approaching a liberal education, 
and how often the 3 R’s alone appear as the 
representatives of the schooling received. 
Those of our people who are longing to get 
out of their occupations, and to become farm¬ 
ers, would probably also be somewhat discour¬ 
aged to see in how very few instances among 
those cited, the successful farmers have adopt¬ 
ed the business late in life. Farmer’s sons and 
farm-laborers have furnished the stock from 
which nearly the whole list has been drawn, 
and especial importance is attached in nearly 
every case, to very early training to hard work, 
and to the manifold cares of the stable and field. 
All this does not by any means indicate that 
success can not be attained, by men who have 
not sprung from the families of farmers and 
farm-laborers, nor by well educated sons of 
farmers, but it does suggest the importance of 
sound rudimentary training, and a strong incli¬ 
nation toward the farm rather that away from 
it. It makes it clear too, that farming is a 
business which requires no small share of 
energy, attention, and acquired skill; that it 
can not be gone into hap-hazard with only the 
knowledge that comes from schooling, and one 
or two years of experience with a good farmer. 
It requires thorough ingrained training in 
every detail of farm work, a real love for it, 
and a determination to succeed in it. Any 
young man starting life with these qualifica¬ 
tions, may be considered safe to stay on the 
farm; not because of a sentimental liking for 
it, but for the much better reason that he knows 
that there he can make more money, and earn 
more substantial success in life, than in any 
other occupation that is open to him. 
A friend writes me of a visit to the farm of 
S. J. Sharpless, in Chester Co., Penn. He 
says: “ Sharpless has been doing well. 14 
cows made last week (Aug. 6) 105 lbs., equal to 
7£ lbs. each. They averaged 4£ months from 
calving.” In a subsequent letter he says : “ In 
mentioning the production of Sharpless’ cows 
I forgot to say that they are running in clover 
half way to their knees night and day.” So 
we may ascribe a part of the success to the 
Jerseys, and a part to the feed—a combination 
that is hard to beat. 
I have long wished to identify myself with 
the sheep interest, which seems to me one of 
the most important to American agriculture, 
but have been prevented by the lack of suitable 
accommodations at home. Several attempts 
made in this direction have turned out decided 
failures, mainly owing to the lack of sufficient 
fences and the incursions of too many dogs in 
the neighborhood. I have recently bought a 
half interest in the Cotswold flock of Mr. D. F. 
Appleton, of Ipswich, Mass. I hope in future 
to be able to report good success with them. 
The flock numbers about 75; it was begun with 
a lot of good ewes selected in Canada ; and a 
fine imported ram, “ Young America,” bought 
from J. D. Wing, of Maple Shade. Mr. Apple- 
ton subsequently imported a lot of ewes from 
Howell, and 2 rams from William Lane, in the 
Cotswold hills in England. The rams cost 
$300 each, and the flock has taken first prizes 
whenever exhibited at the New England Fair. 
A correspondent in Iowa, who has a remark¬ 
ably good Jersey cow, concerning which he 
lias frequently written me, and whose product 
of butter I am satisfied is over 2 lbs. per day, 
asks what he shall do for a bull, as there is 
none available in his neighborhood, except a 
calf of this same cow. I reply: “ If the bull- 
calf is sound, and was got by a fairly good bull, 
I should use him upon his dam, his sisters, his 
daughters, and his grand-daughters, as long as 
he lasts, unless the experiment showed some 
defect in its early stages. When you get such 
a cow as that, you had better take the chances 
of in-breeding and try to secure her perpetua¬ 
tion. I should do it myself.” 
In-breeding, as a rule, is of course not to be 
recommended, but in-breeding as an exception 
is often very successful, and it is always worth 
while in the case of a remarkable animal to run 
the risk, and resort to what is of course much 
the best means for perpetuating good qualities 
and establish valuable strains of blood. The 
experience of Shorthorn breeding is of itself a 
sufficient indication of the wisdom of taking 
such risks. 
“ A. M. E.,” of Providence, writes: “ In your 
Ogden Farm Paper No. 54, you say the in¬ 
creasing richness of the milk of native cows 
served by a Jersey bull may be sufficiently ac¬ 
counted for by the fact of their increasing age. 
This greater age is doubtless one reason for in¬ 
creased richness, but is not the latter also a 
proof of the influence of the male on the whole 
organism of the female ? Darwin cites the case 
of a chestnut mare, which was served by a 
male quagga, and subsequently her foal by a 
black Arabian stallion, was barred like a quag¬ 
ga.” The effect on the character of subsequent 
progeny by the character of cross-bred progeny 
is tolerably well known to most breeders. A 
bitch that has thrown mongrel pups can not be 
trusted to bring a whole litter of thoroughbreds 
thereafter. The same peculiarity has been 
noticed in other animals, and there is undoubt¬ 
edly some influence exerted by progeny crossed 
with another breed, upon whatever it is that 
determines peculiarities of all subsequent pro- j 
geny of the same mother. It would, however, 
be carrying the analogy too far to suppose that 
this influence on future descendants is accom¬ 
panied by a transforming influence on the 
mother herself, at least to such an extent as to 
alter the character of her milk secretion. Be¬ 
ing a champion of the Jersey race, I should be 
glad to claim for them any such mysterious 
quality as the one referred to, but I do not be¬ 
lieve that it can honestly be done. 
I have the following from Alabama: “You 
are not perhaps aware that it is well-nigh a 
universal practice in the South, with those who 
make butter, to wait until the milk or cream is 
“ turned ” (as it is termed) before churning. I 
have seen in my neighbors’ houses wooden 
churns charred until black by roasting them 
before the fire, to make the milk “ turn ,” to 
“ clabber ” in cold weather. Here is the modus 
operandi: the milk is skimmed, and the cream 
placed by itself, until the last milking just be¬ 
fore churning is brought in. Into this the ac¬ 
cumulated cream is poured, and that is left to 
stand or placed near the fire until clabbered, 
and then churned. 
“ I think your practice quite different from 
the above, and would be obliged to you for a 
statement of your practice, together with your 
objections to the foregoing (if any), believing 
it will prove beneficial, as well as interesting, 
to many other of your southern readers. The 
southern man believes that the butter can not 
be gotten out of sweet milk until it makes that 
seemingly inevitable evolution. (?) 
“ Can you tell me why butter is always white, 
and light in weight, after the churn has sat 
too long by the fire ? ” 
The practice described seems to be a cross 
between that of churning cream and that of 
churning whole milk. What it is hoped to 
gain by adding fresh milk to the cream, I do 
not exactly see, unless it is to increase the quan¬ 
tity of the buttermilk, retard the churning, and 
give the butter more firmness and more thor¬ 
ough washing in buttermilk, to free it from 
particles of curd. It would hardly be fair to 
the many old readers of these papers to repeat 
the details of our process of making butter. 
They are quite fully described in earlier num¬ 
bers of this series. It is not exactly gracious 
work to find fault with the prevailing systems 
of any region, but it seems to me that it would 
be much easier to bring cream to the proper 
temperature by standing a metallic vessel con¬ 
taining it in >,rm water, than to heat it 
through the non-conducting substance of a 
churn; that the only beneficial effect of adding 
milk as described, would be equally well gain¬ 
ed by adding sour milk, or skimmed milk of 
previous days—probably, in the case described, 
the churning of the cream of the fresh milk 
added is less complete than that of the older 
cream, a different length of time being required 
for its development; many persons claim a 
great advantage from the souring of the cream, 
others are equally strenuous for churning it 
fresh. So far as I have been able to see, the 
evidence is about equally divided, the opinion 
being generally in favor of more delicacy of 
taste in the sweet churning. I have never tried 
churning sweet milk; Col. Weld stated recent¬ 
ly in the Country Gentleman that he had test¬ 
ed the milk of a certain cow by churning it 
immediately after it was drawn, and obtained 
a very large product of butter. It is our own 
practice to churn our cream sweet, and we are 
satisfied with the result in all respects. 
The whiteness and frothiness of butter made 
from overheated cream, is probably due to 
some change effected in the casein of the milk 
by overheating, which prevents it being proper¬ 
ly separated from the butter, the product be¬ 
ing really a mixture of butter and cheese. 
■ ■ iMI— I ■ 
Flowing Water in House and Bam. 
The economy of a full supply of water flow¬ 
ing fresh from the spring, without the labor of 
pumping, is only equalled by its luxury. No 
man ever knows how to estimate either the 
luxury or the economy of the thing, until it is 
