THE CULTIVATOR. 
89 
ESSEX AGRICULTUTAL SOCIETY. 
We have received No. III. Vol. 2, of the Transactions of the Essex 
(Mass.) Agricultural Society, comprising its proceedings in 1833. We 
are indebted for this, as well as for the previous transactions of that socie¬ 
ty, to the Rev. H. Colman. The recent number is an 8vo. of 100 pages. 
It contains the annual address, delivered by Doct. SpafFord ; the annual 
reports—1. On farms, describing the quality and management of those of¬ 
fered for premium, with statements appended, of the owners, stating the 
labor employed, the method of culture and products: 2. On milch cows: 
3. On the dairy: 4. On domestic manufactures: 5. On cider: 6. On 
potatoes: 7 and 8. On ploughing: 9. On the cultivation of the white 
mulberry tree, &c.: 10. On animals: 11. On turning in green crops for 
manure: and 12. On the cultivation of wheat and rye. And also a list 
of the premiums to be awarded in 1834, and a communication of the 
Rev. Mr. Colman on swine. 
It will be seen that these pamphlets contain the best modes of practice, 
in the various departments of husbandry, in the county; and that this 
knowledge is annually disseminated by the society; so that each individu¬ 
al can profit by the skill, enterprise, and improvements of all; and if we 
consider the laudable emulation which the premiums and the pride of ex¬ 
celling are calculated to produce, we cannot fail of ascribing to the socie¬ 
ty a high degree of usefulness, both in increasing the labors of husband¬ 
ry, and in rendering these labors more profitable to those who perform 
them. Among the enterprising members of this society, who have con¬ 
tributed largely to its prolongation and usefulness, we have recognized 
with pleasure two of our clerical acquaintances, both actively engaged 
in the labors of the field—the Rev. H. Colman, and the Rev. G. B. Perry. 
May they long enjoy the reward to which their useful services justly en¬ 
title them. As a specimen of the products, we abstract the following: 
Joseph Kittredge improved 54 acres. The labor was performed by 
three men, with the addition of 50 days labor. He produced 238 bushels 
of corn, 207 bushels barley, 57£ do. oats, 18 do. wheat, 40 do. rye, 358 
do. potatoes, 60 tons of hay, 60 barrels cider, 50 barrels winter apples, 
574 lbs. butter, 1,826 lbs. pork, 5,000 lbs. beef—and kept the ordinary 
farm stock. 
Thomas Chase cultivated 98 acres. He sold from these, besides fa¬ 
mily consumption, the following: Apples and cider,$18.50; beef, pork, 
pigs, calves and lambs, $243.94, about 120 lbs. wool, chiefly merino, 
674 lbs. butter, 2,033 lbs. cheese, besides potatoes, grain, &c. These 
specimens will suffice for farm products. 
Of the Dairy, we learn, that Richard Heath, from nine cows, made 
2,249 lbs. cheese in four months; that Wm. Thruston made about 2,500 
lbs. from 12 cows, in three months. His method of malting^cheese is 
described as follows: * 
“ The rennet is taken from the calf, and allowed to become perfectly 
cool, when it is slightly rinsed in cold water and put down with strong 
rock salt. When taken out for use, one rennet is put into a stone pot, 
and one quart of water (after being boiled and cooled) put to it, and a 
cold brine, sufficiently strong to keep the rennet, is made with the same 
kind of salt. Of this liquor is used from a gill to half a pint to every thir¬ 
ty gallons of milk, according to the strength of the rennet, heat of the 
milk and state of the weather; always taking more rennet when the wea¬ 
ther and milk are cooler, less when warmer. It is then allowed to stand 
from three-quarters to a full hour before breaking up the curd, believing 
it to be very important during the warmth of the weather to get the curd, 
in the press as early as possible. From the beginning of breaking up the 
curd, the operation is continued till it is sufficiently hard and fit to scald, 
when it is scalded from fifteen to twenty minutes with scalding whey, as 
the tenacity and state of the curd require. It is then allowed to remain 
till perfectly cool, when it is ground up in a curd mill; after which pro¬ 
cess it is put into the cheese hoop in layers, salting each layer by judg¬ 
ment, as the softness, hardness and tenacity of the curd require, using the 
dry and whitest Liverpool blown salt. It is then put into the press, and 
allowed to stand half an hour, when it is first turned ; then it is allowed to 
stand from two to three hours, according to the state of the weather, two 
hours in very warm, three in more moderate weather, when it is again 
turned ; and it is regularly turned every two or three hours through the 
day, till dark, when it is left in the press through the night. The fol¬ 
lowing morning it is taken from the press and put in brine, where it re¬ 
mains twenty-four hours, being turned at sun down. At the expiration 
of the twenty-four hours, that is, on the second morning, from the milk, 
it is taken from the brine and swathed in a linen bandage, which is 
continued on from seven to nine days as is requisite, turning the cheese 
twice in twenty-four hours through the heat of the weather, rubbing 
them daily with pork or bacon fat, in which red peppers have been 
summered, and afterwards settled and strained off.” 
Considerable competition is manifested in the culture of the white mul¬ 
berry. The Rev. Mr. Perry exhibited to the committee 5,500 transplant¬ 
ed trees, besides a very extensive nursery of two years growth. He also 
Tvr°"o^ a “™lberry hedge of 150 rods, of two and three years growth. 
Mr. Perry also exhibited to the committee about 450 sugar mapie trees, 
transplanted from the forest, many of them near the walls of the enclo- 
Vol. I. M 
sures, and others in the form of an orchard, thirty-three feet apart one 
way and sixteen and a half the other. This gentleman received the 
second premium of $15. Other nurseries and plantations, of4,000,25,000 
and 30,000 mulberry trees were offered for premium, and also parcels of 
8,000 and 20,000 cocoons. Mr. Eaton exhibited 8,000, weighing twenty- 
three pounds. The leaves for the worms were gathered and fed out by 
his two sons, eight and thirteen years old, assisted by their mother in 
cleaning. The average number of cocoons to the pound was 230. The 
worms were fed from thirty-two to forty days before they formed their 
cocoons. The committee discovered a decided advantage in the growth 
of those trees from which the tap root had been cut off when they were 
transplanted. The committee consider the culture of the mulberry and 
the manufacture of silk, as promising a more profitable reward tban the 
usual course of field husbandry. 
The county of Essex is of limited extent; and the soil, by a w r est New- 
Yorker, would be deemed very inferior. It abounds in rocks, stones and 
marshes. But it would seem, that where nature has done least, man 
does most; and that our rational enjoyments are graduated not so much 
by the bounties of nature, as by our personal exertions to procure those 
enjoyments. This county is exhibiting a noble example. She has esta¬ 
blished a permanent fund of about 6,000 dollars, which is profitably in¬ 
vested, the income of which enables the society to defray its contingent 
expenses, to print its transactions, and to award $500 dollars per annum 
in premiums. This investment, in all probability, benefits the county, 
annually, four times its amount, in the increased products of its agricul¬ 
ture, and in the consequent thrift of every other kind of business. It is 
not so much the concentration of great capitals in the hands of a few 
individuals, that constitutes a country’s prosperity and happiness, but 
it is the general diffusion of knowledge and competence among all 
classes, with the moral and social habits which industry confers and 
establishes, that give health, strength, and prosperity to a people. 
IMPROVED CHEESE SHELVES. 
In large cheese dairies, the labor of daily turning the cheese, while 
undergoing the drying process, is considerable and fatigueing. The 
Repertory of Patent Inventions, describes a machine of simple con¬ 
struction, invented by Mr. Blurton, of Field Hall, near Uxoter, cal¬ 
culated greatly to abridge this labor. We copy this description for 
the benefit of the cheese dairy readers of the Cultivator. 
“The machine consists of a dozen strong shelves, framed toge¬ 
ther, and having bars nailed from top to bottom of one side to pre¬ 
vent the cheese falling out while in the act of turning. The frame 
is suspended on two strong pivots, one of which is set into the 
wall of the room, and the other is supported by a strong post. 
Two catches keep the frame upright, and prevent it from being 
turned more than half round. By first filling the shelf immediate¬ 
ly below the axis of the frame, and then placing the cheeses alter¬ 
nately on the two nearest shelves to that which has been already 
filled, the preponderance on the one side over the other can never 
be more than the weight of one cheese; the whole power, there¬ 
fore, required to turn the machine cannot, in any circumstances, 
be greater than the weight of a cheese and the friction of the pi¬ 
vots. The cheeses, in the act of turning, drop on the shelves 
which, in the former position of the frame, were above them, and 
having been exposed to a current of air for twenty-four hours pre¬ 
vious, have become perfectly dry. 
“Mr. Blurton has had the machine in use for five or six years, 
and finds that by means of it fifty-five cheese are turned in the 
same time which is required for turning two by hand. Three other 
advantages attend its use; first, that a room thus furnished will 
hold thrice as many cheeses as when they are laid on the floor; 
second, that the shade afforded by the shelves, together with the 
current of air which passes between them, has the effect, in hot 
weather, of preventing excessive sweating, and consequently loss 
both in weight and quality, as well as diminishing the necessity of 
rubbing the cheeses ; thirdly, the ripening of the cheese is hasten¬ 
ed, so that on an average they are ready for market five weeks 
earlier than usual.” 
SMUT IN GRAIN. 
This disease, particularly in the wheat crop, causes a great de¬ 
terioration in the quality, and consequent value of the grain, and 
is the cause often of heavy loss to the farmer. It seems to have 
prevailed in the time of the Roman empire, and is mentioned by 
Pliny and Columella; yet down to the present day the origin of 
the evil is not satisfactorily known, though the surmises and spe¬ 
culations, and experiments have been without number. Jethro 
Tull ascribed it to moisture. Duhamel, after recapitulating the 
different opinions and experiments on the subject of smut, con- 
