1854 . 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
273 
Address of A. B. Dickinson. 
GRAZING AND BUTTER MAKING. 
We have not for a long time met with an ag¬ 
ricultural address containing such an amount of 
condensed practical matter, and exhibiting such 
a degree of clo.se observation and shrewdness, as 
that of A. B. Dickinson, of Havana, N. Y. be¬ 
fore the Tioga Co. Ag. Society, Pa. It is whol¬ 
ly devoted to the subject of grazing in its differ¬ 
ent aspects, and although some of the views ex¬ 
pressed may not receive the full assent of all far¬ 
mers, yet there is much to interest and instruct , 
and much that is suggestive of improvement. 
This address affords a strong contrast with the 
many we receive from different quarters, charac¬ 
terized with theoretical and pseudo-scientific rea¬ 
soning, and as such it cannot fail to please those 
who have become tired of discourses on husban¬ 
dry from learned and eloquent men from towns 
and cities. Our readers will find much to inter¬ 
est them in the following extracts ; the first on 
the subject of dairy ■pastures and butter making: 
The first quality of butter-land is confined to portions 
of the New England States, New Jersey, Pennsylva¬ 
nia and New York, while cheese can be made and 
sheep grown wherever grass grows, as I will endeavor 
to show hereafter. First quality of butter has been 
worth, on an average, for the last twenty years, twenty 
five cents per lb. Last year it brought, in New York 
market, thirty-one ; this season twenty-five cents ; and 
when I speak of these prices I mean the very best 
quality that can be made, which is very small—but 
might be very much increased. You have hei’e all the 
elements for making just that kind of butter. To 
begin with, you must have in your pastures Timothy, 
White Clover, Blue Grass, Red Top, or Foul Meadow 
Grass, which I think is one and the same thing, only 
differing as it grows on different soils, pure soft water, 
and a rolling or a hilly country. All these things you 
have, or may have, as these different grasses will all 
grow, well, if sowed and properly cared for; and I 
have never seen the first pound of good butter made 
where the cow did not feed on some or all of these 
grasses; and it cannot be made from these until they 
have been sown long enough to have the soil swarded 
over, to protect it from the sun, frost, and drouth. 
There will be then, and not till then, a solidity and 
sweetness to the grass that will give to the butter, that 
rich, sweet flavor which makes it so desirable. Butter 
partakes not only of every thing the cow eats and 
drinks, but of every thing offensive within its reach 
after it is made; as for instance, if a cow be fed on 
Rutabagas, her butter and milk partake of that flavor. 
If she feeds in pastures where leeks, garlieks and wild 
onions grow, there will be a still more offensive flavor. 
If she feeds in pastures where she can get a bite of 
briar leaves, beech or apple-tree leaves, or any thing 
of the kind, it injuriously affects the flavor of the 
butter, though not to the same extent, and would 
scarcely be perceptible for immediate use. So with 
red clover. Butter made from cows fed on red clover 
is good when first made, but when laid down in pack¬ 
ages six months or a year, it seems to have lost all its 
flavor, and generally becomes more or less rancid, as 
the clover was of rank and rapid growth on which the 
cow fed. The water the cow drinks must not only be 
soft, but clear, living, wholesome water, fit for the use of 
man. If she drinks from stagnant, filthy water, it will 
knock off three or four cents the pound from butter, all 
other things being right. 
In the wetstern country, on plain or prairie, the 
most of the water, in dry seasons of the y-ear, is in 
stagnant streams,or pools covered with a green blanket, 
and just in the same proportion as it is offensive to the 
smell or taste of man, it will exhibit itself in butter, 
when laid down and kept for any length of time ; and 
yet none nor all of these things on which the cow feeds 
injuriously affect the making of cheese, for the reason 
that the rennet necessary to form the curd, gives so 
sharp and different a taste, that all others are neutra¬ 
lized. The work of making butter is not completed 
when you have every thing necessary for the cow to 
feed on; you must provide a good spring-house where 
every breeze is as sweet as that wafted from the rose 
itself ; and every thing not only cleanly, but the but¬ 
ter must be worked at the right time and every par¬ 
ticle of butter-milk must be worked out; and when 
that is done the working must cease. A little too 
much working spoils the grain and it becomes oily, 
and is only a second or third rate article. Salt must 
only be used in sufficient quantities to make it palata¬ 
bly, as salt is not necessary to preserve butter any 
more than it is to keep lard. Be sure to use Liverpool 
or Turks Island, as no other Salt has stood the test, 
although Onondaga saves pork just as well, and beef 
and butter reasonably well for immediate use ; but 
for keeping until the next spring, it is not so good, as 
its flavor is lost. Great care should be taken in select¬ 
ing salt, as the manufacturers, at Syracuse, have be¬ 
come very expert in grinding and putting up their 
salt in imitation of the Turk’s Island and Liverpool, 
and yet the butter when salted with Onondaga salt, 
after lying s ; x months in packages, never fails to dis- 
6lose the fact by a loss of two or three cents on the 
pound to the manufacturer. 
The superiority of rolling land for pastures, is 
attributed to the ready drainage, preventing the 
mildew of the grass in rainy seasons, so injurious 
to the flavor of butter. Would not a thoroughly 
tile-drained pasture possess all the advantages of 
a hill-side? 
On the subject of the profits of keeping cows, 
and the management of permanent pastures, we 
quote the following remarks: 
A first rate cow well cared for, will make 200 lbs. of 
butter in a season, that is one pound a day for two 
hundred days, and that at 2s. per pound is $50. Her 
milk will make 100 lbs of pork worth six dollars 
more. We will call three acres sufficient to keep one 
cow aye-ar, which is a large estimate for good grass 
land. This is a better business than can be done on 
the best wheat-land in the country, with this advan¬ 
tage, that every year, the farmer uses his farm 
for grazing it is improving; if like these grass-lands 
in sight, they will improve at least five per cent* 
a year in productiveness, if properly used. I do 
not want to hear a farmer say that on such land, 
his meadows or pastures are running out. I can 
only say to that farmer he does not understand his 
business ; and if he will'sow one bushel of plaster 
on each acre of land, every year, and not pasture his 
meadows after mowing, neither in the fall nor in the 
spring, nor turn into his pastures until there is some¬ 
thing for his cattle to eat, he will in a very few years 
have meadows that will average two and a half tons 
of hay to the acre ; and one acre and a half will pas¬ 
ture a cow thiough the season, and two and a half 
acres keep a cow the .year. In twenty years, by this 
system of farming, dairy lands now, would become 
fatting lands. And what I mean by fatting lands is 
where pasture is so nutritious that steers will fat in 
pasture, from the 10th of May until frost affects the 
pasture in the fall, as fact as the most skilful feeder 
could fatten them, on the best of hay and as much 
grain of all kinds as he chose to feed them. That I 
