66 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Feb. 
legs have sometimes been sold as Bremen. They fat¬ 
ten to a greater extent than any other kind—sometimes 
reaching the weight of 20 pounds, dressed, at seven 
months old. Col. J. has killed some at that age which 
weighed 184 lbs., when ready for the spit. Their flesh, 
as we can attest, is of superior quality. 
Mr. E. Cheesbro, of Guilderland, in this county, 
reared, last season, 22 goslings from two geese. One 
pair of the goslings were sold for $3, the other 20 were 
killed at Christmas, and weighed from 12 to 16 lbs. 
each, and sold for 75 cents each. The 22, therefore, 
brought the aggregate sum of $18—a good income (ex¬ 
clusive of feathers,) for two geese. The goslings were 
from Bremen geese, and by an African gander. The 
African is of larger frame than the Bremen, but does not 
appear to have as great a tendency to fatten. 
Difficulty in Making Butter. —The difficulty 
of procuring butter by churning, spoken of by one of 
your correspondents in the January number of the Cul¬ 
tivator, is not unfrequently experienced in the fall and 
winter seasons, where milk and cream are managed in 
the ordinary way. Hence, some of the best butter 
makers prefer scalding the milk in cold weather. Mr. 
Wm. Merrifield, of Guilderland, who received a pre¬ 
mium for butter from New-York State Ag. Society, in 
1842, adopts the following mode. In winter, the milk 
stands in the cellar twelve hours ; is then scalded over 
a slow fire to near boiling heat ; the pans removed to 
the cellar; the cream only churned, which seldom re¬ 
quires more than five minutes to produce butter. I can 
testify to the superior quality of Mr. M. ? s butter, hav¬ 
ing been using at my table for some days, a sample 
made in the way described, and which is as high colored 
and nearly as rich as the best of June butter, though 
the cows were only fed with hay, and no coloring sub¬ 
stance used. 
Sale of Durham Stock. -—We understand Geo. 
Vail, Esq., of Troy, has recently made sale of a supe¬ 
rior Durham bull calf to John Howitt, Esq., of 
Guelph, Upper Canada. Mr. Howitt, we learn, has 
a fine herd of Durhams, and has made this purchase to 
cross with his former stock. This calf was got by the 
premium bull Meteor, and is out of the imported roan 
cow Splendor. Though only six months old, his weight, 
we are told, is 500 lbs. He will doubtless be a valua¬ 
ble acquisition to Mr. Howitt’s herd, who has shown 
his zeal in breeding good stock by sending a distanee of 
about 500 miles for an animal, which at this season of 
the year, he was under the necessity of transporting for 
the greater part of that distance by rail-road. 
Attention is invited to the advertisement of 
Messrs. Grant & Co., in this paper. Mr. G. informs 
us that he has made about three hundred of their 
celebrated Fan-Mills, and fifteen hundred of their 
grain cradles, all of which have been disposed of, as 
fast as they could be got ready for market. They are 
enlarging their manufactory, and expect hereafter to 
be able to supply all the orders they may receive. 
Good Crop of Corn. —Dr. C. 8 . Button, of 
Newark, Wayne Co., N. Y., informs us that he raised 
the past season, on six acres and eighty-four rods of 
ground, 1432 bushels of ears of Dutton corn, all sound, 
and which will give in shelling, one bushel of corn for 
every two of ears. 
Science as applicable to Agriculture.—A. S. 
Roberts, Esq., of Philadelphia, informs us that Prof. 
W. R. Johnson, of that city, is about to deliver a course 
of lectures on chemistry,applied to agriculture, horticul¬ 
ture and animal economy. Prof. J. is pronounced eminent¬ 
ly qualified to make such a course interesting and useful. 
Fine Sheep. —The Boston papers mention that 
Geo. Clark, Esq., of Otsego Co., N. Y. sold forty 
long-wooled sheep (Dec. 23th,) to Mr. Hiscock, of 
Fanned Hall Market, at $9.75 each. 
Correction. —In our list of post-offices, to which 
we sent over 35 copies Cultivator last year, published 
in the December No., MiddletownConn., was accident¬ 
ally omitted . The number of subscribers there, was 41, 
A Plea for Birds. —We have a communication from 
<{ J. T.” in reply to an article in our No. of Nov. last,, 
headed “ A Plea for Fruit,” and signed “ X,” which 
we had intended to have published this month. But on 
reading it more carefully, we have come to the conclu¬ 
sion, much as we fear it will disappoint our friend “ J. 
T.,” that it is not best to publish it. Had we observed 
the paragraph in the article of “ X,” at which “ J. T.” 
takes offence, before it went to press, we should cer¬ 
tainly have omitted it. We cannot, however, believe 
that the public would be benefitted by a controversy on 
the subject. 
A correspondent at Versailles, Ky., writes,—“ I 
would not be without the Cultivator for ten times its 
price. I have taken it for the last six or seven years, 
and have the volumes nicely bound, and desire to leave 
them a legacy to my children. Our staples are hemp 
and live stock. Our soil is rich, but most of us have 
too much land, and indeed most of us have too much 
stock of the unprofitable kind. We pay too little at- 
ention to fruit and convenient fixtures on our farms.” 
We trust the defects in Kentucky husbandry, of which 
our correspondent so frankly speaks, will not much 
longer continue. The natural capabilities of that noble 
state are immense, and we cannot but hope that they 
will soon be appreciated and improved. 
Weather in Virginia. —Extract from a correspon¬ 
dent, dated Waynesboro, Jan. 4: “We had a fall of 
snow here some two weeks ago, of about 2 feet deep. 
It lasted but about a week. Since Christmas, the wea¬ 
ther has been quite warm—mercury has stood at 66' 
some evenings after dark, on the windward side of 
houses. Health of the country good. Wheat in the- 
ground looks pretty promising. Farmers busy plowing 
corn land.” 
Great Slaughter of Sheep.—Levi J. Hopkins,. 
writes us from Throopsville, N. Y., under date of Dec. 
29th, last:—“ Ontario county abounds in fine sheep, 
and Livingston in fine cattle and sheep. Many thou¬ 
sand sheep have been slaughtered here the present fall 
and winter, for their skins and tallow; and being unu¬ 
sually fat, the business is said to be profitable. Thirty 
thousand have been killed at one place in the town of 
Richmond, and from ten to twenty thousand each in 
three other places in the same county.” 
Fruit .-—In the same letter, from which we take the 
above, the writer says—“one thing I thought worthy 
of remark; I saw no evidence of the “knots” on plum 
trees west of Genesee river. Orchards seem to thrive 
remarkably well. The famous Northern Spy apple, I 
found very generally engrafted through the country; but 
in only two instances did I find the fruit. It is truly 
excellent, and justifies the high praise bestowed on it.” 
Black Sea Wheat.—R. S. Ransom, of Perryville, 
N. Y., states that he obtained 283 sheaves of Black- 
$ea wheat from one bushel of seed, which he thinks 
will yield a bushel to the dozen, or 23£ bushels. The 
grain very plump and heavy. 
Good Returns. Mr. T. H. Austin, of Canton, 
Ct., who is for a portion of the time engaged in the 
management of a small farm, gives us the following 
statement in regard to his products for the past season 
They indicate good management, and show correspond 
ing results: 
“ The soil, where I live is hard and stoney, and the 
pastures are not as good as in many places; )^et the two 
cows I keep have, without extraordinary keeping, earned 
me, from April 1st, 1846, to Dec. 1st, (besides furnish¬ 
ing a family of three with butter and milk,) $41.04 
