THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— Jose24,1650. 
I 
ratus is made simply of fine clay, and certainly the beauty 
j of some of the designs forms one of its most attractive fea- 
j tures. M. Eollet, however, is a shrewd gentleman ; yet, like 
j some others of his generation, he is not exempt from a liabi¬ 
lity to see sometimes too far, and overshoot the mark. I re¬ 
quested permission to make a sketch of one of'liis more 
elegant designs which are not shown in the window, and 
send it with a notice to you for publication. But this favour 
was refused, on the ground that it would lead to his invention 
being copied, and thus injure his connection in England. 
Now, it is quite clear, I think, that if he has any connection 
in England for this appareil, as it is called, his own models 
sooner than anything else will effect what he so much fears, 
unless he has a patent on the other side of the channel. 
But M. Toilet's objection is all the more unreasonable, 
seeing that a description of his apparatus was published 
l fifteen years ago in one of the Paris horticultural periodicals, 
which, however, I have not access to at present. 
Now, I have said this much in total ignorance of the his¬ 
tory of the WalIonian Case, and I have not seen your volume 
for last year, in which Mr. Beaton states that it is noticed 
for the first time. It may, therefore, be a question whether 
this is an English or a French invention ; but leaving that 
point for the present, I send you a sketch, from memory, of 
what is shown every day in the shop window of M. Eollet. 
But it is the plainest model of the stock ; others are much 
more ornamental, or more tastefully got up, and all mounted 
on handsome pedestals of the same material; but in every 
instance the mode of heating is by a lamp. 
The smaller figure shows the interior before the soil and 
the cuttings have been introduced. I may just observe that 
the hand-light rests in a groove all round; that the model, 
in this instance, is about eighteen iuehes in diameter; and 
that it may be either placed on a pedestal, as in the sketch, 
or on a table. 
There is, in the Illustrated London News of March 20, an 
article on butter, dairymaids, &c., a subject which is not i 
without some interest to many of your readers, and may not 
inappropriately be discussed in the pages of a journal 
which, besides being devoted to horticulture, is unquestion¬ 
ably the leading organ of the egg and poultry interest. 
There are several observations in that article which are 
seasonable and just; but the writer wants to make us be¬ 
lieve that good butter, at a reasonable price, is not to be 
had in England, that it is only in France, Holland, Belgium, 
Switzerland, &c., that this “real luxury ” is to be obtained. 
Even in Paris it is said, “The butter is always worthy of the 
admirable cafe an tail and faultless petit pain which the con¬ 
cierge of a second-rate hotel contrives to bring up to you.” 
! Now, the fact is, the cafe an tail, in nine cases out of ten, is i 
only a mixture of milk and chicory; the petit pain (little 
loaf) speaks fur itself, for it is but very little we get out of 
it; and as for the concierge , whom we are lelt to consider as 
some ministering angel—that is, the porter’s wife—invaria¬ 
bly a disagreeable, tattling busybody, disliked and dreaded 
by all who have anything to do with her; and the butter— 
the chief pearl of the string—is not to be had, fit for use, 
iu any shop in Paris under twenty-four sous (2s.) a pound. 
The best quality is thirty sous (2s. 3d.), and, I suppose, in 
a “ second-rate hotel ”—especially if the concierge is com¬ 
missioned to fetch it—it would be charged just half-a crown, j 
I Although my own mind has been long made up on these 
several items, I have thought it worth while making one or | 
two inquiries of persons most likely to be well informed, and j 
the answer I have received has fully confirmed my opinion : : 
“ C'esl horriblement clier et pas bon" (frightfully dear and 
not good). Now, the writer in the Illustrated says of English 
butter, that “in those few establishments where genuine 
Epping, Cambridge, and Dorset butter is sold, the price is 
enormous, seldom under Is. 8d. a pound.” These facts 
speak for themselves. We have inferior butter in Paris at 
2s. and 2s. 3d. a pound, while the genuine Epping, Cam¬ 
bridge, and Dorset butter, the very cream of English pro¬ 
duce, is to be had in London at Is. 8d. Depend upon it, 
butter in England is just as good and as cheap as iu any 
other country, at least as it is iu Paris, and much more so 
at the present time ; and what is more, the English people 
have not the filthy practice of handling butter with their 
fingers, as is so much in vogue among the dealers in Paris, 
who very often, and I might say in general, are also dealers 
in soap, cheese, and candles. Here butter-knives are seldom 
or never used by shopkeepers, who cut the quantity of butter 
j wanted with a wire or string, as London grocers cut soap, 
i and then the fingers are used to lift, add, or diminish, till 
the pound or half-pound required is made up. This is the 
invariable practice in the butter markets and “ general ” 
greengrocers’ shops, where fifty other things are compassed 
by the same digits in the course of a morning. A pleasant 
i reflection, worthy of the cafe an lait and the concierge afore- 
! said ! In Paris the authorities regulate everything in theway 
of buying and selling. Even the ham and bacon dealers are 
not allowed to use coloured paper, lest the poison of the 
colour should be absorbed by the meat; but it is amazing 
that these vigilant guardians of the public weal do not 
compel the butter dealers to use knives instead of their 
fingers. 
After all, butter-making is a very simple affair where 
there is a certain quantity of cream. I have known gar¬ 
deners and gardeners’ wives who used to make half-a pouud 
of butter at a time, as often as it was wanted, and that 
simply by shaking a bottle of cream up and down for about 
an hour. It seems to me that the best way to secure fresh, 
sweetbutter is to make small quantities atatime. Any family 
may make its own butter without the least difficulty, and 
every girl may learn the process in ten minutes. But, in 
general, nobody thinks of making it till a quantity of cream 
sufficient for ten or fifteen pounds has been collected toge¬ 
ther, and then it is a good morning’s work, and stiffish work 
too. The churn must be large, and, of course, large churns 
require strong arms ; but why cannot we have “ The boy’s 
own churn,” and “ The girl’s own churn,” as we have other 
things especially adapted for the rising generation? Why i 
should we send our young people to a gymnasium to have I 
their muscles braced, when we might more cheaply effect our 
object at home, plus, a couple of pounds of genuine sweet j 
butter? And then, did ever butter relish like that made by 
