THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Mabch 13, 1860. 
369 
his farm. At no period of our existence as a nation was this 
propensity more strong than it is at present—never was it so 
universally diffused. We might readily point out the Land 
Societies, the periodical literature, and other agents that have 
pi’omoted this most desirable result; but our present object is 
to hail with pleasure this additional aid to that result, and to 
recommend to our readers this first of a series of Handbooks of 
the several sections of Farm Practice, intended as references “for 
the farmer, the bailiff, and the working man,” but even more 
useful for the amateur cultivator of a small plot of ground. 
“ Dairy Husbandry,” is divided into eight sections, treating 
respectively of Dairy Statistics, Food of the Cow, Choice and 
Treatment of the Cow, Milk, Butter, Cheese, General Manage¬ 
ment, and a Monthly Calendar. The whole is very ably done, 
being the results of long and sound practice, arranged in lucid 
order, and with an index to facilitate reference. 
The following extract affords a good estimate of the contents 
of the “ Handbook— 
“ Churning.- —This is generally done outside the dairy, either, 
as in summer time, in a paved shed adjoining, or in a back 
kitchen or w'ashhouse, where the cream may be more easily kept 
warm during winter. In order to the separation of butter, agi¬ 
tation and mixture of the cream with air are both necessary. The 
agitation breaks and unites its oily globules, and the absorption 
of air appears to be a necessary thing in order to their appear¬ 
ance in the form of butter. This is proved both by the fact that 
milk or cream, however sweet, becomes sour by churning, and 
that considerable heat is given off, the bulk of the liquid rising 
in temperature 4° or 5° Fahr. during the process; and both of 
these facts indicate considerable absorption of oxygen gas. 
“ (1.) In those cases where whole milk is churned for butter, the 
churn is a fixture. It is an upright somewhat conical vessel, 
made so, however, only in order to secure the tightness of its 
hooping; and it is of various dimensions, from three feet and up¬ 
wards in height, and from fifteen inches in diameter, according 
to the quantity of milk to be treated. This milk is churned 
when about three days old, varying according to the weather, 
being first allowed to cool, and then placed in large wooden 
vats to become sour. The practice is to place it in coolers, as in 
ordinary dairies, until it has acquired the temperature of the air, 
thereafter to pour it into large wooden vats capable of holding 
two meals at a time, where it sours ; and if churning is done 
twice or three times a-week, to put into the churn all the milk 
which has become sour, whether it be sixty, forty-eight, or only 
twenty-four hours old ; never, however, putting sweet milk into 
the churn along with the sour, as if milk becomes sour by 
churning, or otherwise than in the natural way, the buttermilk 
soon becomes rancid and unsaleable, whereas the buttermilk from 
milk soured naturally retains an agreeable and saleable quality 
for a much longer time. The milk in summer is churned at the 
natural temperature; in winter hot water is poured in with it 
till it is raised to 65° or 70°. In winter, too, when cows are fed 
on Turnips, the milk is poui’ed at once into the churn and allowed 
to sour there; and being hindered as much as possible from cool¬ 
ing, and afterwards heated by the addition of hot water, or by 
the insertion for a time of a tin vessel full of hot water, the butter 
does not retain any taste of the Turnip. The churning com¬ 
mences and is carried on for three hours, a regular stroke of the 
plunging float-board being an essential part of the process, and a 
rate of forty to forty-five strokes per minute being maintained. 
This regularity is attained by the use of steam or water power, 
it being in the case of the larger churns too laborious for 
manual labour. The after management of the butter, when 
it has ‘ come,’ is the same whatever method of churning is 
adopted. 
“ (2.) When butter is obtained by churning cream, this may 
be either sweet and fresh, or left to sour. In the former case it 
becomes sour by churning, and the process is somewhat longer; 
in the latter the natural sourness facilitates the separation of 
butter, and provided the natural change produced in the cream 
by keeping it is confined to mere acidity, the butter is as sweet 
in the one case as in the other. Whatever churn is adopted, it 
is washed out first with scalding water, and then with cold water 
before using it; the cream is then introduced through a coarse 
canvas cloth, which acts as a sieve, and in winter it is raised to a 
temperature of 55° to 60° by the addition of hot water ; or, as 
in some churns is possible, by standing the whole apparatus in a 
tub containing water of that temperature. In summer, again, 
when for the sake of cooling churning should take place early in 
the morning, Mr. Littledale, of Birkenhead, reports that he has 
found great advantage from placing in the churn fragments of the 
clear American ice, by which the temperature is kept down low 
enough. A common plan is to let cold water stand in the churn 
for an hour before using it in summer, and to let hot water stand 
in it for some time in like manner in winter. Another fact 
affecting all churns alike is, that there is no advantage in too 
rapid a process of churning. Cream churned from thirty to 
forty minutes, ought in that time to have yielded its butter ; and 
to this end a regular, not too rapid movement of the agitator 
should be maintained. In some cases butter will not ‘come’ 
till after hours of churning, and occasionally patience is exhausted 
first, and it never comes at all. In this last case a fragment of 
ice is more likely to be effective than the crooked sixpence, 
on which the hopes of superstitious dairymaids sometimes 
depend! A last rule affecting all churns alike is, that churning 
should cease after the butter has fairly ‘ come ’ and been collected 
by the beaters. To prolong it tends to the separation and mixing 
up with the butter of cheesy particles, which add to the weight 
of the butter but take from its quality.” 
NOTES ON NEW OR RARE PLANTS. 
Crassula lactea. Ait. Nat. ord., Crassulacece .—Stems 
round, somewhat shrubby, much branched. Branches twisted 
below. Leaves opposite, connate, and contracted, at the base 
perfectly smooth, thick, and succulent. Inflorescence a cymose 
panicle, many-flowered. Peduncle short, smooth, rather stout 
and erect; peduncles bracteated, short. Calyx composed of 
five or more small, acute, green segments. Petals five or more, 
spreading, stellate, pure white and membranous. Stamens five 
to seven; filaments subulate; anthers small, two-lobed. Pistils 
five to seven, small. Carpels five to seven, white, many-seeded. 
The genus Crassula contains about fifty species, all natives of 
the Cape of Good Hope. The majority of them are useless to 
decorative horticulture, being chiefly botanical curiosities, assum¬ 
ing rather grotesque forms; some, however, are really handsome, 
and the species under notice ranks among the most handsome. 
It blooms very profusely during December and January, and is, 
consequently, valuable in the greenhouse at this flowerless season 
of the year. An open loamy soil is most suitable for it, and a 
moderately warm greenhouse is the most proper place for it. 
Cuttings should be dried previously to being put in soil, wiien they 
root very readily. 
Mutisia ilicipolia. Cav. Nat. ord., Composite .—A scan- 
dent, suffruticose plant, rising several feet in height, with angular 
stems and branches, slightly downy when growing. Leaves 
alternate, nearly sessile, destitute of stipules, aculeate and sinuous 
at the margin, somewhat cordate at the base, rather abrupt at 
the apex, but with the midrib extended into a longish tendril, 
somewhat downy in youth, quite glabrous when old. Peduncles 
long, slender, axillary, bearing several ovate-lanceolate bracts, and 
one large flower. Involucre cylindrical, composed of four series 
of loosely imbricated scales. Florets of the ray ten in number, 
female, with a long, slender tube, divided at the limb into two 
segments; the exterior segment long, strap-shaped, and entire, 
the interior one short and divided into two narrow revolute 
divisions. Pistil long, exserted. Pappus about half the length 
of the tube, feathery. Florets of the disc tubular, with five 
shallow partings at the apex. Anthers long, exserted, each with 
two long setae at the base. 
Only three species of this beautiful and interesting genus are 
as yet recorded in the best catalogues of this country, as having 
been introduced to cultivation, a circumstance all the more re¬ 
markable, because European travellers numerously frequent the 
parts of the globe which the various species inhabit. There are 
from forty-five to fifty known species, and they are found in 
Brazil, Peru, Chili, and Patagonia. M. ilicifolia is found in 
Chili. It is a beautiful and highly interesting plant; the ray is 
large, spreading, and fine dark purple, which with the yellow 
disc makes a beautiful contrast. It succeeds best in a peaty soil 
in a cool greenhouse, and cuttings strike pretty freely. 
Jacaranda tomentosa. It . Hr. Nat. ord., Scropliulariacece. 
—A stove shrub, reaching several feet in height. Leaves about 
nine inches long, bi-pmnate, with from three to five pairs of leaf¬ 
lets, and a terminal one; leaflets acutely ovate or elliptical, 
slightly tomentose in a young state on both sides, and retaining 
the same on the underside when old. Inflorescence paniculate, 
tomentose. Pedicels rather short, bearing one or several flowers- 
