20 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, April 10, 1860. 
of the creara, easily known to a practitioner, the milk is 
supposed to be warm enough, and is removed to its place 
in the dairy and another pan put on. But to those who 
may never have seen the operation done, it is proper to 
caution them against heating the milk too much, and on 
no account let it boil; about 110° or 120° of Fahrenheit 
are sufficient, but the rising of globules to the surface 
indicates when it is to be taken off better than anything 
else. When the pans are taken off they are allowed to 
stand twelve hours longer in summer, or twenty-four in 
winter, before the cream is skimmed off, being about the 
same space of time as occurs between the milking and 
the scalding process. 
Although the Devonshire plan detailed above is fast 
gaining ground, and has many points in its favour, it is 
far from being universally approved of. A long ad¬ 
herence to other methods, with some reason for doing so, 
ought not to be too hastily condemned as being only 
followed through prejudice. Milk when strained and 
set away by itself produces quite as much cream as when 
the scalding process, as it is called, is gone through; but 
it does not keep sweet so long. But in the cooler 
districts of the north it is seldom subjected to fire heat, 
the practice there being to occasionally stir (say every 
five minutes or so), the new milk in the milking-pails 
that are not being milked into to prevent the cream from 
settling to the top until it has been skimmed, and, in 
fact, until it has cooled down to something like that of 
the atmosphere; when it is skimmed into the pans, and 
then set carefully away—in summer for twenty-four 
hours, but in winter thirty-six or forty-eight, as the case 
may be. All this is done in a systematic way. The 
cows are milked every twelve hours; and supposing 
the milk to stand thirty-six hours before skimming, 
the pans are %ever moved during that time; but 
when the new milk is set up a mark is put upon those 
pans that are there, or else on the shelf immediately 
underneath them. Very often a piece of chalk is used, 
and a mark “ I ” indicates that the pan has stood twelve 
hours; while “No. II.” (two chalks) is for twenty-four 
hours, and so on. This plan, or any similar one, will 
easily suggest itself to the operator. The cream, where 
there is only one or two cows may collect for three or 
four days in summer, or twice that time in winter before 
churning, when it may be made into butter by any of the 
popular churns, of which there is great variety now; 
taking care in warm weather not to hasten the operation 
by a too quick motion, but in very cold weather this is 
not so likely to do harm. 
Of the washing or cleansing of butter much has been 
said and written ; but it is certainly a standing reproach 
to our country that it is no where so well done as in 
Belgium; and if our information be right, no water is 
used there, and yet their butter keeps longer sweet than 
any of ours, little or no salt’being used either. 
In some parts of England it is customary to churn the 
whole of the new milk, which is only kept two or three 
days to obtain a quantity; or, in some cases, the last 
portion of milk a cow gives at each milking is added to 
the cream, and the remainder is skimmed after standing 
the usual time. These plans and many others have all 
their especial good points, and in their respective localities 
are doubtless the best; but as skimmed milk is more 
useful than butter milk, the amateur had better try the 
other plans before adopting this. 
In a work like this the process of cheese-making need 
not be entered into; as the milk of one or two cows, 
which our “Two-Acre Farm” can only furnish, cannot 
well make cheese, except very small ones, and no written 
description of this process can fully explain all that it is 
necessary to learn in this department of dairy duties. 
We therefore dismiss this, with a recommendation to 
those who may wish to be further informed in these 
matters to inspect some of the dairy farms in the western 
and central counties of England, where cheese of the 
best quality is made, superior to that of any other 
country in the estimation of most connoisseurs of this 
favourite at table. 
As some will be anxious to know the quantity of milk 
they may expect a cow to give on an average throughout 
the year, I may observe that in a herd of from eleven to 
fourteen cows, kept in an ordinary way on grass and 
hay only, with a view to produce good milk rather than 
a great quantity, the average produce was about seven 
quarts each per day throughout the whole time, a number 
of years being taken into the calculation. This may 
perhaps appear low; but it is to be observed that in a 
general way a cow is two months quite dry, and after 
calving the calf requires,the most of the milk for a like 
period or longer, and now and then a cow will miss 
having a calf. All these deductions of course keep the 
average down; and in the ease alluded to, which came 
under my own notice, half of the cows were Alderneys, 
or partly of that breed, and no attempts were made to 
increase the quantity of milk at the sacrifice of its 
quality. J. Hobson. 
(To he continued.) 
NEW HARDY BIENNIALS. 
Many of these, if sown very early, flower the first year. Some 
of them become perennial by propagating them (to preserve the 
true varieties) by cuttings or layers. The proper way to keep 
up their biennial character is to sow them in July, and trans¬ 
plant them in beds or patches in September, where they are to 
bloom. It is somewhat singular that we have no new species of 
biennials that are hardy: all that are new aro varieties of old 
species. 
Campanula medium eloee-pleno ccERUiEA. Double blue. 
C. medium eloee-pleno lilacina. Double lilac. 
C. medium floee-pleno alba. Double white. 
These double Canterbury Bells are very handsome, and nine- 
tenths of them come true from seed. 
CnEiRANTHUS cheiei eloee-pleno. Double German Wall¬ 
flower. 
The double German Wallflowers are very extraordinary, many 
come full double, and the colours aro very numerous—from 
nearly white to dark brown. 
Dianthus Chinensis Heddewigii (Heddewig’s Indian Pink). 
A splendid new variety, with crimson and parti-coloured flowers. 
Sow in spring for flowering the same year, and in September to 
bloom the following year. This will be a universal favourite. 
D. Chinensis laciniatus (Fringed Indian Pink). Intro¬ 
duced by M. Heddewig at the same time as the preceding 
variety from Japan. The flowers are four inches across each 
petal, consisting of a long delicate fringe ; some are double, and 
others single. The colours are as various as the rainbow. The 
plant grows two feet high, and is equally suitable for greenhouse 
decoration and for out door cultivation. These two fine varie¬ 
ties may be propagated by layers and cuttings, as well as by seeds. 
Digitalis gloxinioides (Gloxinia-like Foxglove). A hand¬ 
some variety, with varied colours and spots of our beautiful 
common Foxglove. Well worthy of general cultivation. 
Mathiola incana impeeiale. A somewhat new biennial 
Stock, of divers colours, with a variety that produces flowers of 
a crimson colour. To keep these certainly through the winter 
it is advisable to pot a large portion, and put them in a dry pit, 
giving plenty of air in favourable weather. The grand enemies of 
all biennial Stocks are a damp air and a wet soil. In favourable 
winters and in dry soils they live through the winter tolerably 
well in open beds; but they are always uncertain so treated. 
(Enotheea biennis hiesutissima (Ilairest Evening Prim¬ 
rose). A new variety from California, with large crimson-orange 
coloured flowers, growing two feet high, and quite as easy to 
cultivate as the species. 
Scabiosa atro-purpurea var. nana nova (New dwarf 
Widow Wail). Flowers divers colours. 
S. COCCINEA NOVA (New scarlet-flowered). 
S. eximia (Showy Scabious). German; many colours. 
I sowed my Scabious seed last year in July, but though so 
late they all ran to flower: therefore, this year I shall sow them 
in September. 
Antirrhinums, Hollyhocks, and Pansies are generally treated 
