THE CULTIVATOR. 
167 
12. If the curd be coagulated too hot, it becomes tough ; much of 
the butyraceous matter will go off with the whey; and the cheese 
will be hard and tasteless. The thermometer, should, therefore, al¬ 
ways be employed in every dairy. Although the dairy-women may 
at first be prejudiced against it, yet its evident utility, and great sim¬ 
plicity, will eventually reconcile them to its use. 
13. The greatest care should be taken thoroughly to extract eve¬ 
ry particle of whey from the curd. No cheese will keep well while 
any whey remains, and if any part becomes sour, the whole will ac¬ 
quire a disagreeable flavor. Similar effects are produced by the use 
of an immoderate quantity of rennet; it is also apt to blow up the 
cheese full of small holes. This last effect will be produced if it be 
allowed to remain too long on one side. 
14. A very experienced dairy-man is of opinion, that from nine to 
twelve months’ time is requisite to ripen cheese of from fourteen 
to twenty pounds weight. It is laid down as a rule, in the process 
of making cheese, that the hotter it is put together, the sounder it 
will be ; and the cooler, the richer, and more apt to decay. It should 
be kept in an airy but not in a cold place. If the moderately dried 
leaves of the young twigs of the common birch tree be placed on the 
surface or sides of cheeses, they will be found very serviceable in 
preventing the depredations of mites. 
15. It is a good practice to strew a little dry moss, or fine hay, 
upon the shelves on which the cheese are laid; for when new, they 
sometimes adhere to the board, and communicate a dampness to it 
that is prejudicial to the other side of the cheese, when turned. It 
also promotes their drying. 
16. At a more advanced stage they may be laid upon straw; but 
at first, it would sink into, and deface the surface. To which we 
will add, as general maxims—that great cleanliness, sweet rennet, 
and attention to the heat of the milk and breaking the curd, are the 
chief requisites in cheese-making.— Farmers’ School Book. 
WHAT I HAVE LEARNED. 
Mr. Holmes —I have been a Farmer in Maine fifty years and up¬ 
wards. I farmed it as my neighbors did, and supposed 1 knew 
enough about farming, having never read any authors or exchanged 
any ideas on the subject of agriculture, I never once thought of any 
improvement in the art, except that when I saw any of my neigh¬ 
bor’s cattle very poor, and so starved that they would eat much 
from my dung heap in winter, I was, to be sure, satisfied that he did 
not work it exactly right. Even then I supposed he had better keep 
a smaller number of creatures, and not be guilty of the great sin 
of starving his stock, and thereby actually loosing money, paying 
taxes, and being at the expense of keeping two cows when one 
well kept would have given more than both of them. 
But within the last three or four years, particularly since your 
Maine Farmer was published, I have read and attended to agricul¬ 
ture more closely, by reading and attending agricultural meetings, 
cattle shows, and hearing others relate their views and experience 
on the subject. Not a little information have I gained by what your 
valuable correspondents have brought to view in the Farmer, as well 
as your extracts from other and distant writers, from all which and 
my own reflection, I have learned, (and I find others are not behind 
me,) not to depend so much on English hay for our stock in winter, 
as it may be so cut short by drought and other causes, as to render 
our stock worth nothing in autumn. Hence we have learned to 
raise ruta baga and other roots, to aid in carrying our stock through 
the winter. Fresh meadows are more set by and improved. Even 
browse has been found useful. I have learned that store swine may 
be kept as well on turneps as potatoes, and that many more of the 
former may be raised on a given quantity of land, at no considera¬ 
ble more expense, if any. I have learned that tight and warm barns 
and stables not only save hay best, but in such our stock are more 
comfortable and require much less food. I have learned how to 
make a barn, &c. i have learned that one hundred bushels of corn 
may be raised .in a single year, on an acre of ground in Maine, 
which I should have been slow to believe many years ago. I have 
learned that wheat may be raised on a clover sod, with a light top 
dressing of plaster or ashes. I have learned that our stock,° parti¬ 
cularly black cattle, have been much improved in size and value re¬ 
cently, to which I have no doubt our cattle shows have been a great 
auxiliary. I have learned that the labor on a farm may be carried 
on to more advantage without alcohol than with it. Time would 
fail me to name half the advantages which has accrued to the ao-ri- 
cultural interests, from the publication of the Maine Farmer and 
similar papers in the nation. But I will name one more, and that 
is, that apples are excellent for fattening swine and other creatures, 
and for winter keep. And yet I am told that the proprietors of the 
Farmer talk of letting its publication cease, for the want of subscri¬ 
bers ! they say they are losing money by continuing it! For one, 
I am determined to procure one more subscriber to it, if it cost me 
some trouble. I do hope every subscriber will not rest until he does 
the same. Can it be that our farmers, mechanics, and growers of 
stock are so blind to their own interest as to starve those valuable 
citizens who instituted the paper in question 1 This I will not as 
yet believe.— Maine Farmer. JAY. 
Young Men’s Department. 
HINTS TO YOUNG FARMERS.—No. III. 
Self-instruction is a principle means of arriving at eminence in any 
employment. The education we receive in youth serves but as the 
foundation, at best, of the superstructure which is to be reared in 
manhood, and every individual is, in a measure, his own architect 
and may select his model. To the farmer this truth applies with as 
much force as to any other employment. The business of husband¬ 
ry is so diversified, that the wisest men engaged in its pursuits, con¬ 
tinue to add to their knowledge as long as they retain the pow'ers of 
intellect. The experience of every country, and of every day, is 
adding practically something new and useful to this branch of labor, 
while science is beaming upon it the light and life of her effulgent' 
rays. Him that will may profit by the concentrated wisdom of the 
age, and advance progressively in improvement, in usefulness, and 
in intellectual enjoymeut. The farmer is urged to the effort by a 
triple consideration:—the improvement which it promises to his 
mind and his means;—the benefit which the example confers on his 
children;—and the increased ability it may afford of doing good to 
those around him—the last a consideration of no little weight with 
those who appreciate their obligations to society, and who have felt 
the pleasures that flow from their requital. The directions for self- 
instruction are comprised in two words: become readers. Most 
farmers can appropriate three or four hours in every twenty-four of 
the winter months, to this means of acquiring knowledge ; and while 
they are cultivating their own, they cannot fail to scatter seeds of 
usefulness in the prolific minds of their children. In the period of 
ordinary life, these hours will make an aggregate of years. 
Let me put a case. Who of you, that has a spark of laudable 
ambition, would not feel it a privilege to spend an evening with 
W ashington, Arthur Young, or Sir John Sinclair, all men eminent as 
farmers, and hear them relate their practice, their observations and 
their improvements in husbandry 1 Who could fail to profit from 
their instructions'? And again. What farmer would not Count 
himself fortunate in the opportunity of hearing Sir Humphrey Davy 
or some other eminent chemist, explain, in language adapted to his 
comprehension, the nature and properties of the soil he tills, of the 
plants he rears, and of the manures he employs—of the agency in 
vegetation of air, heat, light and moisture, and the method of ap¬ 
plying these facts to his immediate benefit? Now it happens that 
all this is virtually within his reach. Those great men have written 
all I have supposed, and have left their instructions for your benefit 
Do you converse, in your social meetings with your neighbors, upon 
husbandry, without receiving some useful hint in your business or 
imparting such to others ? And if you experience pleasure and 
pront from this limited intercourse, how much greater must be the 
advantage when you extend it, as you may, through books, to the 
most eminent farmers of your own and every other country ? Be¬ 
sides, there are other branches of knowledge connected with your 
duties in life, and with your happiness, which it becomes you to ac- 
quire, and to teach to those confided to your care. And the means 
are within your reach. Franklin rose from obscurity to distinguish- 
ed eminence, and from indigence to wealth, principally by the aid of 
self-instruction. He commenced his course of usefulness by buying 
single volumes, gleaningthe knowledge they afforded, and then selling 
them to buy others. Public libraries were not then known among us! 
The facilities which these afford are manifestly great. They are a 
cheap and an excellent means of acquiring and diffusing useful know¬ 
ledge. The annual contributions of a few neighbors,°will soon buy 
a respectable collection of books, and the individual then receives 
the advantage not only of his own expenditure, but of that of the 
whole association. You should, at all events, subscribe for one or 
